New Work Order - Orgatec

Stephan GrabmeierHead of CulturalInitiatives,Deutsche Telekom AGWe alreadyreact muchbetter in dialogue withcustomers than wedo with our own colleagues.The insides oflarge organisations arestill all about power,status and spheres ofinfluence—and oftenabout everythingbut substance.The march-in-step nature of the industrial economy doesn’t work in the knowledge societyin either a structural or a cultural sense. The simultaneous performance of predefinedstandard activities comes from the industrial culture. The co-creation principle,which is based on the social media concept, relies on a coalition of individuals who arewilling to cooperate. Common values are the foundation of common value creation. The impulsesfrom social media will allow us to communicate with each other more openly, democratically andcollegially. This will change the nature of cooperation and therefore the culture of a company andleads to the question of which new premises organisations wish to standardise in their cultures.WORK METHODSBELONGINGTEAM MIXJOB DEFINITIONKNOWLEDGE TRANSFERCULTUREINDUSTRIAL ECONOMYStandardisedPermanentSpecialisedStipulatedExclusiveTop-downNETWORKED ECONOMYProject-relatedFlexibleInterdisciplinarySelf-selectedProactiveParticipative25New Work orderDr. Alexander Richtera culture of dialogueTrendbüro spoke with Dr. Alexander Richter about the introductionand utilisation of social software in a business context and the role suchsoftware will play in the creation of a NEW WORK ORDER.What connection do you see between enterprise2.0 and the new work order?dr. alexander richter: Enterprise 2.0 only refersto the use of social software in a company in order tosupport cooperation, knowledge management and communication.Just as companies generally have to reinventthemselves over and over again and thus changetheir culture throughout the years, the new type of communicationmodelled on Web 2.0 will also influence acompany’s culture over the long term. That’s becauseit’s more transparent, more open and in some casesmore authentic.How does social software affect a company’sorganisation?The most important aspects associated with the use ofsocial software are awareness, transparency and participation.These aspects are now creating what moreor less amounts to a parallel world at many companies.There is a bottom-up information hierarchy that existsalongside the traditional organisational hierarchy.How are companies approaching the transitionto enterprise 2.0?There are two ways for a company to move toward Enterprise2.0. Either they enter an exploration phase thatusually originates with the employees, or the transformationoccurs through a promotion phase that comesfrom the executive level. I’ve noticed a type of “secondwave” in the use of social software at many companiesover the last year and a half. Following the first phase ofwhat in some cases was uncontrolled exploration of thepotential of such software, many companies now wantto centrally introduce it, manage it and use it throughoutthe organisation. However, they are still confronted withthe fact that these new communication tools are openby nature. The companies should therefore help theiremployees understand and use these instruments.Dr. Alexander RichterHead of Social Businessin the Cooperation Systemsresearch group atBundeswehr UniversityMunichSince 2006 Richter hasbeen monitoring, withgreat interest, the introductionof social softwareat many companies.He has assistedAllianz, Bosch, EADS,Siemens and other Germanfirms with the selection,introductionand evaluation ofsocial software.