Introducing Organizational Culture Through The Social Web

We can define organizational culture as “The distinctive norms, beliefs, principles and ways of behaving that combine to give each organization its distinctive character:” (Arnold et al, 2005, p. 625), or in short, “How we do things here”. It entails both written and unwritten rules that govern how a company is run, and it is imperative to have an understanding of it to be able to be part of the organization. Organizational cultures can be further divided into subcultures that are specific for divisions, departments, teams, or informal groups in a company.

Because there can so many different cultures in a company it can be difficult to get a clear identity about what your workplace is about. Furthermore it creates a major challenge when making changes to the system if those changes are based on the culture of for example the leader group, and not that of the organization as a whole.
I believe that by integrating the social web in organizations we will create a massive opportunity for organizational cultural understanding and awareness.

Tamar Weinberg quotes Tony Hsieh (founder of Zappos, now owned by Amazon) on the affect of social media on the company culture, stating that “…employees have more of an opportunity to learn about each other personally” and that twitter allowed them to “…expose our company culture to the world.” (Weinberg, 2009, p. 136).
With heightened awareness outward for a company, there will also be a heightened awareness inward, letting people have a greater appreciation for how the company works. By using social media for this purpose, people will learn about themselves, their role and the company, and be engaged by the task at the same time. It should go without saying that this implies that representatives from all of the organization take part of the endeavor.

Discovering The Diversity Of Organizational Culture

Imagine the suddenly being in touch with the organization in a new and improved way. With a few short twitter messages, a link or two on facebook, or an insightful blogpost regarding your company, and you’ve got a conversation going with the most important resource in your organization – Your employees. Ask them how they do things, what characterizes their departments or their teams, what they find valuable about your leadership skills, and what you can do better.

Easing Into Social Media

In the previous post I discussed how organizational decision makers are a hurdle on the road to social media use in organizations because they are prone to see the limitations and work involved where social media is concerned, rather than the resulting benefits. I see this especially related to losing control over the conversation in social media marketing. By implementing social media as a tool for improving organizational awareness, like a better overview of company culture, business leaders have the opportunity to get to know social media solutions.

After social media processes have become part of the daily functioning of your company, the step into social media marketing will be easier to take, in a large part because everyone involved will be familiar with how it works, not to mention that the company now has a clear image of what their organizational culture entails, making it that much easier to portray the solid image outward when in conversation with clients, consumers and users. Furthermore, when needs for implementing change occur, a stronger cultural understanding and identity is present, and creating a successful strategy will be easier.

What do you know about your company’s organizational culture as a result of social media use? If you don’t use it, what could you know if you did, and what would it mean for you and for the company?