Elsevier

Organizational Dynamics

Volume 45, Issue 1, January–March 2016, Pages 47-54
Organizational Dynamics

Social media and business: We’ve been asking the wrong question

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.12.006Get rights and content

Introduction

Social media is a revolution. It is, nevertheless, misunderstood. It is quietly changing the world more deeply than we realize. Think of the Arab Spring. Populations from countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria have finally taken action against government forces that had oppressed them for decades and more. Social media has been crucial as a tool to empower these uprisings, providing rebels with a means of mass communication that could not be controlled by their governments. Think of WikiLeaks. With help from various intelligence agency insiders, it has taken whistle blowing to a new level, capable of challenging powers such as the CIA, and leading the government to change its surveillance policies.

These two examples illustrate how powerful social media can be, and how much it can potentially change the balance of power. It gives voice to communities that previously were disenfranchised and disempowered. It threatens powerful organizations, such as the CIA, or even governments, which are used to controlling information and dictating the terms of a relationship. Social media has the power to change society profoundly.

Business organizations have recognized the potential of social media over the last few years, often beginning with a focus on marketing. Likewise, practitioner articles about how companies can harness its power have expanded massively in recent times. However, researchers and business people alike have been asking the wrong question. In typical business fashion, the question that most business stakeholders have been asking about social media is: “How can it be exploited for our benefit?” Putting the question in these terms shows how misunderstood social media is and how ill-equipped organizations with a traditional business mentality are to survive the social media revolution, let alone to thrive in it.

We, therefore, aim to bring a different light to the topic of social media and business by asking a different question: “How is social media changing society, and how will that change the way organizations do business?” Framed in this way, the emphasis shifts from how organizations can exploit social media to their benefit to how they must adapt to a new social order. We argue that social media can drastically redress imbalances in power. Hence, organizations thinking that they are running the show may be in for a big surprise. It may be time for them to accept an era of genuine participation in larger communities. To illustrate our arguments, this essay is organized as follows: the first section introduces social media innovation and how it is turning society on its head (through the use of four pillars). The second section introduces a reference framework that explains why there is a shift in corporate logics from exploitation to citizenship. The last section proposes four tests that organizations can use to establish how far their corporate reasoning fits a citizenship attitude compatible with the revolution in society brought about by social media.

Section snippets

Social media: a mild technological innovation that brings about a societal revolution

Social media refers to new media technology that enables instantaneous, multi-way communication between groups of individuals. This section first introduces the technological aspect of this innovation, and then we will focus on the broader impact that this technology has on society and the way we communicate.

Social media and business: a short-sighted focus on exploitation

Given the media attention that it has enjoyed, it is no surprise that business organizations have begun to turn their attention to social media. Despite there being virtually no articles in academic business publications, there has been a preponderance of publications on the topic in practitioner journals, and organizations have begun to hire specialists to focus on this issue. Nonetheless, we argue that the business world has been asking the wrong question, adopting a myopic view of how

Markets, hierarchies, and communities: different forms of sociality with different logics

Adler's framework can be very useful in understanding what the social media revolution means for business organizations. He describes three pure social forms: markets, hierarchies, and communities. In each of these, social interaction is regulated by a different mechanism: price, authority, and trust, respectively. In markets, the free exercise of supply and demand leads to a fluctuation in the price of goods and services, resulting in an optimal allocation of resources. In hierarchies, such as

From exploitation to citizenship: a diagnostic test

We argue that the mistake most businesses have made in attempting to exploit social media for their benefit is that they have used a market or a hierarchical logic approach to address social media. When organizations engage with social media from a market logic perspective, they are trying to exploit it, without considering whether they are bringing any value to the community. When they engage with social media from a hierarchical logic perspective, they are trying to control it rigidly. Both

Conclusion

After disappearing throughout much of the 20th century, the community is making a comeback thanks to social media. Not that markets or hierarchies will disappear; rather, they will be put back into their proper places. In order to engage with the aspect of community, organizations and individuals within organizations must become members of communities. They must learn once more how to serve the communities they belong to rather than focusing on benefiting from them. They must also stop trying

Selected bibliography

One of the central frameworks we used to cast light on different social forms is that of Paul Adler, “Market, Hierarchy and Trust: The Knowledge Economy and the Future of Capitalism.” Organization Science, 2001, 12(2), 215–234.

For readers interested in frameworks about how social media can be used for marketing purposes, we recommend the following: Utpal M. Dholakia and Emily Durham, “One Café Chain's Facebook Experiment.” Harvard Business Review, 2010, 88(3), 26. Donna L. Hoffman and Marek

Michela Arnaboldi is a Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano. Her main research field is performance management and management control. She has a recent interest in social media and how this technology impacts on information management more broadly. She has published works in several journals, such as Accounting, Organization & Society, Public Organizations Review, and European Management Journal. She managed several research grants both at national and international level (Department of

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Michela Arnaboldi is a Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano. Her main research field is performance management and management control. She has a recent interest in social media and how this technology impacts on information management more broadly. She has published works in several journals, such as Accounting, Organization & Society, Public Organizations Review, and European Management Journal. She managed several research grants both at national and international level (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini, 4B, Milano Lombardy 20156, Italy; email: [email protected])

Jean-Francois Coget is an Associate Professor of Management at the Orfalea College of Business, at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He earned his Ph.D. in management from the Anderson School at UCLA. His research interests include emotions, intuition, creativity, leadership, and social media. His overarching professional goal is to create and disseminate actionable knowledge that can help managers and citizens to organize a productive, creative, ethical, and sustainable cooperation among people (Orfalea College of Business, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA. Tel.: +1 805 550 7274; Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini, 4B, Milano Lombardy 20156, Italy; email: [email protected]).

This article was accepted by the former editors, Fred Luthans and John Slocum.

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