The Networked Enterprise
Current and Future Trends in IT-based Collaboration
Alexander Richter
1
and Alexander Stocker
2
1
Cooperation Systems Center Munich, Bundeswehr University Munich, Neubiberg, Germany
2
Information and Process Management, Virtual Vehicle Research Center, Graz, Austria
Keywords: Web 2.0, Collaboration, Social Software, Work Practices, Networked Enterprise, Future of Work.
Abstract: Based on data and experiences gained in projects aimed to implement social software into German-speaking
enterprises, we identify and discuss four observed phenomena concerning future developments in IT-based
collaboration environments: new organizational structures, changing communication practices, increasing
individualization of employees and blurring of boundaries between work and life. Additionally, this position
paper exemplarily provides and discusses two feasible solution approaches to cope with identified trends
and their impact and lists relevant case studies. The presented research-in-progress is dedicated to
application oriented scientists in order to understand socio-technological aspects, when implementing
Web-based information systems in order to facilitate communication, cooperation and knowledge sharing.
1 INTRODUCTION
We live in a world, which becomes more and more
connected by information technology (IT). Social
networks including Facebook and Twitter are
omnipresent and used in various ways. They enable
us to connect, communicate and stay in contact with
our friends and family anytime and from almost
anywhere. We share ideas, opinions and knowledge
with like-minded people in broad or specialized
communities on the Web. The so-called Web 2.0
platforms (O’Reilly, 2005) that enable these
practices are easy to use and empower sharing and
participation (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). They have
caused technological and social changes to enable
new forms of interaction with persons living more
than 1000 kilometres away in other time zones
(Nardi et al, 2004).
At the same time, the new participative Web
affects also enterprises on a large scale (McAfee,
2006). It allows humans to share their experiences
on products and services, engaging with enterprises
in an open dialogue and participating in online
campaigns for or against enterprises. Hence, most
enterprises are to some extent active or at least
visible in the social Web and therefore are much
closer to their customers, partners and competitors
than ever before (McKinsey, 2009).
However, Social networks have not only proven
their power to facilitate communication to and
between customers. As a result of applying
technologies that emerged on the public Internet to
the inside of organizations with a view to facilitating
workplace communication and collaboration the
relatively new phenomenon of Enterprise social
networking (ESN) is evolving.
Internal communication and collaboration can
benefit much, when implemented Web-based
information systems are designed according to the
principles of the social Web. Web-2.0-based
information systems include for example wikis,
weblogs, microblogs and social networking services
(Arazy et al, 2009; Efimova and Grudin, 2007;
Hughes et al, 1992; Stocker et. al, 2012).
New technologies enable goal-oriented employee
to employee communication, efficient transfer of
knowledge and facilitate internal social networking
practices (Richter et al, 2011). The increased
visibility of own activities and the increased
awareness about the conducted actions of others (by
being active on internal Web platforms) lay the
foundation of higher employee participation and
unlock a huge potential for innovation. Therefore
internal social networks have recently gained
increased importance in corporate settings (DiMicco
et al, 2008). From an employee’s perspective a
social network can be both, an own megaphone and
a mighty feedback channel and it therefore holds the
621
Richter A. and Stocker A..
The Networked Enterprise - Current and Future Trends in IT-based Collaboration.
DOI: 10.5220/0004495306210625
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (FWP-2013), pages 621-625
ISBN: 978-989-8565-54-9
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
potential to break down corporate information
hierarchies and to support cross-functional, cross-
departmental, and cross-disciplinary collaboration
(Paroutis and Saleh, 2009).
Globally networked employees are a catalytic
converter for a new working world. It has become
apparent that much of it is not only a technological
development, but a step-by-step transformation from
a traditional organization to a networked one (Bar
and Simard, 2010). Besides the ongoing linkage of
value-adding processes, individual communication
and collaboration patterns begin to transform, too.
Voluntariness in the organizational adoption of
networked workplace technologies plays a major
role and has recently become a subject of
investigation (Vehring et al, 2011).
Against this background, we discuss four
observed phenomena concerning future
developments in IT-based collaboration
environments in our position paper. We base our
study on a comprehensive set of data gained while
investigating the usage of social software in
organizations. After an explanation of observed
trends we will exemplarily highlight two feasible
solution approaches to cope with them.
2 EMPIRICAL
AND METHODICAL
FOUNDATION
Between April 2007 and September 2012, we have
explored the adoption of social software in
enterprises by using both, a quantitative and a
qualitative way. The data on which this position
paper builds upon results from an investigation of
more than 20 organizations, including global players
(e.g. Allianz, Bosch, EADS, SAP, Siemens) as well
as innovative small and medium organizations (e.g.
