‘LEAP-women more social media savvy than organisation
Wed 15 September 2010
, Maurice Eykman, LEAP!
The results of the Social Media Profiler, a study to understand how women leaders use new ways of communicating and collaborating, reveal that while LEAP-women are pioneer users of social media, their organisations lag behind. The biggest hurdle is company culture.
The study also shows that LEAP-women not only have a high usage of social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. They are also already experiencing a change in how they are communicating and connecting with employees (53%) in a more interactive and open manner and organisation culture (29%) in emphasising new values such as transparency and collaboration.
‘Further adopting’
“Their expectation is to experience greater changes with the further adopting of social media, growing to 67% and 55% respectively,” explained Ann De Jaeger, managing partner of Executive Learning Partnership (ELP). The Social Media Profiler is a study conducted by ELP with the support of The Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute and in collaboration with LEAP.
Leadership styles
Erica van Ooyen, founder and director of LEAP, said: “The results tell us that LEAP-women are demonstrating a strong preference towards using ‘connect and collaborate’ leadership styles, and values more associated with social media principles and practices. And their preference increases with the frequency of their use of social media at home or in the workplace.”
More integration
The LEAP-women have an aspiration to have social media values more integrated in their organisations' operating models. 73% of LEAP-women have an ambition for their organisation to more deeply integrate social media and their associated practices and principles (sharing, transparency, collaboration) into their company culture, leadership styles and business operating models.
Biggest barrier
However, 63% think that their company is a few stages behind in being able to achieve this ambition. Some 70% of LEAP-women see barriers to the adoption of social media and its associated practices and principles in their workplace. The biggest barrier is company culture: organisations aren’t ready and company structures are too traditional and hierarchical. This will be relevant for the women leaders to tackle, considering that they have an overall ambition to move further up the scale of integrating social media and its associated practices into how their organizations operate.
Informal vs formal
“The use of social media influences the preferences of LEAP-women towards more connect & collaborate leadership styles and values. They would like their companies to more comprehensively embrace these leadership styles, values and strategy,” Ann clarified. For example, 85% of LEAP women prefer to lead in a networked versus hierarchical environment (informal groups vs formal structures for organizing activities and achieving results). This is higher than the total sample of men in the overall survey results of which 77% prefer a networked vs hierarchical environment. Of the women who consider themselves heavy users of social media, 100% prefer a networked environment as opposed to 77% of women who don't use social media or use them in a light manner.
Blurred work-life barriers
LEAP-women use social media for business or office purposes more at home than they use social media for personal purposes in the office (41% vs 25%). “This tells us that companies that through formal policies try to restrict the use of social media for personal purposes at work might cause a negative reaction amongst their employees. They will also stop using social media for business purposes at home. This further can demonstrate that the barriers between work and home are more blurred than we realize. Moreover, it indicates that company leaders need to give more attention to aligning their company values with the personal intent of their employees.” Ann explains.
More information
For this preliminary report, results were taken from a total sample of 136 men (readers of the Wall Street Journal Europe) and 155 women, participated in the survey. They are managers and a cross-section of talent throughout the organisation from varied age groups. The survey is still ongoing. The results of the complete survey will be published in a special report in the Wall Street Journal Europe.
For a detailed results summary of the Social Media Profiler in collaboration with LEAP, please contact us via office@leapwomen.com.
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