Case Study 2 Responses

1. Identify the management, organization, and technology factors affecting adoption of

internal corporate social networks.
The management factor affecting the use of an internal social network comes from the
willingness of the corporation to motivate their employees to use the platform.
Corporations face the challenge of convincing the top executives that collaboration and
engagement of employees is a good use of their time and resources. This in turn affects
how seriously the employees take this platform as well (Li, 2015). The organizational and
technological factors are tied together as employees are used to handling work on
systems that they are used to and comfortable with. These systems could be outdated and
less efficient, but employees will still prefer them over a complete change. The
organization is challenged to educate the employees on how to use the platform
appropriately. This is a technological hump for many employees who have been used to
old-fashioned systems that do not emphasize collaborative work (Li, 2015).
2. Compare the experiences implementing internal social networks of the organizations
described in this case. Why were some successful? What role did management play in
this process?
While efforts were made to implement internal social networks, different companies had
different outcomes in the end. The Goddard Space Flight Centre had an unsuccessful
attempt at this implementation. They tried to set up their own enterprise social network
named “SpaceBook” but did not account for the culture and politics within the
organization. More emphasis was put on the actual setup of the new network, rather than
informing the employees on how to use the platform to efficiently do their jobs.
On the contrary, some companies thrived with the transition to an enterprise
social network. Covestro, a company that supplies coatings and adhesives was successful
in their attempt in social collaboration. Compared to other companies like Goddard Space
Flight Centre, they were able to get a lot more active employees onto the platform (50
percent). This in turn assisted them with faster knowledge flows, an increase in efficiency
and helped to lower operating costs.
ModCloth also is a company that benefitted greatly from their implementation of
an enterprise social network. It brought a sense of belonging to new employees as they
would be introduced to their new coworkers. They were also able to save time on projects
and surveys since data would be posted for the whole company to view. The platform
was kept adequately updated and helped the company become more efficient in their
operations.
We can see that different companies had different outcomes when trying to
implement an enterprise social network. Goddard Space Flight Center was unsuccessful
because they did not properly strategize how they would educate employees, but
 ModCloth and Esquel executed well. This resulted in a lot of operational and gains for
both companies.

3. Should all companies implement internal enterprise social networks? Why or why not?
I believe that all companies should implement internal enterprise social networks. Firstly,
doing this would improve communication within the company. Employees and the
management can easily connect with each other using a chat rather than sending short
conversational emails back and forth (Gushue, 2015). Secondly, it would improve the overall
efficiency of the company as one platform contains all the necessary information needed to
complete tasks (Gushue, 2015). Thirdly, it would be an effective team building tool.
Employees would be kept up to date about company news and activities, giving them a sense
of belonging (Gushue, 2015). They would be assured that they are an important part of the
team and that their concerns would be heard. This will very likely improve company culture
and motivate workers. When implemented properly, internal enterprise social networks can
benefit a company in many ways. Therefore I believe that more companies should make an
effort to integrate these networks into their system.

Sources

Gushue, R. (2020, August 07). 5 Reasons to Use an Enterprise Social Network. Retrieved
September 19, 2020, from https://blog.enplug.com/5-reasons-to-use-enterprise-social-
networks

Li, C. (2015, April 07). Why No One Uses the Corporate Social Network. Retrieved September
19, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-no-one-uses-the-corporate-social-network