CIPD have recently published a Research Insight discussion paper on 'Web 2.0 and Human Resources'.
NOTE: I was very pleased to be able to contribute a brief case-study outlining the growing success of our company wiki 'Pfizerpedia'.
[for comment on the CIPD paper see Jon Ingham's thoughtful blog post]
Reflecting on this work (and Jon's comments) - I feel we need to revisit the concept of 'Enterprise 2.0' to ensure organisations (and their HR departments) don't overlook the business implications/opportunities beyond their 'firewall'.
Enterprise 2.0 was originally coined by Andrew McAfee of Harvard, defining it as:
"the use of emergent social software platforms within companies and their partners or customers"
This definition nicely captures the external opportunities with business 'partners or customers' - but (for me) fails to consider the need to organisations to engage with the social aspects of Web 2.0 technologies.
In 'HR-speak', consideration needs to be given to the impact on the psychological contract of banning Facebook. Also, if there are explicit expectations on how staff should behave outside of work (eg relating to defining employment consequences for illegal actions), no doubt this should apply on-line as well as in the physical world.
Given that there can no longer be an expectation of employment-for-life, I'd suggest there is a further consideration - that of professional identity (or personal brand).
If a colleague is to maximise their career through a portfolio of roles/companies, then this needs to be a blend of social collaboration & organisational collaboration, rather than just contained within the enterprise.
Hence, I believe there is merit in defining Enterprise 2.0 simply as:
"the organisational strategy for leveraging and managing Web 2.0 technologies"
Moreover, I'd suggest that this can be considered as the blend of:
- Organisation 2.0 (leveraging & managing on-line collaboration to achieve business outcomes)
- Professional 2.0 (leveraging & managing on-line collaboration to enhance organisational talent)
- Social 2.0 (leverage & managing on-line collaboration to enhance colleague engagement and workplace performance)
Also, that it can be helpful to distinguish between what happens internally (ie through a private intranet), vs. externally (via the Internet).
This is illustrated in the following diagram:
I hope this provides a much richer framework for HR and others to view 'Enterprise 2.0' opportunities !