Communardo, Deutscher Schiverband, Pentos).
More than 200 interviews and more than 20
meetings with people responsible for communication
and collaboration platforms have been conducted.
The original goal was to explore existing work-
practices and modes, to find out how Web-based
platforms have been used in the corporate intranets.
The majority of the interviews were conducted in
face-to-face situations, whereas some of them were
conducted via telephone. Interviews have been
recorded, transcribed and qualitatively assessed.
Based on the method of Flanagan (1954), critical
incidents have been identified as subjects of
investigation. A critical incident (CI) is defined as a
representative situation, which may result in positive
or negative consequences for participants.
Requirements for a CI are soundness and
descriptiveness of a particular situation and the
caused reaction.
Besides conducting interviews, the authors have
been closely working in implementation projects for
social software in the enterprise and were able to use
ethnographical approaches (Hughes et al, 1992), too.
At the same time, we were able to study the content
from Web-based communication platforms by using
genre analysis to investigate recurring patterns of
communication and to build up an understanding of
the occurring communication practices (Riemer and
Filius, 2009). Based on the different data sources
and different assessment techniques, the authors
aimed to establish a best possible reliability and
validity of results (Yin, 2003).
Based on the explored data, a number of patterns
and trends have been identified, which will be
drafted in the following section.
3 IDENTIFIED TRENDS
3.1 New Organizational Structures
We experience a change in structure on multiple
layers. On the one hand, current Web-based
technologies available to a particular knowledge
worker differ from the past ones. Collaboration
tools, which have in the past supported singular
tasks, have transformed to powerful collaboration
infrastructures, supporting everyday working live as
a whole, making a knowledge worker much more
flexible to cope with changing work requirements.
As communication is more and more conducted
between employees and adjusted to their special
needs, historically-established information
hierarchies begin to slowly break down. Hence
transparency on the level of an employee will
increase by using new collaboration infrastructures,
and therefore a new leadership culture is required to
cope with it. ‘Management’ as defined by
controlling, rules and instructions will (have to)
transform into ‘leadership’ as defined by trust,
commitment and dialogue.
3.2 Change in Communication
Practices
Currently, the number of available communication
channels is increasing on a wide scale, and
employees are confronted with challenges on how to
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select the right medium for the right message, i.e. it
is not clear, which tool has to be used to achieve
particular communication goal, see for example
(McAfee, 2009). At the same time Web-based
platforms begin to transform to collaboration
infrastructures, which are ‘open to use’ (Stocker et
al, 2012) i.e. which allow manifold modes of use.
Hence the potentials of such platforms are unlocked
by employees during their appropriation process
(Stocker et al, 2012). Employees are confronted with
uncertainty, what information shall be
communicated in which way at what time.
Moreover, the increasing number of
communication channels and the eased access to
information (i.e. the increasing number of
employees-generated content) leads to a perceived
information overload. The ubiquity of
communication tools (see figure 1) additionally
facilitated by the triumphal procession of mobile
devices and open access terminals) leads to a change
in personal interaction and therefore to a change in
individual communication practices as a whole.
Figure 1: Ubiquity of communication media.
3.3 Individualization of the Working
Environment
Transforming individual communication practices
affects the way of working. Performing work
becomes more and more individual, which raises
challenging requirements to a both comfortable and
secure working environment. Therefore different
user groups and their individual properties have to
be taken into account (see table 1), to assure that
new Web-based technologies can be successfully
adopted to assure the working environment of the
future.
It becomes apparent that the demographic change
in the enterprise is a huge challenge, but the
adoption of information technology is affected by a
plethora of other aspects coining an individual style
of working. Technology acceptance is not only a
question of the generations.
Table 1: Differentiation between user groups.
Technology Organization
Access to mobile devices
(blackberry)
Hierarchy, department,
tasks & functions
Remote access (VPN)
Organizational Unit
(Language, culture)
Usage limitations
(accessibility)
Working time model (e.g.
home-working,
availability)
Location and region
(working hours, time
shifting)
Human
Age group
Affinity to information
technology
Motivation and goals
Knowledge and
experience
3.4 Blurring of Boundaries between
Work and Life
The increasing usage of Web-based platforms in
private and business life causes a blurring of
boundaries between work and life, because the same
communication channels are used in private and
business context (Fear, 2011). This aspect is even
strengthened by the increasing number of mobile
devices including smartphones and tablets. On the
one hand, many employees use their private mobile
devices in business, a phenomenon which is termed
‘bring your own device’. This development is
additionally contributed to by employees using the
same Web- based platforms, e.g. Dropbox or Google
Drive, in private and business context, a behavior
termed ‘bring your own service’. Whenever the
same communication infrastructure is used around
the clock, users often violate the policies of their
companies.
