samer faraj aub arab spring talk cc mar 1-2012

The Arab Spring and Management Theory

Samer Faraj McGill University

AUB Olayan School of Business

Darwazah Center for Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship March 1, 2012

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Two questions

•  The interplay between technology innovation and new forms of organizing during the Arab Spring

•  Given these changes, what can we say about the evolution of organizations in the Arab World?


Is this true?


Friedman’s 10 Flatteners: how many are IT?

•  Berlin Wall •  The “Internet” •  Workflow Software •  Open-Sourcing •  Outsourcing •  Off-shoring •  Supply Chaining •  In-sourcing •  In-Forming •  Steroids

IT Platform

IT-Enabled Processes


What does it mean?

•  emerging economies (e.g., India, China) are able to compete for industries and work because they combine cost advantages, trained workforce, and entrepreneurial impulse

•  Knowledge work is now fully global •  Technology is transforming our world in

expected and unexpected ways


Technological influences in the Arab World

•  Over the last two decades: over 1000 satellite TV stations were launched o  Vast majority are supported by governments/families o  But the advertising driven business model is pushing them

toward greater professionalism, creativity, and credibility

•  Al-Jazeera is the best example of a successful news channel (35M viewers)

•  Other channels are aiming at interactivity around entertainment


And vote they did

•  Voting for TV stars is highly participative and egalitarian

•  leads to lots of discussion and an awareness of “the gap”

•  The diversity of news sources allows a whole ecosystem of news sharing to be available

•  If you add the impact of the Internet and social media, never before had so many information sources been available


Explosive growth in Internet usage


Then when the Arab Spring arrived, governments were not ready

•  Focused on: o  Foreign threats o  Tracking membership-based secret organizations

o Known political/religious movements

o Known activists o Monitoring traditional means of communication

o  Street activities


Internet Censorship

Content Filtering

URL Filtering

DNS Filtering

IP Address Blocking

Most advanced: look at the content of the response packet

Spot keywords in the requested URL, example, although Google.com is not black listed this request will be: hLp://www.google.com/q=arab+spring Black list based on the requested domain name. E.g., reject any request for a web site with “brotherhood” such as www.anywordbrotherhood.com Most basic, black list the IPs of known web sites


People side--Workarounds

Content Filtering

URL Filtering

DNS Filtering

IP Address Blocking

Encryption: using hLps

Proxy or VPN

Proxy or VPN, use alternative DNS servers such as Google DNS

Proxy or VPN, sending the request to another machine that will provide the response back


Online arms race

•  Tor routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage

•  By using it you become a part of the network, helping in routing other users requests

ProxySG provides complete control over all your web traffic with robust features that include user authentication, web filtering, data loss prevention, inspection and validation of SSL-‐‑encrypted traffic. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Source: Daily Mail


How technology affords new ways of interacting

•  Given the poverty, the social inequalities, the political repression, the lack of chances for advancement, the corruption, etc. the conditions were ripe

•  Technology, a revolution does not make •  But it is a powerful enabler for local-global

linkage, for safe coordination and information exchange


Trigger events


“We are the People of Facebook”


Can new forms of organizing trump repression?

•  "Our revolution is like Wikipedia, okay? Everyone is contributing content, [but] you don't know the names of the people contributing the content. Revolution 2.0 in Egypt was exactly the same. Everyone contributing small pieces, bits and pieces.” Wael Ghoneim


Is the internet a force for democracy?

Clay Shirky Evgeny Morozov •  The internet is inherently a

force for democracy. •  A networked population is

gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action

•  The internet empowers protestors to organize and collaborate on a huge scale

•  The internet has the potential to both oppress and liberate. Which side dominates depends on the social and political context in which it is used rather than on some internal "logic" that derives from its architecture or culture

•  long-term impact of new technologies on authoritarianism is to boost their attempts at surveillance, propaganda, censorship


Network forms of organizing vs. bureaucracy


What does the network form or organizing offer?

•  Weak ties: acquaintances, more of them •  Strong ties: family and friends, deeper connection •  Activism and political organizing require strong ties

o  Closed group, hierarchical structure, tight discipline, centralized leadership, coordination via authority, dedicated core, high trust relations, face to face meetings

•  Regimes know how to disrupt such organizations o  Informants, surveillance, target core members, disinformation

campaigns, infiltration and disruption


What does the network form of organizing offer?

•  Web 2.0 organizing is based on weak ties o  Diverse sources of information, information travels fast

•  Networks increase participation o  increased motivation, lower cost of engagement

•  But hard to agree o  equal say, loose ties, decentralized leadership, no clear lines of

authority, difficulty in setting goals

•  The local-global divide disappears: coordination via external sites


What about the dominant bureaucratic structure?

•  Jurisdiction and duties are clearly specified •  organizational roles are held on the basis of

technical competence. •  Each lower office is under the control and

supervision of a higher one •  Rules and standard operating procedures

govern behavior •  Administrative decisions, and rules are

formulated in writing


Limitation of bureaucracy

•  With time, bureaucracy becomes stodgy, unwieldy, unable to respond to new threats and opportunities o  Centralized decision making – lower levels cannot deal with

exceptions/novel situations o  Actors focus on internal power struggles -- paralysis o  Given the rational/egalitarian norm, rules are developed to cover all

eventualities – difficult to implement o  Impersonal nature of decision making – lose touch with those

affected

•  Organization design is about matching organizational structure with the demands of the environment o  Knowledge work requires initiative, judgment and collaboration o  Learning organization, fast-response organizing, high reliability

organization


First mutation: networks of interests

•  The mutation: networks of corruption, of ethnic/tribal/family ties, of interests,

•  Resistant to change and with goals that are orthogonal to the organization/social good


Second mutation: neopatriarchy

•  A mode of being that is more than culture

•  It is both a macrostructure (state, society, economy) and a microstructure (family and individual personality)

•  Criticism, synthesis, creativity#vs.

•  Tradition, dependency, imitation


How does a neopatriarchical bureaucracy manifest itself

Mutation • Modernized “exterior” projection • Workplace is a space of “sociability” • Espoused but not followed work routines

• Workarounds are the norm rather than the exception

• Things done via an elaborate network of patronage and personal ties

• Performance goes unrewarded • No link between competence and promotion

• Employees self-‐‑exert only toward egoistical goals and private gain

Ideal type • Takes advantage of the features of bureaucracy: wriLen reports, clear reporting, precise evaluation, formal coordination

• Hard work is valued • Differentiation between work and after-‐‑work

• Aim to achieve repeatable and measurable work routines

• Processes are measured with goal of improvement

• Competence is valued and rewarded • Employee self-‐‑exertion is recognized


Conclusion: can the Arab Spring lead to organizational innovation? •  New forms of technology-enabled organizing

have emerged •  There are no technologies of freedom or

technologies of repression, they just mesh with broad social trends

•  Innovation can help improve bureaucracy if coupled with a willingness to change


Questions?

Reaction?

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