What is Enterprise 2.0 Culture? – Social Norms and Obligations & Expectations
Within social networks, there is a “code of conduct” that exist within the network. This could be in the form of a formal conduct or an unspoken culture, norm and beliefs that governs the actions of individuals. One simple example would be in an organisational context, it would be unacceptable to discriminate against gender or disability. Formal or unspoken culture is an important issue in social norms. Little things like emoticons and usage or certain words like “Nah, I can’t be bothered” in an Enterprise 2.0 environment could have different effects on different cultures. Therefore its never quite easy to implement a global Enterprise 2.0 initiative as part of culture stems from the culture of the race and nationality. However, corporate culture can be more easily controlled.
More importantly, shared strategic visions, shared language / interpretations, norms of cooperation, obligations and expectations are all critical factors in generating social capital. Each of these are important factors to consider in the success of the social network. Even without Enterprise 2.0, the above are all critical for a business in general, if a global organisation do not have share visions, language and culture, it would pretty much be individual companies running by itself. According to Kaplan and Norton, shared visions and strategy is critical. Shared languages and interpretations are important as well. For example, someone might say put the file in system X. It really doesn’t say much but if there is a common understanding that when you put a file into system X, you have to update a certain field as well – now that’s shared interpretations.
Norms of cooperation, obligations and expectations discusses more around what Putnam said “I’ll do this for you now, in the expectation that down the road you or someone else will return the favor.” In a very layman’s term you could even call it “how selfish is the organisation?” or “how competitive is the environment” Also I believe that a wide spread in power between managers and general staff will contribute to a low level participation in certain areas. Putnam also added that a society that relies on generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society.
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