social organization_yahoo answers

8/6/2019 Social Organization_Yahoo Answers

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Project submission

Foundation in Management

eMEP-10- Batch - B

Submitted by -

Anshul Bahre

eMEP-10- 041


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Social Organization:

An organization where people from various society come together and collaborate their work to

help each other or to help the society as a whole. There could be millions of examples of social

organization starting from a small temple or guru dwara (a place where Punjabi come from worship) to

an organization like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Social organization is one that is collaborative, internally

Has an open, honest and transparent culture Thrives with teamwork and constant communication Looks beyond internal organizations and business titles Equips and encourages employees to engage with customers Is hungry for new technology that makes communication with each other and customers more

efficient

Has a simple social media policy that protects the organization and empowers its people Blends traditional CRM tools w/external social technologies to make for a more relevant

consumer brand experience

Will invite competitors to their communities Fails with egos Fails with organizational silos Cannot have effective external conversations until having effective internal conversations first

Its very easy for me to say what an effective or ideal social organization should look like. Its much more

difficult to make it happen. It requires a firm commitment from senior level management across all

business units (marketing, PR, Operations, Engineering, IT, Human Resources, Privacy) and a cultural


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transformation that empowers employees of all levels to do what is already a significant part of their

DNA to be social.

Boundary less Organization:

Before we start talking about the boundary LESS let us find out what all are the boundaries of an

organization in general:

Vertical boundaries between levels in the organizations hierarchy Horizontal boundaries between functional areas External boundaries between the firm and its customers, suppliers, and regulators Geographic boundaries between locations, cultures and markets

A normal visual used below will understand the impact of being geographically free in the organization:

There are three kinds of approaches to make an organization boundary less:

1. Barrier-free type of organization2. Modular type of organization3. Virtual type of organization

Meeting at an organization with in

the geographical region

Meeting at an organization with no

geographical boundary
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Training_meeting_in_a_ecodesign_stainless_steel_company_in_brazil.JPG


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Barrier-free type of organization: An organization of this type poses following characteristics:

Higher level of trust and shared interests Shift in philosophy from executive development of organizational development Greater use of teams Flexible, porous organizational boundaries Communication flows and mutually beneficial relationships with internal and external

constituencies

Advantages Disadvantages

1. Leverages the talents of all employees2. Enhances cooperation, coordination,

and information sharing among

functions, divisions, SBUs, andexternal constituencies

3. Enables a quicker response to marketchanges through a single-goal focus

4. Can lead to coordinated win-wininitiatives with key suppliers,

customers, and alliance partners

1. Difficult to overcome political andauthority boundaries inside and outside

the organization

2. Lacks strong leadership and commonvision, which can lead to coordinationproblems

3. Time-consuming and difficult-to-managedemocratic processes

4. Lacks high levels of trust, which canimpede performance

Modular type of organization: Outsources no vital functions, tapping into knowledge and expertise of

best in class suppliers but retains strategic control


1. Directs a firms managerial and technicaltalent to the most critical activities

2. Maintains full strategic control over mostcritical activitiescore competencies

3. Achieves best in class performance ateach link in the value chain

4. Leverages core competencies byoutsourcing with smaller capital

commitment

5. Encourages information sharing andaccelerates organizational learning

1. Inhibits common vision through relianceon outsiders

2. Diminishes future competitive advantagesif critical technologies or other

competences are outsourced

3. Increases the difficulty of brining back intothe firm activities that now add value due

to market shifts

4. May lead to an erosion of cross-functionalskills

5. Decreases operational control andpotential loss of control over a supplier

Virtual type of organization: Continually evolving network of independent companies linked together

to share skills, costs, and access to one anothers markets


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Suppliers Customers Competitors

Each gains from resulting individual and organizational learning May not be permanent


1. Enables the sharing of costs and skills2. Enhances access to global markets3. Increases market responsiveness4. Creates a best of everything

organization since each partner brings

core competencies to the alliance

5.

Encourages both individual andorganizational knowledge sharing and

accelerates organizational learning

1. Harder to determine where one companyends and another begins, due to close

interdependencies among players

2. Leads to potential loss of operationalcontrol among partners

3. Results in loss of strategic control overemerging technology

4. Requires new and difficult-to-acquiremanagerial skills

Technology Impact on social networking:

From the olden days human have been dependent on the society and network they build on it.

