How (social) media can change “change” in organizations

Abstract

Global, fast-moving markets also require companies to provide increasingly flexible structures and thinking patterns. Transformation has become an omnipresent accompaniment of internationally operating companies. Thus leadership and, above all, communication advance to the decisive indicators in the change process. However, the role of internal communication will shift its focus in the future from a top-down communication to an interaction less controlled by management like Web 2.0. Apart from classical internal media like the employee newspaper their equipment comprises computer-based instruments like the intranet and today increasingly social media tools. The results of these findings will illustrate: 1. The past: how change communication has been realized in former years within the organization; 2. The present: how first little attempts to introduce Web 2.0 has already made the process much more interactive-and much more successful 3. The future: how a real broad introduction of Social Media in the change process (which is so far only discussed, but not decided) could change the nature of change management as a whole within multinational firms. Some data are based on two former studies of the authors, done between 2000 and 2005; in addition, new data from 2011 will show the current perspective