Why Enterprise 2.0 Won't Transform Organizations - Harvard Bu...
Popularity Report
 |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
Rank
URL Tag Cloud
Bookmark History
Saved by 19 people (-3 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-04-24
- Bfillip on 2009-05-08 - Tags no_tag
- Ecskov on 2008-11-20 - Tags davenport , enterprise2.0 , p5
- Casperknudsen on 2008-11-19 - Tags enterprise2.0 , davenport , organization , skeptiker
- Millerous on 2008-11-18 - Tags web , 2.0 , enterprise , davenport , mcafee
- Mireillej on 2008-11-16 - Tags enterprise2.0 , web2.0 , davenport , adoption , organization , blog
Public Sticky notes
The "next small thing" in question is Enterprise 2.0, or the widespread adoption of social media and participative technologies in order to transform culture and decision-making in large organizations. The primary proponent of this movement is HBS professor Andy McAfee, for whom I have a lot of respect. His are some of the most interesting thoughts on IT to come out of HBS in a long time, and he's a nice guy to boot. What he's trying to do is to bring Web 2.0 technologies into the enterprise, to understand and describe how blogs, wikis, tagging, and other participative tools will change large bureaucracies. He believes they will empower employees, decentralize decisions, free up knowledge, and generally make for better places to work. I share his goal of more democratic organizations and hope he is correct.
Highlighted by emagin
the widespread adoption of social media and participative technologies in order to transform culture and decision-making in large organizations.
Highlighted by casperknudsen
primary proponent of this movement is HBS professor Andy McAfee
Highlighted by casperknudsen
Web 2.0 technologies into the enterprise, to understand and describe how blogs, wikis, tagging, and other participative tools will change large bureaucracies
Highlighted by ecskov
He believes they will empower employees, decentralize decisions, free up knowledge, and generally make for better places to work. I share his goal of more democratic organizations and hope he is correct.
Highlighted by casperknudsen
The absence of participative technologies in the past is not the only reason that organizations and expertise are hierarchical
Highlighted by casperknudsen
However, I fear he is not. Such a utopian vision can hardly be achieved through new technology alone. The absence of participative technologies in the past is not the only reason that organizations and expertise are hierarchical. Enterprise 2.0 software and the Internet won't make organizational hierarchy and politics go away. They won't make the ideas of the front-line worker in corporations as influential as those of the CEO. Most of the barriers that prevent knowledge from flowing freely in organizations - power differentials, lack of trust, missing incentives, unsupportive cultures, and the general busyness of employees today - won't be addressed or substantially changed by technology alone. For a set of technologies to bring about such changes, they would have to be truly magical, and Enterprise 2.0 tools fall short of magic.
Highlighted by bfillip
I freely admit, however, to one key uncertainty. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens when the young bucks and buckettes of today's wired world hit the adult work force. Will they freely submit to such structured information environments as those provided by SAP and Oracle, content and knowledge management systems, and communication by email? Or will they overthrow the computational and communicational status quo with MySpace, MyBlog, and MyWiki
Highlighted by casperknudsen
I think your question misses the point. I don't think that the purpose of "enterprise 2.0" is to make organizations more "democratic." I see social media and social networking as making organizations more agile and efficient through better communications and better sharing of expertise.
Highlighted by casperknudsen
I say this coming from a background in IT management consulting. My view is that business justifications have to be there; the time for "web 2.0 evangelists" is long past
Highlighted by casperknudsen
And E2.0 is going to push those boundaries further, fraying them to shreds as companies try to mine the gray matter of employees, partners, suppliers to get at creative ideas, insights, unspoken expectations that drive commerce.
Highlighted by casperknudsen
You can read Andrew McAfee's response to Tom Davenport's post here.
Highlighted by casperknudsen
Public Comment