People started to help each other and work for other for free way back in the history. When the internet

came in picture not everyone have imagined the kind of impact it will bring on the society. Slowly e-

mails gave an opportunity to contact people irrespective of the time and distance and so it all started.

In todays society people have moved from a physical hand shake to a computer handshake or virtual

handshake per say. I mean to say that social networking via technology has made it easy for human to

communicate and help each other.


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There are various websites developed now-a-days which gives us platform to communicate and organize

the work better. There are various portals where the customer becomes an employee and contribute to

the network which in turn help the society. Few of the examples are:

1. Networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter are created by an organization and then gothanded over to the customer to collaborate and create the database. Various applications arecreated by users and share across the portal.

2. Match Making websites like eHormony.com, bahartmarimony.com, jeevansathi.com are alsocreated by a development team and then handed over to the customer.

3. Forms are the place where customer and come discuss the topics of interestMany other similar portals which help society come together and work together for a goal. These cases

the goals varies, such as

Goals Portal Purpose

Networking Facebook Brings people closer and help

them know each others statusLinkdin Let build the Professional

network

Match Making eHarmony Let singles meet together

Bharthmatromony A portal for arrange marriage

Classified Craigslist.com Let people advertise for free for

their properties etc

Jobs Seek.com Let a person find a job and let an

employer advertise a job

One thing which is common in all of the above technological social organizations is that they all needmonitoring from a center location as no one should produce harmful or abuse material on the web

portals. The technology has changed the way of collaboration in the society. Below figure shows the

change:


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Yahoo! Answers:

Few years back the web portals came up with a concept of Question and Answers. Although it

has always been into the portals as FAQs however the dynamic version of it as Q&A has been introduced

to the society by the technology. This helps people know the answers to all the questions they have in

their minds. A question could be as serious as about the critical health issue or it could be a simplediscussion on their relationship problems.

Yahoo! Which is a well known portal for various activities majorly known for yahoomail.com and lately

have been popular with yahoo search, yahoo shopping, yahoo games, yahoo news etc.

[Content from Wikipedia] Yahoo! Answers (Formerly known as Yahoo! Q & A) is a community-driven question-and-

answer (Q&A) site launched by Yahoo! on July 5, 2005 that allows users to both submit questions to be

answered and answer questions asked by other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points

as a way to encourage participation and is based on Naver's Knowledge iN (Naver is a popular search

portal in South Korea, with a market share of over 70%, compared to 2% of Google). Yahoo! Answers is

available in 12 languages, but several Asian sites operate a different platform which allows for non-Latin

characters. The platform is known as Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Yahoo!?) in Japan, and Yahoo!

Knowledge in Korea, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong[citation needed]. An Arabic language Q&A platform

called Seen Jeem is available through the Yahoo! subsidiary Maktoob.

How does the site work?

Any question is allowed on Yahoo! Answers, except ones that violate the Yahoo! Answers

community guidelines. To encourage good answers, helpful participants are occasionally featured on the

Yahoo! Answers Blog. Though the service itself is free, the content of answers are owned by the

respective users while Yahoo! maintains a non-exclusive royalty-free worldwide right to publish theinformation. Chat is explicitly forbidden in the Community Guidelines, although categories like Politics

and Religion & Spirituality are mostly opinion. Users may also choose to reveal their Yahoo! Messenger

ID on their Answers profile page.

In order to open an account a user needs a Yahoo! ID, but can use any name as identification on Yahoo!

Answers. A user can be represented by a picture from Yahoo! Avatars or an uploaded picture. When

answering a question, a user can perform a Yahoo! or Wikipedia search for research.

Questions are initially open to answers for four days. However, the asker can choose to close the

question after a minimum of one hour or extend it for a period of up to eight days. To ask a question

one has to have a Yahoo! account with a positive score balance of five points or more.

The points system is weighted to encourage users to answer questions and to limit spam questions.

There are also levels (with point thresholds) which give more site access. Aside from this, points and

levels have no real world value, cannot be traded, and serve only to indicate how active a user has been

on the site. A notable downside to the points/level side is that it encourages people to answer questions

even when they do not have a suitable answer to give, in order to gain points. Users also receive ten


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points for contributing the "Best Answer" which is selected by the question's asker or voted on by the

community. Contributors often vote for their own answer regardless of its quality or appropriateness.

On the other hand, many people ask questions not to gain more knowledge.

