I posted not too long ago saluting Robert Scoble for his public stance regarding Microsoft’s support of anti-discrimination legislation .. and I would do so again regarding his inital blog posts about the issue elaborated below.
But I’m increasingly of the opinion that he has gotten himself all wrapped up in his super-hero cape.
Dave Rogers of the Groundhog Day has evidently been conversing with Scoble on the issue, and pressing him to clarify his stance and actions. He’s written a good post about his and Scoble’s interaction, and his conclusions drawn from the exchange of questions and responses.
Organizational dynamics is part of the core background and experience I possess - my authority, if you will, and specifically I have done training and consulting in harassment and discrimination-in-employment policy, the complaint and investigation procedures, and so on. I worked for three years for Canada’s equivalent of the EEOC, giving managers training in harassment and employment discrimination, and for 15 years as an compensation, organizational change and development consultant (and eventually people strategy) for one of the big-dog consulting companies .. so I’ve managed many related projects, offering guidance and expertise).
Dave Rogers picked up on the thing that I too found myself wondering about .. what Scoble is suggesting he’ll do with his blog is essentially the same thing that all sorts of people have always worried about re: harassment claims and accusations of discrimination-in-the-workplace.
Many many managers have legitimately worried that someone with a grudge can just pick up and accuse them of harassment (and sometimes this has happened). And in no way does this impinge upon the legitimate issue wherein many people are in fact harassed by people above them in hierarchies, in many workplaces in North America, western Europe and around the world. That’s exactly why many companies have well-honed policies in such matters .. and all should have, imo.
It is NOT appropriate for Scoble to play cop, prosecutor, judge and jury all by his lonesome (especially in public) any times he thinks he sees or has heard of someone sneezing the wrong way, and methinks that he has let blogging and himself go to his head (while I do agree that blogging and hyperlinks can and do subvert hierarchy .. and I believe I am value-neutral about hierarchy, but against stupid and strata-defined positional hierarchy that abuses that status).
That said, I do think he initially blogged appropriately re: Microsoft’s initial public-relations problems and their (probably) inappropriate withdrawal of support for that contentious legislation, calling them on it .. but it was by then a public issue. I think he did the right thing initially. Thereafter, he got wound up in his super-hero cape.
There clearly is a role for HR departments and policies, as well as effective and honest leadership, and fundamentally appropriate management education and coaching.
Blogging inside companies, and to some degree external-facing, will come to be part of the ambit of these professionals, and none too soon. The dynamics of corporate blogging resemble very closely the issues found at the core of the disciplines of organizational development and internal corporate communication (not to mention knowledge management and organizational learning).
In my opinion, corporations should have become more intelligent and less manipulative of the human component of their operations some time ago.
I’m guessing (well, actually betting given the coming generations of digital natives) that blogging will hasten this need.