The power of the ecology of Social Media and the reclaiming of the Power over the use of them

In earlier post the Social Networking Technologies for v 3.0 of Knowledge Management were addressed. SNTs fills the gap that the others didn't quite accomplish: connecting people, creating a low-barrier, informal channel for connecting and adding a richer experience of communicating (thus making it easier to build trust, relationships, share knowledge etc).
As many organisation acknowledge the value of using of social media, blogs, social networking and generally user-generated content spaces/technologies, many have embraced the technologies and implemented tools, encouraged employees to use them and share.

Research backs up the fact that the organisation needs some kind of guidance and central governance to know what is to be shared/how the tools are to be used for an efficient goal-oriented and safe environment for knowledge based- and institution-based trust. But it is also acknowledged that "knowledge workers" do not like to be controlled, need autonomy in their work of knowledge production and that governance and control kills creativity.
One aspect that has seen to be succeeded for the management of knowledge intensive workers, is to work on forming the culture of the organisation. The "culture" is in some way today's "governance" mechanism that managers use to control the somewhat "chaotic" need of organisations today. As the balance between chaos and order has been important, the culture of the organisation has been seen as the answer to managers prayers to win back some kind of control in a company that "should not be controlled". Culture can be the composition of shared norms, values, rituals and the "how we do it here", which has been absolutely legit to people - not to be mixed with control... erm..

As a digression to "building a culture"; Creating an ownership to the culture is key for employees to feel that it is not a top down approach - which we all know, from a change management perspective, creates resistance. The "ownership" is often created through the involvement of employees, very often in workshops, where employees can share their personal thoughts and to participate in the development. It is very often facilitated by an outside "neutral" facilitator which has been hired by top management to incorporate a culture (most often a culture initiated from the top). And more creative ways to avoid resistance and build a strong culture (adopt behaviour that is wanted by top management) has been developed and legitimised. Behavioural psychology has been exploited in change management (Lewin and Schein), and positive psychology (Appreciative inquiry) has been used strategically to make it easier to avoid resistance (e.g. BBC). So- it seems like we are living in the belief that we are not being controlled.. its just the new fancy way for management to do it. But hey- we all need to be managed somehow - it is just aout finding the right way people like to be managed...

As seen on FastCompany's website, the ongoing discussion about social media policies in business has put the control perspective back into play (new risks linked to the concepts are seeing the light of day). The fear of losing control of the blurred boundary between professional and personal sphere and the use of these technologies which stems from the latter, has created a new day for policy development. As employees are encouraged to share and contribute, they are also restricted by policies - central governance to "how we use social media in our organisation". Security issues and risk of getting a bad reputation - has been the other side of the coin to the forces of social media use in business. Risking that people communicate their personal opinions "on behalf of" the organisation. Since employees can contribute on building the image in user-generated content websites, they can also risk to destroying it. The habit of central branding department that will build the image of the organisation as a brand has been distributed to the employees of the organisation.

As CNN senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasrwas shown to the door early this month after sending a tweet that expressed respect for the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. CNN have clear, strict central guidelines/policies to how the employees shall represent themselves in social media. That is just amongst one of many examples of people that had to leave as a result of their participation in social media.
What will be next?
How can business take advantage of these powerful technologies without this kind of control?