In addition to points awarded for activity, Yahoo! Answers staff may also award extra points if they are

impressed with a user's contributions. The Yahoo! Answers community manager has stated that "powerusers" who defend the company should be thanked and rewarded.

Levels of users and promotions: Every user is eligible for promotions just like any employee is eligible

for promotion in a company. In this case it is predefined and the harder to work the better and faster

promotion you get. The bigger the level is more the power you get as a user. Below are the levels listed

as per the site:

Level

0

Level

1

Level

2

Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

Score 0 1-249 250-

999

1,000-

2,499

2,500-

4,999

5,000-

9,999

10,000-

24,999

25,000+

Questions 0 5 10 15 20 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited

Answers 1** 20 40 60 80 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited

Commentaries 0 10 20 30 40 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited

Stars 0 10 100 100 100 100 100 100

Evaluation

permission

No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Vote 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 200

Members of Yahoo Answers:

1. User who ask question (customer from across the globe)2. User who give answers (customer from across the globe)3. Maintenance staff (employees of Yahoo)4. Site Administrator (employee of Yahoo)

Top Contributor: The point system encourages users to answer as many questions as they possibly can,

up to their daily limit. Once a user shows that they are knowledgeable within a specific category they

may receive an orange "badge" under the name of their avatar naming them a Top Contributor. The

user can then lose this badge if they do not maintain their level and quality of participation. Once a user

becomes a "Top Contributor" in any category, the badge appears in all answers, questions, and

comments by the user regardless of category. One can be a Top Contributor of maximum 3 categories.

List of Top contributors is updated every Monday. Yahoo answers staff has kept conditions of becoming

a TC secret. However, many theories among users exist like:

User wanting to become a TC must have more than or equal to 12% Best answers. User should be at least on level 2. Although, some first level users with TC Badge have claimed

to be seen.


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Different Badges on Yahoo Answers: Yahoo! Answers uses badges to help designate the different types

of community members participating in the Yahoo! Answers community. Here is a list of the various

types of badges currently used in Answers:

A Knowledge Partner badge indicates that a community member is an approvedparticipant in the Knowledge Partner program.

An Official badge indicates that the identity of a community member asking oranswering questions on Yahoo! Answers has been verified by a member of the Yahoo! Answers

Team. This helps us distinguish our celebrity, professional, and sponsor participants within the

Yahoo! Answers community.

The Staff badge displays when members of the Yahoo! Answers Team or other Yahoo!staff members officially ask and answer questions on Yahoo! Answers.

The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answerscommunity who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. The top

contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent

participation in a particular category.

Categories: below are categories listed on which a user can ask question or reply the answers. There are

general people as users and there are experts as users. For example in the section of health once a

question has been raised, various answers would be provided by different users at the same time an

expert on that topic might also reply.


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The user who has asked the question would be given a chance to vote the best answer however he or

she does not vote then the answers would be open for other users to vote and highest voted would be

selected. Once the vote has been selected then no more answers can be given to the same questions.

A random profile on the Yahoo! Answers portal:


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Managerial Roles: The roles of managers needed for such kind of organizations are:

Interpersonal Relationship Skill:o If manager want cooperation from his team or employees, he has to pay attention.

Practice empathy and respect the personal values, opinions and ideas of the people

he interact with. Listen and respond and

offer praises and encouragements when they

make progress. By doing that he will enhance

their self esteem and build trust.

o In this case the manager is a person whoprovides points and promote users. He has to

be careful and understand the user well. His

challenge is to understand the dynamics of

the group that is responding to thequestions. He needs to empathies with the answer and should not take a decision

on ground rules. He has to keep the culture deference in mind while reporting an

answer or question as abuse or closing it as per the guidelines.

Communication Skill:o A manager is the middle person in between the top management level and the

team that reports to him. He has to ensure that communication is smooth and

conveyed clearly to avoid misinterpretations

and dissatisfaction. It's useful to develop your

negotiation and customer service skills,

especially if you deal with clients.

o In this case a manager has to be a very goodcommunicator. There are people sitting at the

top management who take the decision of

enhancements of the product and many more.

These type of organization have customer and the employee same. And the

manager need to understand what employees or the customer wants to work on

and communicate it clearly to the higher management

A Good Planner:o In order for you to achieve long term goals and commit to strategies for substantial

earnings, you have to communicate the vision of the company to your subordinates.

You break down and clarify the goals that each team or individual has to perform

and assign work schedules and strategies.


