Virtual Distance : Laleh Shahidi’s Blog

This is so relevant to my interests in working with students and NPO staff. Her data is reinforcing my own experience working with social media (albeit in more smaller contexts). I can use this to reinforce the outcomes of using social media in business settings. It’s a motivator for managers who need to see the ROI and certainly the front line practitioners who need to understand the importance of commanding your own ongoing learning experiences.

Sept. 23
Virtual Distance

Filed Under Learning Communities, Virtual Worlds

Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski the author of the book “Uniting The Virtual Workforce” defines Virtual Distance as the perceived distance between two or more individuals, groups, or organizations that is brought on by the use of electronic versus face-to-face communications. The greater the Virtual Distance among the members of a team, the more problems team members will experience. Among them: miscommunication, lack of clearly defined roles, and even personal and cultural conflicts. It does not matter whether team members are widely distributed or collocated; every team is potentially subject to the risks of Virtual Distance.

The results of the research in the area of virtual distance from the Virtual Distance International indicates organizations that have managed virtual distances well report:

Innovation behavior increase by 93%
Trust improves by 83%
Job satisfaction is better by 80%
Role and goal clarity rise by 62%
On-time, on-budget performance is better by 50%
Helping behaviors go up by almost 50%

By Laleh Shahidi, PhD

Brent Uncategorized enterprise, Learning Community, Research

This key point made by Harold Jarche that reminds me of the key theme at my social tech training “it’s not about the technology”!

Harold Jarche » The new nature of the firm

For enterprise 2.0 to work, it needs to embrace democracy in the workplace, something that rarely exists in industrial, command and control, organisations – which account for almost all of our businesses. Businesses run as monarchies or oligarchies but very few operate as democracies. We are so accustomed to this structure that most business people would say that it is impossible to run a business as a democracy. We know they are wrong and that there are democratic business models that work today.

I think that enterprise 2.0 will not fulfill its potential unless its foundation is more than just web technologies or networked businesses. We need to integrate this democratic organising principle into our discussions on enterprise 2.0 and I am sure that many captains of industry will loudly disagree. Without an architectural organising principle, the enterprise 2.0 ship will not sail very far.

photo by S.K.S.

Brent Uncategorized enterprise, Organizations