I am currently reviewing the literature on the diffusion of innovations and managing technological change in organisations for some research that aims to find a framework that organisations can use to help them embrace new technology.
There seems to be, from my early research, much published on what people or doing, what they could be doing and why - but little to help organisations decide whether or not they should bother to try. After all, if the chances are that you are not in the right position for it to succeed, why waste precious energy and resources?
Everett Rogers wrote 'Diffusion of Innovations' which, thankfully, describes everything you ever wanted to know about the diffusion of innovations but were afraid to ask. Others have talked about organisation change...often with specific regard to technology... so what the research is going to focus on is the practicalities of what type of organisation can/should introduce Social Media or Web 2.0, be it by sector, size, culture, geography or age... and how they should try to embrace the new technology.
The problem, as mentioned before, is the wide disparity of knowledge on the subject amongst organisations. Some are innovators and early adopters, to use Rogers' monikers, but some are not even laggards. They have no idea of the potential of Social Media and think it is all just, you know, for kids.
But whilst my frustration at this status quo is considerable, I should rejoice in the fact that at least it means I shall have a job for some time yet teaching and consulting on how Web 2.0 can help an organisation, be it through communications, operations, organisation design and culture, marketing.k k
Once I finish this research, I think the next step is to try and compare the adoption of Web 2.0 with Web 1.0, to see if there are any disparities and, if so, why?
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