There are undoubtedly challenges and degrees of risk associated with the adoption, diffusion and exploitation of Web 2.0. So, despite most of the evidence on Web 2.0 diffusion showing a rapid take-up among Internet users recent reports have noted some dissatisfaction among existing users of Web 2.0 and conventional networking tools. And from the early survey evidence, it seems that HR professionals continue to be reluctant innovators and to be more worried about employee misbehaviour, their lack of control over these technologies and the uses to which they are sometimes put (see Box 1).
Box 1: Employee misbehaviour on Facebook
The BBC Web site on 31 October 2008 reported that 13 cabin crew staff had been dismissed by a UK-based airline for gross misconduct in misusing a social networking Web site.
The misconduct related to claims by passengers that staff had used a Facebook site to criticise safety standards in the airline and to use disparaging language about its passengers.
The BBC reported the following statement from a senior airline representative:
It is impossible for these cabin crew members to uphold [our] high standards of customer service … if they hold these views….[There] is a time and a place for Facebook…. There is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticise the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries… We have numerous internal channels for our staff to feed back legitimate and appropriate issues relating to the company.
A few days after this case appeared in the press, another UK-based airline began an investigation in Facebook postings by employees who described passengers as 'smelly' and 'annoying'.
The Economist article in which this appeared said that this 'public relations disaster' occurred despite the airline having a policy that 'forbids employees posting online information about the firm without specific authorisation'
These cases provides an important, if negative, justification for HR professionals to understand the challenges presented by Web 2.0 and to develop realistic HR policies and programmes of education to prevent problems like this re-occurring. While problems like this continue to dominate media headlines, our core argument is that HR professionals also need to take advantage of the genuine opportunities created by Web 2.0 to enhance collaboration, learning, employer branding and employee voice; if they fail to do so, they are likely to be left behind in a 'ground-swell' which is forecast to take root among new generations of employees.
Leaving aside for the moment the genuine problems posed by the cases set out in Box 2, support for our more optimistic and strategic view comes from evidence produced by academics, consultants and application providers. The weight of this evidence is that Web 2.0 is emerging as a major force in altering how organisations function and in the business models they employ. One such example comes from John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, who recently claimed that Web 2.0 is the 'future', causing him to change the direction of his company. As he pointed out, '… We are moving our company as fast as we can to collaboration and Web 2.0 because of its potential for significant impacts on productivity and product design'. Authors of the best-selling book Wikinomics made even more extravagant claims that Web 2.0 social media are '… the biggest change in the organisation of the corporation in a century …'.
So, if HR professionals are to be judged by these prophesies and the sheer volume of current articles, books, blogs and discussion in media and technology publications, they could be forgiven for thinking they are in danger of being left behind in the race to become virtually connected to everyone and anyone in their social and work-related networks.
Having sifted through a significant body of evidence which includes apparent 'hyperventilation' from technology gurus and the more sanguine evidence from various surveys, we are drawn to two drivers, which offer significant valueadding opportunities to organisations and to the HR function. Our confidence is premised on two related arguments. The first of these is the generational driver, encapsulated by Adrian Sarner — see Box 3. This is evidenced by various claims made for a distinctive V-generation of 'digital natives' or 'networked employees', which has grown up working, learning and communicating with social media, more prosaically illustrated by the rapid growth of social and professional networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Xing.
Box 3: The V(irtual) generation
Among the most recent attempts to set out a new group of online users is one by Gartner, a leading firm of technology consultants, which coined the term, Generation-V. This term encapsulates multiple age groups which make social connections online. As Adam Sarner, one of Gartner's principal consultants writes:
Unlike previous generations, Generation Virtual (also known as Generation V) is not defined by age — or gender, social demographic or geography — but is based on demonstrated achievement, accomplishments and an increasing preference for the use of digital media channels to discover information, build knowledge and share insights. Generation V is the recognition that general behaviour, attitudes and interests are starting to blend together in an online environment.
The second driver is the need for organisations to collaborate to add value in modern economies. Collaboration is essential for knowledge creation and innovation among organisations; however, collaboration costs money, especially in large-scale, geographically distributed organisations. One of the promises of Web 2.0, however, it that it can substantially reduce the costs of such collaboration, especially when these forms of virtual communication become standard in organisations. These so-called economic networking effects not only rely on cost reduction claims but also on better quality decision-making and knowledge creation. The 'wisdom of crowds' thesis, which underpins applications such as Wikipedia, states that collective intelligence by groups often results in better decision-making than could be made by any individual.
So, by using these social media technologies with customers, business partners and employees, they help organisations substantially improve their business performance in five important ways:
- by more effective 'talking' to employees and other stakeholders;
- by more effective 'listening' to employees and other stakeholders by giving them more effective forms of voice;
- by 'energising' key employees and stakeholders to spread key messages;
- by 'helping' employees and stakeholders to support each other;
- by 'engaging' employees and other stakeholders as collaborators in value adding activities.
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