CSCW '08 & SNCR

Two big social media (broadly construed) events happen this past week. The first was the ACM 2008 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in San Diego. I feel a little guilty for not being there but with dissertation behind schedule and the proceedings available on line, I'll try for next year. I was struck by the large presence of IBM researchers in the largely academic crowd. That's a good thing and shows how serious IBM is about social media and basic research. It also gives a clue as to the diversity and breadth of their research program. The Social Networking at Work and School session looked particularly relevant to my interests and I look forward to getting beyond the abstracts.
If you don't already have access to the publications of the ACM a good place to go would be your local university library.

With more of a practical focus on social media, the Society for New Communication Research presented its Visionary of the Year award to Charlene Li (present in cardboard) and Josh Bernoff for Groundswell. That book, as Josh noted in his acceptance speech, is of high quality because it is based on research. The social media participation scales they created may become a standard after some validation in academic research. IBM had some wins at SNCR but nothing on the scale of CSCW '08.

Surveys and Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is what we got this week with the election of Barack Obama. To quote one of my favorite articles on the subject, “Transformational leaders exhibit charismatic behaviors, arouse inspirational motivation, provide intellectual stimulation, and treat followers with individualized consideration.” (Dvir et al.2002, 735). That’s a report on a leadership experiment. Today I want to comment on Ryan Williams’ excellent review paper and recommend it.

We can’t expect individualized consideration from the president but we can expect it along with other transformation leadership qualities within our companies. Because I believe the evidence that such leadership makes for a more enjoyable and productive workplace, I was grateful to receive last week Ryan Williams’ (2007) paper “Achieving Leadership Results through Employee Surveys.” Ryan is president of twisurveys Inc. (www.twisurveys.com). The paper is based on his masters thesis on servant leadership, a variant of transformational leadership. It gives an overview of the history of employee surveys, leadership theory and the practicalities of developing valid surveys.

There is little doubt that effective communications with employees improve the organizational climate and that normally improves performance of the firm. Surveys are part of the listening that transformational leaders must do. Communication assessments, including surveys, are themselves a form of communication that change whatever is being measured. This truth of social science is one to be understood and exploited. The essence of Ryan’s paper is that regular employee surveys are one of several assessment tools that measure whether leaders are perceived as transformational, etc. The questions on the survey say to employees, “This is what we are concerned about.”

Of course as Ryan points out, management must act, must change, when the surveys bring back data that is actionable. That may be a challenge for managers or transactional leaders.

The implications of transformational leadership are profound because the beneficial consequences flow to the followers who become motivated to take initiative, smart risk, and perform beyond expectations. Both leaders and followers must change and take responsibility. President-elect Obama made the point clearly Tuesday night. I should also note eloquence of Senator McCain’s concession speech that night too in which he transitioned to follower.

Twisurveys’ work puts Ryan in a good position to gather data to evaluate his four hypotheses:

• H1. Transformational leaders listen to followers.
• H2. Survey research enhances organizational unity.
• H3. Organizational survey processes can share transformational leadership attributes
• H4. Organizational surveys can enhance transformational leadership.

The point being that surveys extend the listening reach of transformational leaders in large organizations beyond what is possible face to face.

I originally came across Ryan’s work because of his podcast interview with Shel Holtz. They were confirming the validity of a research theme I have been pursuing since late 2005 from a slightly different perspective: Social media within the firm promote desirable attitudes and behaviors, particularly trust and information sharing.

Social media inside the firewall are low-cost tools as are surveys. We may see social media as “qualitative research” to be used to focus surveys for more systematic “quantitative research.” A blog or wiki may post a theme that should be tested for its true degree of concern within employees across the firm.

Customers, existing or potential, of twisurveys should feel confident about their work as it is based on generally accepted theory and good practices of execution. They can check out the theoretical and the methodological support papers. With Ryan’s permission I post it here.

Dvir, Taly, Dov, Eden, Avolio, Bruce J. and Shamir, Boas. (2002) The impact of transformational leadership on follow development and performance: a field experiment. Academy of Management Journal. 45(4), 735-744.

Williams, Ryan (2007) Achieving Leadership Results through Employee Surveys. Delta, BC, Canada: twisurveys.

Saddened by the passsing of Madelyn Dunham

Life is not always fair. In a matter of hours I will go a few blocks to cast my (optical scan, please) ballot at Central Union Church. I will first look across Beretania St. to where Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, or "Toots" as he called her, lived until only yesterday. It is where a likely president lived with her and his grandfather when he went to high school just up Punahou St. Win or lose regardless of party, everybody was hoping that she would hang on at least until the outcome is known.
I note the gracious comments of Senator John McCain and everybody else observing this unfortunate development. Hopefully she will be buried with her husband at the beautiful Punchbowl, the National Cemetery of the Pacific.