On the other side, it is possible to dictate what
employees are doing, when they are outside the
workplace. Though employees should be free of
work demands in their spare time, the ability to
contact an employee outside the company at any day
by email, phone or Web-based platforms is a form of
soft-control over workers. Hence, the resulting 24-
hours availability is experienced as heteronomy by
many employees.
Besides that, as people are more and more
connected, organizational borders start to open,
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623
which enables new modes of communication to
external stake holders through Web-based platforms.
But even in the same organization, project teams
start to communicate and collaborate across
traditional disciplines and territorial boundaries on
the intranet.
4 APPROACHES TO COPE
WITH IDENDIFIED TRENDS
Responding to the identified trends can be done at
different levels and accompanied by different
expenses. At this point, the authors want to discuss
two approaches, which they used in their projects to
take advantage of potentials and avoid hazards.
The already introduced uncertainty among
employees regarding their open choice in media and
communication channels (most notably social
software) can be reduced by different actions. An
easy way is to collect usage examples in reports and
lessons learned. Users may share their own success
using a particular platform (i.e. collect individual
success stories). This can be done in the employee
newsletter or as part of online documentation in the
form of a microblog post with a sounding hash-tag
(e.g. #bestpractice). For example, when introducing
the Web 2.0 platform ‘References@BT’ at Siemens
Building Technologies Division, success stories of
employees were used to further disseminate the
platform in the Siemens intranet (Mueller and
Stocker, 2011; Mueller et al, 2012).
Even more important, but absolutely necessary,
is to make the plethora of evolving, existing,
complementary or overlapping platforms accessible
from a single access point. This may result in a more
centralized platform. For instance, numerous Wikis
were migrated into one central Wiki, establishing the
‘Wikisphere’ at Siemens (Lindner, 2011). The other
archetype is to link existing platforms to a
centralized portal (i.e. establish a central access
point). Enterprise Search portals may be established
to allow employees access to other platforms from a
single portal. Siemens has recently launched
‘Technosearch’ to enable search across multiple
platforms in the Siemens intranet (Sinequa, 2012).
An approach to support employees and to react
against the blurring of boundaries between work and
life is to provide opportunities for them to work
independently from time and space. On the one hand
additional leeway should be created for intrinsically
motivated employees, but extrinsically motivated
employees need clear areas of responsibility. At the
same time, employees always need a way to state
their ‘non availability’. Coaching them will support
employees to become aware of their increasing
responsibility and to take the advantage of just
turning out their smartphone at home from time to
time. At the same time, a connected organization
has to also approve the positive aspects of the
blurring of boundaries, for example it has not only to
allow the conduction of care services and
educationally tasks during working hours, but also to
promote and fund it.
5 CONCLUSIONS
AND OUTLOOK
In this position paper we have discussed the ongoing
transformation in the work practices of enterprises in
German-speaking areas including the transformation
of communication practices, the increasing
individualization, new organizational structures and
the blurring boundaries of work and life.
Based on our experiences in social software
projects, we have exemplarily mentioned two
approaches, how to cope with identified trends.
Nevertheless, solving the emerging challenges is not
as trivial, as corporate or employee representatives
still suspect.
We think that the widely noticed decision of the
VW works council to turn off Blackberry email after
work hours (Volkswagen, 2011) is a step into the
wrong direction. Employees including for example
young parents should not be patronized, but rather
empowered for more self-organization in performing
work from their home office. This includes having
access to corporate information anytime anyplace, as
access to information is crucial to job success.
While some enterprises attract the attention of
researchers and press by conducting questionable
actions, most of the enterprises have not even
recognized the presented trends, yet. Sometimes
they have only become aware of symptoms,
including dissatisfied and exhausted employees or
difficulties to get attractive for younger staff
including digital natives, endangering their
competitiveness.
It will be exciting to observe, when organizations
and employee representatives will not just treat
observed symptoms anymore, but together take on
the challenges currently emerging from the rapidly
changing world of work, stimulated by the
emergence of new collaborative information
technology and Web-based infrastructures.
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