A current Yahoo news story reports:
“A new survey developed by Robert Half Technology suggests people who like to use social-networking Web sites while they’re at work could be violating company policy. Fifty-four percent of the companies surveyed said they prohibit the use of social-networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook.”
“There are some places that allow social-networking, but not many. About 20-percent allow employees to use social networking sites for work purposes only. Only 16-percent allow personal use.”
I attended a conference on Talent Management about a year ago, and a panel discussion debated whether or not such social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Second Life should be allowed in the workplace. The consensus?
There is none.
The fascinating thing is this whole generational difference issue. I mean, “old school” folks who are Baby Boomers and getting ready to retire, say, “No way! Facebook, Twitter, and all that stuff is a waste of time in a business setting!”.
Ask a Gen “X” or Gen “Y” employee, and they will tell you a different story. It’s the way they keep in touch with their peers in a virtual world. They will tell you it enhances their productivity because they can instantaneously access a peer across the world to get an answer to a quick, but business critical, question.
Ask anyone who has worked on global projects can attest, being able to interact virtually is mission-critical to getting work done.
But how does this play out against the question of “work-life balance”? Hey, as I write this blog, I’m watching a baseball game on TV at home (hope the Dodgers win), planning my calendar for tomorrow, and trying to carry on a conversation with my wife and college-age son.
Are there limits to social networking? When is it appropriate and when is it “too much”? Should social networking sites be allowed, or even encouraged, in the workplace? What are your company policies? Does your company’s IT security policy block access to these sites? Is it a terminable offense?
Or does your company condone, or even encourage social networking? How do you use these tools at work?
You’re right, the generational divide on the topic of social media is wide. As generational experts and OD professionals, the members of my firm consult on this topic regularly. While there are various reasons for limiting access, some more valid than others, we believe that it is the wrong battle to fight, and that problems related to productivity, performance and information security can be better solved with effective performance management processes, appropriate use policies and procedures, and targeted education. What’s more, limiting access sends the message to younger generations that you do not trust them to do their work and do not value work/life balance. This can have negative consequences when it comes to both recruitment and retention. Ultimately, I believe we’ll look back on this debate in a few years and find it irrelevant. Millennials and GenXers will outnumber BabyBoomers and Traditionalists in the workplace in the near future and social media will have found a permanent home in corporate communication. Next month, I’m speaking to a forum of CISOs of Fortune 500 companies on this very topic. I’ll let you know how the conversation goes : )
The whole question of generations in the context of social networking online is fraught with confusion and conflict. It gets even more complex when we consider the organizational context.
Businesses have to consider the value opportunities and threats that social networking provides. While on the one hand, it’s easy to suggest that in a few years we will all be online and using social networking as a collaborative tool, the reality from an IT security perspective is much more difficult.
Remember back in April of this year when, in the course of one week, several major online events took place that each challenged or threatened business propositions. Ranging from Domino’s Pizza’s infamous YouTube episode where two employees ridiculed the company in public by having “fun” on the job to the take-over in Twitter popularity from CNN by Ashton Kutcher and the largest file-sharing court case in internet history with the fall (?) of The Pirate’s Bay, these events all point to the difficulties that lie ahead. There have been more since and there will be more in the future. In most cases that I have observed (so far) the culprits are Generation Xers. Each symbolizes a change in ethics when it comes to online engagement that companies have to contend with.
Related, from an IT perspective, comes an extremely difficult challenge to social networking and online collaboration in the realm of security. Most people assume that Internet Protocol security is much further along than is really the case. From a company’s perspective, understanding the very real threats that come along with using tools such as Cloud computing, iPhone applications, and Google Wave (all of which are here and in current usage) and addressing those appropriately is key to navigating the opportunities that also come with expectations for how we use technology.
There are a lot of assumptions out there. All generations are using social media. How they use it may be different. Applying the framework that is most appropriate to a given organization, its purpose, and its culture is key. There is no one answer that will be applicable to every organization.
Internationally, the answer will be different still (we’re rolling out a survey to explore the implications in just a few weeks). That discussion and the tools (ranging from policies to training to actual firewalls and with that, possibilities for virtual work options) is only just beginning.
