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FB5003–3

Social Media in (and around) the Enterprise

Learning Objectives

• To explore how social media applications – are not just for social purposes

• Instead, they are regular communication tools for and in organisations

• Indeed, for digital natives, they are part of the DNA

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Preamble

• Organisations may not like it, but their customers are talking behind their backs

• This is not new – but what is new(er) is that this talking can be listened to very easily

• Social media is a great enabler of customer-customer communication, and of corporate surveillance

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Surveillance• But do organisations bother to

listen to what their customers are saying?

• Are they aware?• Look at CityU’s MBA programme!

– My guess is that you engaged in some serious social media talking before you decided to apply to CityU!

– I suspect that now you are in, you are still talking – and the key topics cover courses, classes, professors… and what/who sucks?

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Steps to Leverage the Social Web• Monitor

– Gather data, experiences, opinions• Assess & Analyse - what did you learn?• Strategise

– What to do, set as a target, achieve?• Test your strategy• Embed in regular processes• Review continuously. Keep listening.

– The social web is dynamic – so you must be too.

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Implications for the Organisation

• New skills, new employees, new culture

• Communication between departments

• Recognition of the value of innovation

• Leadership – this is the CIO’s job– If you have a CIO!– IT is not just for support! It is for

innovation.

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Microblogging: Twitter & Weibo• These are also powerful tools for

communication• Users become roving journalists,

tweeting message-bites immediately

• Sina and Twitter each claim 500M+ users– 40+% of tweets are mobile

• Very hard to control the content– But are the followers real or just bots?

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Application Example (for you!)• Your company produces high-end smart phones in

China and sells them worldwide. Your latest model, SX88, has been an excellent seller, and is factory-guaranteed for 3 years.

• However, 15 minutes ago, you (the CIO) received an e-mail from your CMO about an on-line discussion forum that reports several breakdowns of the SX88 after as little as four months.

• When you search for “SX88 failure” on Google, you find over 1000 hits, many on social media sites

• How will you work with the CMO to stop this negative publicity?

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Social Networks• Seem to be a powerful tool and a way of

tapping into the 'wisdom of crowds'.– Are crowds that wise?– How about the folly/stupidity of crowds?

• Social networks need to be focused and refined so that they actually do add value.

• One way they add value is for knowledge management

Crowdsourcing

• TED Crowdsourcing – what does an ox weigh?!– http://blog.ted.com/2012/02/29/of-oxe

s-and-the-wisdom-of-crowds-lior-zoref-at-ted2012

• Great minds think alike, clever minds think together.

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Organisational Web 2.0 Perspectives• McKinsey reports widespread interest

– Web 2.0 is seen as being strategic• But not just Facebook!

– Instead, a focus on networking and automation

– Web services, collective intelligence and peer-to-peer networking are particularly popular• Social networking, blogs and wikis are less

popular.• Yet, there is a huge fear of ‘social’ at work.

Digital Work and Digital Cultures

• Digital natives constitute the majority of new employees entering the marketplace

• However, these new employees face an organizational culture that enshrines the vested interests, habits and values of a very different type of person– At best, digital immigrants– At worst, digital dinosaurs!

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Tensions• Digital tensions are found across

most societies.• Facebook is not ubiquitous, but

some kind of social media is virtually ubiquitous among digital natives.

• Some organisations do deliberately obstruct digital work.

• So, how do employees cope in organizational cultures managed by digital dinosaurs?

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Digital Natives• Are “…digitally literate, highly connected,

experiential, social, and in need of immediate gratification”.

• They “tend to be more comfortable with extensive peer-to-peer collaboration”

• “Being connected is not only part of what digital natives do – it is who they are. They consider the digital world to be part of their personalities”.

14Vodanovich et al., 2010

Digital Immigrants• “Digital immigrants are people who were born

before such technologies became widely available and thus learned how to use them in their teens or adult life” (Wang et al., 2012).

• There are more/less enthusiastic natives and immigrants who adopt to a greater/lesser extent.

• Digital Dinosaurs are the avoiders who minimise contact with any digital technology.

