This is a guest post from IDC colleague Caroline Dangson, who covers Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software (Join Caroline for further discussion during her webinar with Awareness Networks "Who Owns Social Media" on Thursday December 10th at 2pm EST):
Why is it so difficult to collaborate? This is a question I ask myself a lot these days, especially as an analyst covering collaboration for IDC. Software applications for business collaboration are popping up everywhere, even from salesforce.com, but are employees more aligned in their goals and seek a greater common good? Mike and I have talked extensively about how software enables collaboration but does not guarantee it. We view corporate culture as key ingredient to making or breaking these desired social behaviors in the workplace. In this blog post, I make the case that if the individualistic nature of American culture is woven into our workforce culture, this could be negatively affecting worker eagerness and willingness to collaborate, especially if interests are misaligned and money is on the table.
Let's take a look at the definitions we find in Wikipedia (a unique example of successful mass collaboration with no monetary gain*)
A study by Geert Hofstede of 53 countries across 5 continents found the United States to be the most individualist country in the world along a continuum of individualism versus collectivism. We live in a nation that places high value on achieving personal goals and dreams. This is not to say that Americans do not share common interests or goals – we certainly do. I just want to point out that when our personal goals are not aligned with a larger community of people, then our personal goals are more likely to take precedence given, especially when monetary gain is involved and especially when the individual is competing with members of the group for monetary gain.*
What sets collaborative initiatives up to fail for businesses? In one sentence, I say an individualist corporate culture lacking in trust and composed of competing business units.
Key Barriers to Business Collaboration
1. Competing business units
2. Rewards and incentives focused on individual achievements
3. Managers who hoard information
What sets collaborative initiatives up for success for businesses? A corporate culture that promotes trust among carefully aligned business units, rewards the act of sharing information, and where executives lead by example.
Key Ingredients for Business Collaboration
1. Trust
2. Employee incentives to share information and resources
3. Executive role modeling and support
Trust is the #1 ingredient here. If employees do not trust each other with information, they will not volunteer information to an open community. If employees think there is a chance that information they share will be used against them, they will not share.
Employee incentive structures are a major driver of behavior. If your organization focuses on measuring and rewarding the individual, don’t expect employees to volunteer information and contribute to the community. Collaborating with colleagues takes a lot of time and this is often not accounted for in the planning process. Organizations reward employees on results, not an improved process. Ideally, collaboration improves both the process and the results. But if the process of collaboration carries a heavy burden with workers, either because of the lack of easy-to-use tools or competing personalities, workers will be inclined to want to work on their own (independently) in achieving what they believe will be the same desired results, especially if these workers are process-oriented folks.
I believe knowledge workers will have the toughest time adjusting to these new ways of working. In a business where employee expertise and knowledge is the differentiator, workers may be inclined to hoard information, not share, especially during these unstable economic times. I say this because for knowledge workers, information is power. This means if I know more than you know, then I have more influence over you. Ironically, the social media movement flips this power dynamic on its head. With social media, influence comes to those who share the most open and freely. Social puts a spotlight on how antisocial business can be. While this movement is entering the workplace bottom up, I believe it will take many years before this transformation is complete. Until then, it takes a culture that supports and incentives that encourage these employee behaviors. This is where executives play a key role.
Executives set the tone and should lead by example. Why would workers trust in the collaboration process if executives don't? By using the tools and undergoing the process themselves, executives can better understand the opportunities and challenges unique to the company's operations and culture for worker collaboration. If executives experience first hand the challenges for internal collaboration, the necessary adjustments to tools, business processes and/or culture are escalated as executives carry weight in the organization to make these changes happen.
