RSSSenior managers today face a conundrum when determining how much information they want to share with employees. In effect this is a balancing act as
- It is widely acknowledged that open communication within an organisation encourages Employee Engagement ; But
- It is perceived by many managers that open communication can open the company up to a greater risk of leaks to the market (and a breakdown in confidentiality), which can be devastating, especially in a highly competitive situation
Determining how to handle this issue for an organisation has become even more difficult recently with the advent of a world of hyperconnectivity , both in the general public, but also within companies themselves.
It is now much easier for customers, competitors and even potential employees to source (in the public domain) information regarding a company. The open availability of email and applications like Twitter now make it much easier for information to be distributed outside of a company, whilst services like Glassdoor now mean that employees can easily share their thoughts on working in a company, senior management and even their salaries with the public (and future employees) in a confidential manner.
This increased “risk” of leakage of information has prompted some companies to clamp down on information sharing within their organisations. The result of this can be an unengaged employee base which feels dis-empowered due to a lack of access to information regarding key corporate strategies or initiatives.
This can in fact turn into a vicious cycle, with these disenchanted employees feeling the need to rebel against their lack of perceived power, increasing the likelihood that they share their negative thoughts on sites like Glassdoor, or in the worst case actually leaking confidential information that they have access to.
This issue is one of the reasons that many companies are struggling with the concept of Enterprise 2.0 whereby employees are openly encouraged to share information, and provided the tools to do so. In fact, I would argue that this is one of the main reasons that the deployment of Enterprise 2.0 services is placed in the “too hard” basket in many organisations.
So what is the solution? Unfortunately there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer for every company. A lot of it comes down to creating a culture of open communication but implicit trust through the company, which is not a very easy thing to do at all, and not something that can be easily taught or communicated by consultants or the like.
In most cases, companies will just have to find their own path if they want to move towards becoming more open towards their employees, something that will most likely be the key to successful business in the future.
June 29, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Interesting view Shane. hard to disagree with the problem posed. But in a networked economy where tapping into knowledge outside org boundaries is the norm…surely the issue is behaviour, not hyperconnectivity
June 30, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Paul,
Thanks for the comment.
My argument is not that hyperconnectivity is the “problem” as such, it in indeed behaviour that casues the issues, as you indicate.
Hyperconnectivity just makes it easier for information to move beyond the control of managers, something which scares them incredibly.
Regards,
Shugg
July 16, 2008 at 10:22 pm
To me this is influenced by a very big-old-company view.
I’ve worked in a large but open company. Employees were encouraged to share openly. Management shared openly. But you can bet there was lots that management didn’t share. There was a whole lot though that employees “didn’t know that they didn’t know”. However because employees felt they were being told a lot, it didn’t matter! This fitted closely with a culture of trust – employees were trusted with information that was genuinely of value to them – and improved their engagement, but without necessarily exposing the company unduly.
Compare that to another large company, where there is relatively little trust from managers towards their employees, there is less open sharing.
So to me these behaviours are driven from a culture of trust – or lack of it – in the workplace. Hyperconnectivity and Enterprise 2.0 just enable existing behaviours to work faster, more effectively and across a wider geography, but they can’t create these behaviours if they don’t exist!