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o It also involves thinking and planning outstrategies on how to improve quality and also

being cost conscious and effective. Having goals

and planning out the directions allow for

effective time management and saves cost andresources.

Decision Maker: The daily routine of making decisionsinclude determining how to approach an employee who

is not performing or lacking progress and how to bring

about change to the organization and its team. It is

essential that your day to day decision is based on what's

important, what's right and not who's right.

Skills required handling loosely connected organization:

Efficient participation in today's economy demands high reliance on effective leadership of technical and

support teams whose members are scattered across many geographic boundaries. There are unique and

distinctive requirements for leadership attention in the virtual project team or remote management

situation, where individuals who share responsibilities for common goals reside in geographically

dispersed locations.

Key findings from both research and best practices across many industries reveal that effective distance

leadership includes the typical fundamentals for leading people and managing resources in a traditional

office environment.

However, difficulties in the traditional environment can be significantly magnified in the virtual or

remote situation. Difficulty with communicating; working together; and producing high-quality, on-time

results is typically heightened by distance. Effective leaders need to quickly, confidently and

competently diagnose such issues and take deliberate actions to keep project team relationships,

productivity and outcomes on track. There is even more emphasis on the use of appropriate

communications skills to fit the needs of the people and the situation.

There are five core categories of effective leadership skills in virtual project team or distance-

management situations:


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Communicating effectivelyo Modeling the organization's values and members' ground rules in all

communications

o Choosing a method of communication that best fits the mutual needs ofmembers and the situation

o Applying a communication technology that best fits the needs of the situationo Helping all members apply available communication technology with confidenceo Formulating specific objectives and an organized delivery plan for

communications

o Linking messages to the members' shared purpose, goals and performancecontributions to results

o Encouraging all members of a conversation to participate fullyo Engaging in proactive listeningo Verifying team members' understanding of the message and expectations for

actiono Guiding communications to achieve a positive and constructive outcomeo Conducting coaching and feedback in ways that convey respect and support

Building communityo Modeling the behaviors expected of all memberso Maintaining the self-confidence and self-esteem of otherso Demonstrating respect for all members and their opinionso Encouraging all members to participate fullyo Focusing on the situation, issue or behavior, not on the persono Confronting issues with others directlyo Taking initiative to make things bettero Keeping confidenceso Maintaining constructive relationshipso Keeping commitmentso Admitting mistakes

Establishing a purposeo Sharing information about the organization's mission, vision, strategies and

goals

o Clarifying the rationale and intent of strategies and goalso Providing clear expectations for contributions and measurable resultso Ensuring that members are involved in decisions that affect their worko Seeking ideas and opinions from all memberso Ensuring consideration for the needs of customers in planning worko Using the organization's core values to guide the members' planning,

decisions and actions


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o Promoting creativity and innovation in undertaking new goals oropportunities

o Helping members develop positive approaches to the needs of theorganization

o Challenging assumptions that may inhibit progresso Demonstrating flexibility in adapting to changes in goals and expectations

Leading by exampleo Linking work contributions to the organization's goalso Ensuring that all members know how their contributions affect customerso Helping all members understand their roles and responsibilitieso Emphasizing verifiable goal-setting and the identification of visible

contributions

o Tracking contributions and measurable progress on goalso Ensuring that members complete appropriate planning to achieve resultso Inspiring members to reach or exceed expectations for performance and

results

o Emphasizing the need for goal-directed self-discipline in completing dailywork

o Using performance contributions and results to guide communications andagendas

o Seeking opportunities to recognize members' contributions to results Coordinating and collaborating across boundaries

o Seeking ways to build teamwork and collaboration across groups andfunctions

o Establishing mutual involvement in situations that cross organizationalboundaries

o Linking the need for coordination and collaboration to the needs of theorganization and its customers

o Helping members identify opportunities for improvement in projects andprocesses that cross organizational boundaries

o Helping members plan, coordinate and implement projects and processesacross boundaries

o Helping members diagnose and solve problemso Helping members track progress in projects and processes across boundarieso Promoting sharing of information in situations of mutual interesto Asking for specific support you will need and what you will do in returno Challenging unnecessary barriers to collaboration across boundaries


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Reference:

1. http://answers.yahoo.com/2. http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/teams.html3. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Tr-Z/Virtual-Organizations.html4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Answers

Keep Socializing!!!
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