Organizational Adoption of Social Networking

One of the reasons that I rarely refer to my employer by name is because, as far as my employer is concerned, I am not an official spokesperson for said employer. While I have spoken on behalf of my employer on occasion, it has been in very limited circumstances. I am certainly not authorized to speak for my employer in any and all circumstances, and the few of you who know who my employer is are very well aware that there's been a lot of news going on here lately - news which all employees have been officially instructed to keep mum about.

So you can guess where my employer stands on this whole Web 2.0/social networking thingie.

Needless to say, other companies have embraced social networking more closely. Or, perhaps it's accurate to say that PORTIONS of other companies have embraced social networking more closely.

A good portion of my readers are aware of the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). OTN has taken the lead in evangelizing use of various social networking technologies with people outside of Oracle, ranging from footing the bar bill at blogger meetups to setting up several networks to allow those interested in all things Oracle to communicate with each other.

Yet it's helpful to remember that we (or at least I) don't know what's going on inside of Oracle's hallways, and what type of resistance is being found within. Justin Kestelyn's recent post on the internal "Marketing 2.0 Leaders Summit" hints at the obvious - the number of Oracle employees who have fully embraced these types of two-way interactions is somewhat less than 100%.

I was pleased to have an opportunity to meet Charles Phillips, who took the time to speak with each group individually about their learnings. It was also nice to hear acknowledgment that OTN has been on the leading edge in this area for some time, and that it's time for the rest of the organization to catch up.

This demonstrates a truth about organizational behavior. Even if you have enthusiastic proponents such as Kestelyn (plus Jake, Julio, Marius, et al), and even if you have influential sponsors such as Phillips, you cannot change an entire organization overnight.

Something to keep in mind.

[mrontemp business] | [mrontemp politics] | [mrontemp technology] | [mrontemp del.icio.us tags]

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