Social software and strategy

TL;DR

This paper explores how social software influences organizational strategy, highlighting the complex interplay of technology, power, and conflicting goals within companies.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of the unintended consequences and power struggles arising from implementing social software in organizational contexts.

Findings

Social software affects organizational interests and strategies.

Introduction of new technology leads to power struggles and conflicting goals.

Technology impacts knowledge work and market initiatives.

Abstract

Aligning interests, motivating contributions to knowledge work, and giving direction to multiple business units and market initiatives represent daily challenges facing the strategist in most companies. The diversity of contexts within an organization has thus led critical management thinkers to suggest that in the presence of multiple initiatives and discourses, the introduction of a new technology has multiple unintended consequences for organization. New technology is regularly subject to power struggles, conflicting goals, and discrepant events (Markus, 1983; Barley, 1986; Orlikowski, 1992; Ciborra, 1996; Leonardi, 2008) which impact on how strategies are shaped within organizations.