社交网络崛起迫使老板改变管理方式

    抱怨上司乃是历史悠久的传统，可管理专家和分析人士开始声称社交媒体加剧了员工的不满情绪（至少是让人更容易注意到此种情绪），而这一点正在对某些经理人的领导方式产生影响。

    韦克菲尔德研究中心（Wakefield Research）最近对1,013位美国上班族进行了调研，结果显示经理人的两种特质最让员工痛恨：37%的受访者称，窃取员工创意的上司最让人沮丧；另外33%则声称自认为无所不知的上司更讨厌。

    韦克菲尔德研究中心这份调研的首席测验专家内森•里奇特表示，在这个几乎什么事情都要拿到网上分享的时代，“如果我们与上司分享创意，还是希望能有一份功劳。”那么，在这个社交网络化的时代，经理人们到底应当如何调整行事方式？

    《快乐工作：优秀老板必须知道的事》（Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know）一书的作者吉尔•盖斯勒解释道，有了社交网络，许多员工如今仿佛有了自己的广播平台。因为许多雇员正在网络上建立个人品牌，他们需要证明自己的成就。她说：“如果上司把功劳都占为己有，你就没证据了。”

    盖斯勒说，经理人必须成为“团队发言人”，通过社交媒体，经理人应当为团队摇旗呐喊、做好公关，宣扬团队成员的成就，不厌其烦地详解他们的个人功绩。

    《社交国度》（Social Nation）作者、马萨诸塞州波士顿市社交媒体咨询公司Open Matters的首席执行官巴里•利波特指出，事实上，最新潮的经理人们已经在工作描述中加入了“关注者”这一项。这些极具洞察力的经理人通过在Facebook和Twitter上“关注”员工，从而了解顾客和一线员工的想法。

    “经理人必须意识到，与员工之间一对一的关系可以通过社交网络传播开来，”西北大学（Northwestern University）凯洛格管理学院（Kellogg School of Management）领导学教授布莱恩•伍兹表示。行为不当可能损害经理人本身乃至公司的声誉。

    伍兹还指出，经理人们也可以将社交媒体视为一种资源。员工们可以与好友探讨创意，甚至将他们也招募进公司。员工们还应该拓展社交人脉，与那些想法新颖、别具创意的人士多多接触，而不是只局限于志同道合的小团体。

    市场研究公司Altimeter Group的创始人兼分析师查尔林•李指出，社交网络还有助于打破企业内部不同部门之前的藩篱。他表示，许多经理人觉得“社交媒体的透明度相当可怕”。担心失去控制的经理人们必须弄清楚他们与员工之间能坦诚相待到什么程度，同时还要认识到，无论如何，他们对员工在社交网络上交流什么事情几乎没有控制权。过去，员工几乎不会考虑走进高管办公室与首席执行官探讨问题，如今他们却会给首席执行官的Facebook账户留言，回复他们的Twitter消息。

    社交媒体还可以加强员工对企业的认同感。Sonicbids是一家波士顿企业，致力于乐队与音乐推广人、消费品牌和音乐迷之间的沟通工作，公司拥有40名全职员工和6位经理人。公司首席执行官帕诺思•帕奈把每个员工都变成了“品牌大使”。他说：“想了解人们对一支在本市演奏的乐队有什么反馈，宣传一个工作机会或者调查音乐迷的意见，无论如何，我们都可以利用这个广泛的网络。”这一理念的关键在于，赋予员工们更公开的角色，有助于使他们的工作获得更多人的认可。

    帕奈说，通过社交网络，每个员工都可以对企业发展作出重要贡献。“我们都是企业的眼睛、耳朵和嘴巴，我们对所见、所听和所说之事的探讨有助于使企业消息更加灵通。”

    私营食品服务公司Aramark年营收达130亿美元，公司消费者战略副总裁达娜•维特介绍说，该公司制订社交媒体战略时，并未急于求成、仓促推出。她说：“我们先退后一步，创造了一种基础架构，帮助员工们学习如何更好地利用社交媒体。”该公司共有22.5万名员工，其中许多都在大学或企业餐厅工作，非常分散。对经理人的社交媒体专项训练始于2012年1月，公司还将任命社区经理——他们可能身兼厨师或收银员——代表公司形象。除了最流行的几家社交网站之外，Aramark还测试了企业社交网络Yammer（微软6月份宣布将收购该公司），因为该网站可为员工提供私家聊天室。