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Case Study in a Global Hotel Chain

• Interviews with 86 employees in 16 hotels over 14 months across China

• All ranks interviewed from GM to clerical

• Hotels ranged from 2-star to 5-star• We asked questions about problem

solving techniques, knowledge sharing, organisational culture and digital work

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Results• Chinese digital workers leverage technology to

create and maintain digital relationships (guanxi) with selected others

• Guanxi is ubiquitous in Chinese society and involves close interpersonal relationships premised on mutual respect, reciprocity and an obligation to help one another

• Many of our interviewees stressed that without guanxi, they could not accomplish their work since the cooperation of other people was critical

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For Example• “I need use QQ to contact external

parties who refuse to use email … or the telephone”.

• “I leverage my guanxi with suppliers to gain favourable prices and discounts”.

• “I have guanxi with external experts in media and printing. This enables me to complete work at a higher level of quality and more efficiently”.

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Corporate Perspectives• The corporate culture prohibits use of social

media applications at work – they are blocked. • As a senior manager in China remarked: “There is

no value in chatting. Web 2.0 applications have no role to play in our corporate culture”.

• The Global VP for IT informed us that they have a zero tolerance policy towards software applications that might breach security. There is no BYOD culture here – all employees must use standard platforms.

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Resolving Tensions

• Employees can’t fight management or the culture, so they work around

• Many use the networks designated for hotel guests to bypass management restrictions– This may even be approved by local

managers, who are also victims – policy is set in global HQ, not locally.

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Web 2.0 Value: The Case of IMs• Web 2.0 applications like Instant

Messengers (IMs) are designed to be interactive – but are they also interruptive?

• Deloitte reports that only 41% of 750 companies surveyed allow Social Networking tools to be used at work.

• So what value can tools like IMs (MSN, QQ) provide to organisations?

• Can social networks also be work networks?

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A Recent (IM) Research Project

• We surveyed 253 employees & managers in four Chinese cities:– Shenzhen, Beijing, Hefei, Xi’an

• M/F: 63:37; 75% BA/BSC or higher• Age 26-35: 65%; 18-25: 25%• # of IM contacts: 1-20: 45%; 21-

50: 30%

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IM Use at Work

.20**

.57**

Work Interruption

R2 = 5% -.02

-.01

20**

.39**

CommunicationQuality

R2 = 33%

InteractivityR2 = 32%

.26**

Mutual TrustR2 = 50%

.58**

.55**

.03

..07

.33**.50** .33**

Group OutcomesR2 = 40%

Group Process

Satisfaction

Group Outcome

Satisfaction

GroupOutcome Quality

Results of Survey

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Analysis & Implications

• IM use does predict work interruption– But work interruption has no negative

impact on group outcomes. Why?• IM use has positive effects on

communication quality and trust in team work

• Are workplace interruptions ‘normal’ – nothing special at all?

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Analysis & Implications

• Interactivity is a key variable, driving trust and communication quality – and ultimately group outcomes

• So, what next?• Should organisations be more

open-minded about IMs? Are the fears misplaced? Can we measure group outcomes more objectively?

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Social Media @ Work in China• I see increasing evidence of Web 2

applications, e.g.– Instant messengers– Microblogs

• … being used as normal work tools for– Collaboration & Communication– Knowledge Exchange– Marketing

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Social Media Based Communications

• Many Chinese companies allow or encourage employees to use IM at work

• QQ is less common, esp in BJ/SH– But it is used for large file transfer

• MSN is seen as being more formal• RTX is quite common in high-tech

firms• Even Yammer is seeing some

traction

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For Example

• RTX (Real Time Exchange) or Yammer are used as corporate IMs in– YinHai - www.yinhai.com – TenCent – www.tencent.com – iSoftstone – www.isoftstone.com – Glodon – www.glodon.com

• Skype, G-talk and G+ is used widely in– Thoughtworks –

www.thoughtworks.com

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Resistance to Web2?• Not all organisations have strong senior

management or grassroots support• Management and customers alike can

still be traditional and apathetic, seeing any IT as a cost, not an opportunity.– CIOs need to cut costs through virtualization

and then create new innovative opportunities for value

• Does Web 2.0 generate enough value to cover costs?

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And Finally …• Please watch this TED video

presentation– http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkl

e_alone_together.html• Now, consider the implications of

what Sherry Turkle says for global business about…– How we work– How we communicate– The culture we share

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Who is Leading the Web Way?• Is this the job of the CIO? CTO?

CMO?• Which people in the company are

best connected to cutting edge web 2.0 applications?

• Who is in the best position to assess the business value of web 2.0?– Management? Users? Consultants?

• How do you see Web 2 applications being leveraged for global business?