Today I had a 3 hour meeting with representatives from an Austrian Trade Union (t d f). Our topic was how the make better usage of the Internet for the organization and its clients. Although they were using the web for external and internal communication for many years now they had to admit that the way it was implemented and after all used didn’t meet their expectations at all.
Now - an organizational shift ahead - is the right time to think about the web as a foremost social tool. Those that were in charge with taking care of the web yet rather looked at it as a technical means. They conceived of it as a tool that is supposed to make things better and easier. Well, it could but you have to bring in the organizational, cultural aspects.
Issues that are at stake:
- open participation vs. process driven designed workflow
- benefits on 4 levels
– organizational
– management
– individual
– teamwork
- Data- & information-management on a decentralized basis
- web-based vs. desktop-based applications
I’m actually not sure that they are going to embrace Web 2.0 within their organization soon. The management culture seems to lack awareness of a more open and collaborative culture. It seems as if early adopters of Enterprise 2.0 (t d f) are somewhere else to find.
But still I think that the more avid and forward-looking members will take care of the future of this organization and get behind old schemes of doing (organizational) politics. If not I don’t think that these organizations will have much of a future. The new mission statement of the International Trade Unions(PDF) seems ambitious but is not much talking about how to shape an organization in our times - consequently technology/communication isn’t mentioned even one time.
In Germany ver.di is a good example of experimenting with new communicative formats. Let’s see what will happen here. I’d like to support the new.
Related posts
Tags: Business, Social Software
Comments are closed | Permalink • 
• 
