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This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.

Social media are rocking our world

by Deborah Hinton

Social media are changing what we do and how we do it.   With our families.  With our friends.  With strangers.  With our colleagues.  At play.  At work.  Social media haven’t even come of age and they are already rocking our world.

Nowhere will these changes be more profound than in our workplaces.  Social media are changing basic assumptions about how we organize to get things done.

Was Will be [if it's not already]
Centralization Decentralization
Formal hierarchy Informal networks
Chain of command Collaboration
Central planning Collective learning
Bureaucracy Community
Departments Tribes
High control High accountability
Machine models Complex adaptive systems

I don’t for one second think that it’s as clear cut as this conversation makes it out.

I don’t believe institutions of the future will operate fully one way or the other.  They will need to find the right balance – their right balance – given the nature of the work.

And, social media create institution-wide opportunities for connecting that simply didn’t exist for large organizations before.  Social media are already driving changes in behaviour, attitudes and expectations.  They are already having a profound effect on our institutions and the role of the managers who run them.

What is certain is that the function of management is changing.  The days when power and authority based on hierarchy alone is gone.  Instead, managers will need to be influencers. Facilitators. Consensus-builders.

And, it is certain that this will change the function of institutional communications especially internal communications.  In a world where managers are influencers, what is the role of internal communications?  In a world where employees will have access to what they need, when and how they need it [thanks Bill Jensen, Work 2.0], will the internal communications function even need to exist?

Tags: Collaboration, Employee communication, Innovation, Social media

Deborah Hinton Monday, September 6th, 2010
Permalink Change Management, Communication, Corporate communication, External communication, Internal communication 2 Comments

Random Posts:

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2 Comments to Social media are rocking our world

  • Adam Hibbert says:
    September 8, 2010 at 5:54 am

    1. Rumours of Command and Control’s death may be somewhat premature. It’s proven difficult to kill off over the 80 years or so that people have been trying it. Not sure that a technology will shift a culture in this way – usually the causal chain works the other way around. But yes, the times are changing (slowly).

    2. Will the function be needed? No, and that’s a good thing. In fact, that should be our professional aim, imho – to restore our organisations’ ability to communicate to the point where our services are no longer required. We’re resourceful people. We’ll find new uses for the experiences we gain along the way.

  • Deborah Hinton says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Well Adam, you and Kevin@Death to internal marketing have definitely put your stakes in the ground on this one. And, you won’t be surprised to know I agree. See my next post. Coming soon.

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