Enterprise 2.0 Doesn't Mean You Can Impeach the Boss

Tom Davenport at Harvard Business School recently posted an article about his doubt that Enterprise 2.0 will transform corporate culture. I like the Enterprise 2.0 vision, but Tom has a great point here. There is a fundamental flaw in the notion that software will change corporate culture to be more democratic. I think of it as the old golden rule- he who has the gold (or in this case, the corner office) makes the rules. Wikis, blogs, and the like may well help organizations from a productivity point of view, they may even help CEOs make decisions. The boss, though, will still be the boss, and corporate culture will still revolve around the corporate power structure.

Ambitious managers may seize on Enterprise 2.0 tools in order to advanced their careers, but they will still be acting within the political context of the corporate power structure. I see Enterprise 2.0 tools, in this sense, as tools like any other. What may change corporate culture are the rise of adults who have grown up in a world connected by the Internet and piped into every minute of our waking existence via TV, computers, phones, ATMs and other devices of daily life. Those adults may well be more open to collaboration and democratic decision-making, but human nature is human nature and the Bad Boss will still be the Bad Boss. The good news? The Good Boss will still be the Good Boss, and he will get lots of thumbs up from his colleagues on internal blogs, wikis, and the like.