Question

Social Media, Online Expression, and Collaboration (LO 8.1, LO 8.2, LO 8.4)

Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, recently commented about the use of new communication channels. He specifically mentioned the use of social networking and the growing importance of Web 2.0 tools:

As my kids became teenagers, I started looking at Facebook a little more closely. It was a significant amount of collaboration. There was open understanding. They didn’t have a problem sharing their status. Nothing seemed to be secret, and they were living their lives very openly, and friends were commenting on each other and it was working. Here is my generation, which is very security-conscious and privacy-conscious, and I thought, what are the differences? This is the generation coming to work for us. It’s not my generation. So we started having people make their presentations and record them for our internal website. We open that for review to a 360-degree workshop, which means your subordinates will review it. Your managers will read it. Your peers will read it, and everybody will comment on it. I will be, or your manager will be, one of the many who read it. So, every presentation was reviewed by 300, 400 people. What happened? There were two very interesting lessons that I learned. One, because your subordinates are going to see the plan, you cannot lie. You have to be honest. Two, because your peers are going to see it, you are going to put your best work into it. Third, you didn’t learn from me. You learned by reviewing somebody else’s presentation. You learned from the comments somebody else gave you. For the 8,000 people who participated, there was a massive collaborative learning that took place.31

Based on Nayar’s comments and your own experiences, answer the following questions:

1. What are the potential personal and group benefits from using Web 2.0 communication channels?

2. What are some of the differing attitudes between generations about online expression? What impact might these differences have on workplace communication?

3. In what ways do online communications lead to more honesty and higher-quality work?

4. In what ways might online communications lead to less honesty and lower-quality work?

Answer 1

Answer 1:

Web 2.0 have turned out to be the revolutionary tool in the field of communication and interaction of users in different fields. Researchers have identified many benefits of Web 2.0 communication channels.

Some of the potential personal benefits from using Web 2.0 communication channels are as follows:

• It helps in developing constructive online behaviour that is goal oriented.
• 360 degree feedback allows the person to identify their defects better,
• It helps person to improve their performance,
• It enhances the learning potential of a person.
• It provides way to develop new knowledge, skills and competences.

Some of the potential group benefits from using Web 2.0 communication channels are as follows:

• It enhances group collaboration,
• It supports group to develop new knowledge, skills and competences,
• It strengthens group learning activity,
• It boost team building
• It is excellent tool to challenge the uplift group capabilities.

Answer 2:

Some of the differing attitudes between generations about online expression are identified as follows:

• New generation is very open and don’t tend to keep secrets, where as old generation is not comfortable in being completely open online.
• New generation is neither security-conscious nor are privacy-conscious when it comes to online activities; whereas old generation is very privacy as well as security conscious whine using web 2.0.

The impact that these differences might have on workplace communication are as follows:

• Conflicts might arise because of these difference in the attitudes between generations about online expression.
• Effective workplace communication can be hindered because of this perceptional gap between two generations,
• Resistance to open up completely can hinder the effectiveness of workplace communication.

Answer 3:

Online communications lead to more honesty and higher-quality work in following ways:

• Because subordinates can see and comment on ones post, one will be forced to be honest,
• Because peers can see and comment on ones post, one puts their best work into it, this supports in building higher-quality of work.
• Such communication tends in creating reputation with higher authorities of organization. Therefore, people lay emphasis on quality of work they post.

Answer 4:

Online communications lead to less honesty and lower-quality work in following ways:

• It can create tremendous pressure on on employee, that can impact the quality of work to lower down.
• Fearing that every one in organization will view their work, employee can lie about the performance and end results.