    利波特指出，放眼未来，许多经理人们都需要调整管理风格，适应社交时代的需要，因为顶级高管们对公司形象的控制力已经大不如前。员工——以及顾客决定着一家品牌的网络形象，其影响力并不逊色于企业高管，经理人们再也无法独揽大权了。

    译者：小宇

    Complaining about the boss is a time-honored tradition. But management experts and analysts are beginning to argue that social media is intensifying this dissatisfaction (or at least shining a brighter light on it), which is affecting how some managers lead.

    A recent survey of 1,013 American office workers by Wakefield Research revealed the two qualities that vex employees the most about their managers: 37% said that bosses who steal employees ideas are the most frustrating, while 33% said the bosses who think they know it all took the prize.

    Nathan Richter, lead pollster on the Wakefield Research study, said that in a world where most everything these days is shared online, "We want the credit when we share ideas with our boss." So, in a socially networked world, what exactly must bosses do differently?

    Many employees now have the equivalent of their very own broadcasting platform through social networks, explains Jill Geisler, author of Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know. Because many employees are building their brand online, they require proof of their accomplishments. "If your boss is taking credit, you have no proof," she said.

    The manager needs to become "the spokesperson for the team," Geisler says. Through social, the manager has to become a cheerleader and PR agent for the team, touting their accomplishments and detailing their individual achievements.

    In fact, the cutting edge manager has already added "follower" to their job description by now, argues Barry Libert, author of Social Nation and CEO of Open Matters, a Boston, MA-based social media consulting firm. The most perceptive managers "follow" their staff on Facebook and Twitter to understand the concerns of customers and employees on the front line.

    "Managers must think about how their one-on-one employee relations can spread through networks," explains Brian Uzzi, a leadership professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Missteps can damage a manager's and a company's reputation.

    Managers can also use social media as a resource, Uzzi suggests. Employees can bounce ideas off of friends and even recruit them too. Employees should also extend their networks beyond their friends who think like them and reach out to people who are creative in different ways.

    Social networks can also help to break barriers between different departments at firms, says Charlene Li, founder and analyst at the Altimeter Group, a market research firm. Li says many managers find the "transparency of social media terrifying." Managers threatened by the prospect of relinquishing control will need to determine how open they can be with employees and recognize that they have little control over what is communicated via social networks anyway. In the old days, an employee would never consider entering the executive suite to talk with the CEO; now employees send CEOs Facebook (FB) messages and respond to their Tweets.

    Social networks can also help in the employee-recognition department. At Sonicbids, a Boston-based company with 40 full-time employees and six managers that connects bands to music promoters, consumer brands and fans, CEO Panos Panay has turned every employee into a "brand ambassador. Whether we're looking to get the word about a band playing in town, promote a job opening, or looking to survey music lovers, we leverage this extended network," he says. The idea is that giving employees a more public role will offer additional chances to receive credit for their work.

    Every employee can play a critical role in boosting business via their social network, Panay says. "We're all the eyes, ears and mouthpieces for the company, and we have conversations about what we're seeing, hearing and talking about to better inform our business."

    When Aramark, a private $13 billion food services company, was developing a social media strategy, it preferred not to rush in and launch it too quickly, explains Danna Vetter, its vice president for consumer strategies. "We took a step back, created an infrastructure, enabling employees to learn how to leverage social media," she said. The company has 225,000 employees, many of whom work at universities or company cafeterias and are extremely dispersed. Social media training for managers started in January 2012, and community managers, which could be chefs or cashiers, will be named to represent the company. Besides the most popular sites, Aramark is testing Yammer (In June, Microsoft (MSFT) announced it would acquire the company.), which creates private rooms for employees to communicate.

    Going forward, more executives will need to adapt their management style to accommodate social as the C-suite controls their company's brand even less than they did before, Libert says. Employees -- and customers -- determine a brand's reputation online just as much as the top brass. No longer does the manager wield all the power.