Comments on: Debunk Mates – Social Media Conquers Organizational Theory!

By: compassioninpolitics

compassioninpolitics — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:47:17 +0000

As a former academic researcher and college debate coach, very well put.

I think the 140 character limit alone, puts restraints on Twitter and Enterprise 2.0 style Twitter clones.

Alternatively, I think 3 to 5 years down the road, the face of organizations may be radically altered.

The question is can organizations combine the a) technical ability and resources to harness the crowd
b) the budgetary resources and organizational cultural changes to back up the process
c) the upper management actually buys in (and take the initial risk or two)
d) a filter, perhaps via Prectify to create a way to evaluate the results.

Cheers!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:41:39 +0000

One could also argue that social media recreates a different kind of organizational theory, but one based upon knowledge, quality and timeliness of data, and subjective merit.

Rather than traditional authoritative sources, encumbered by the unyielding bureaucracy, social media allows for an organizational theory set in Jello, malleable, and ever transforming as new technologies are introduced.

By: drfuzzy

drfuzzy — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:09:14 +0000

Hiya! Thanks for the comment, most appreciated. I actually haven’t gotten to responding to your article yet on SM v. KM, this post was to introduce a series of three. Sorry for any confusion.

I accept that org theory is broader than I suggest – I’ve already heard that I wrote too much / too dense, so I did pare down from a complete treatment. My only purpose was to push back a bit on the “we’ve made org theory obsolete!” chatter.

Will read the W articles, nice to meet you.

p.s. Six sigma is a joke when misapplied, actually. Yes, it adds value where it belongs – I just wish it would stay in the shallow end.

By: Venkat

Venkat — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:01:50 +0000

Hey HEY! Hold your horses there friend

While I wrote the KM vs. SM ‘war’ article, I wouldn’t generalize THAT far. Taylorism has just become a mature, commoditized piece of management technology that has found its place and is no longer a differentiator. Six sigma jokes aside, that stuff does add value where it belongs.

More broadly, org. theory is vastly broader than you suggest. One of my top all-time faves is the org. theory class, Gareth Morgan’s “Images of Organization” (early 80s)…. still as relevant as every, and as handy in analyzing social media as it was in analyzing 80s stuff. It is based on looking at orgs through multiple metaphors.

You may like my “Theory W” series of articles

Venkat