Title: A path towards networked organisations - the push of digital natives or the pull of the needs?

Authors: Hannu Jaakkola; Petri Linna; Jaak Henno; Jukka Mäkelä; Tatjana Welzer-Druzovec

Addresses: Tampere University of Technology, Pori, P.O. Box 300, FI-28101, Finland. ' Tampere University of Technology, Pori, P.O. Box 300, FI-28101, Finland. ' Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Ehitajate tee 5, EE-19086 Tallinn, Estonia. ' University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, P.O. Box 122, FI-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland. ' University of Maribor, Smetanova ul. 17, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Abstract: Social networking and media reflects people's need to be connected, to share, to be members of communities, and to collaborate. It supports social interaction and uses scalable web-based technologies. Although modern social media are new phenomenon, the same physical networks have always operated - only the tools are changed. It is also easy to see that the social communities operate in private life, whereas traditional networking is related to business - the direction of the adoption is undoubtedly from the private life to business. The adoption speed is accelerated by recruiting members of the younger generation to responsible positions in organisations. This paper opens up discussion on the use of social networking. The framework characterising the differences between the generations and the characteristics of modern enterprise are introduced. The purpose is to increase understanding of the changes in information and communication technology (ICT) intensive organisations and in society.

Keywords: social media; internet; world wide web; social networking; networks; social behaviour; business; enterprises; flexible economies; network economies; networked organisations; digital natives; user needs; social communities; collaboration; social interaction; scalable technologies; web-based technologies; private life; traditional networking; adoption speeds; younger generation; responsible positions; modern enterprises; ICT; information technology; communications technology; knowledge engineering; soft data paradigms; computers; education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKESDP.2012.050722

International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Soft Data Paradigms, 2012 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.240 - 260

Published online: 23 Aug 2014 *

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