Okay, so this is a long response to a good set of questions… I’m constantly engaging with media and tech on behalf of The Insight Generation, whether speaking to groups of CIOs or individuals, so feel free to get in touch and let’s continue the conversation—perhaps even off-line as the opportunity appears ☺
Amy and Annika, thank you both for your very thoughtful and insightful posts to this blog! You have effectively expanded the discussion into a few areas that I had not even considered when I first posted my questions. To summarize, you have added the issues of:
a) Internet security as a challenge to overcome before companies can fully leverage the power of social networking tools. I know that IBM, for one, is using Second Life for their new-hire orientations and some of online meetings, but my understanding is that they have an instance of the application residing on their own servers behind their corporate firewall – certainly one solution to the problem!
b) The issue of “trust” between Gen X’ers, Gen Y’ers, and older generations. Wow, All OD people know how important a building block the notion of “trust” is in organizations! Jack Gibb, one of the founding fathers of OD who wrote about Trust, Openness, Realization and Interdependence (TORI), expressed the need for trust as the foundation of all productive work in organizations. Trust is so critical to business! Stephen M. R. Covey has expounded even further on the notion of trust as the “basic currency” of doing business.
So, let’s assume that in time, IT professionals will solve the problem of internet security, and that only a company’s employees or trusted vendors will be able to access protected sites within the corporate firewalls, and that appropriate policies will allow for some level of “personal” involvement in IM’ing, Facebooking, My Spacing, etc., while an employee is at work. However, I think the bigger issue is that of “trust”.
I’m a socio-tech, systems kind of thinker, and ascribe to the prevailing principle of STS that ‘joint optimization” of the social and technical systems should be aspired to by all organizational systems as they are designed (or as they design themselves). So, what does a ‘jointly optimized” system look like when the technology IS the social system? How do we address the challenges of building trust, relationships, personal meaning and identity, authenticity, etc., when the social system is literally woven into the fabric of the technical system? Clearly, one of the biggest challenges for OD professionals is to somehow work with the designers of social media to discover ways to enable participants to build relationships, establish workable and practical ground rules for interaction, find meaning, and establish a baseline of trust as a means to facilitating interactions over the net. Oh, some technologies (like Go To Meeting, etc.) have little symbols for raising your hand with a question, or typing your question into a box that waits in the queue to get responded to, etc. But these seem to be more “rules of etiquette” in working through the chaos of an online meeting with 20-30 or more participants, rather than addressing the interpersonal needs of participants in any meaningful way.
Thoughts?
Amy and Annika, thank you both for your very thoughtful and insightful posts to this blog! You have effectively expanded the discussion into a few areas that I had not even considered when I first posted my questions. To summarize, you have added the issues of:
a) Internet security as a challenge to overcome before companies can fully leverage the power of social networking tools. I know that IBM, for one, is using Second Life for their new-hire orientations and some of online meetings, but my understanding is that they have an instance of the application residing on their own servers behind their corporate firewall – certainly one solution to the problem!
b) The issue of “trust” between Gen X'ers, Gen Y'ers, and older generations. Wow, All OD people know how important a building block the notion of “trust” is in organizations! Jack Gibb, one of the founding fathers of OD who wrote about Trust, Openness, Realization and Interdependence (TORI), expressed the need for trust as the foundation of all productive work in organizations. Trust is so critical to business! Stephen M. R. Covey has expounded even further on the notion of trust as the “basic currency” of doing business.
So, let's assume that in time, IT professionals will solve the problem of internet security, and that only a company's employees or trusted vendors will be able to access protected sites within the corporate firewalls, and that appropriate policies will allow for some level of “personal” involvement in IM'ing, Facebooking, My Spacing, etc., while an employee is at work. However, I think the bigger issue is that of “trust”.
I'm a socio-tech, systems kind of thinker, and ascribe to the prevailing principle of STS that 'joint optimization” of the social and technical systems should be aspired to by all organizational systems as they are designed (or as they design themselves). So, what does a 'jointly optimized” system look like when the technology IS the social system? How do we address the challenges of building trust, relationships, personal meaning and identity, authenticity, etc., when the social system is literally woven into the fabric of the technical system? Clearly, one of the biggest challenges for OD professionals is to somehow work with the designers of social media to discover ways to enable participants to build relationships, establish workable and practical ground rules for interaction, find meaning, and establish a baseline of trust as a means to facilitating interactions over the net. Oh, some technologies (like Go To Meeting, etc.) have little symbols for raising your hand with a question, or typing your question into a box that waits in the queue to get responded to, etc. But these seem to be more “rules of etiquette” in working through the chaos of an online meeting with 20-30 or more participants, rather than addressing the interpersonal needs of participants in any meaningful way.
Thoughts?