Making the best use of electronic media: a study by an IABC member in Germany shows that e-mail, portals and intranets are widespread but need to be well managed.

You're out of the office for two hours. You return to find five new e-mails from the boss, two from clients and four from peers. Some spam. Plus an official memo from the CEO to all employees. Three instant-messenger windows have popped up, adding further layers to those already open this morning. Where did the application windows go? The laptop screen has turned into a bizarre array of flames, messages and colors. Then there's this webcast coming up in 20 minutes, as well as a story to be pulled from the company portal to prepare for a team meeting. Not to mention the two reports written especially for the business unit. All of it must-read stuff. Yet it's impossible to do it all.

Too much information, too little orientation. Does this sound like a familiar challenge?

What you may suspect to be true for your own company and country has now been confirmed empirically in Germany by a systematic study on the use of electronic media in German companies and organizations. The study, conducted in November 2005, found that the majority of internal company communication occurs through electronic media. The question is, How? It could, in fact, be done a lot better, if the e-media management across all hierarchical levels were handled in a more systematic and user-friendly fashion. Only a few companies already use the full potential of all electronic communication tools to provide powerful leadership, to drive organizational change and to instill a positive, upbeat corporate culture. Instead, too many communication decisions are left to IT departments or even to the senior managers themselves. If communication professionals are not on top of things, how can the employees be?

We set out to explore how German companies and organizations deal with this challenge. The idea behind it was simple. We wanted to establish a baseline for which e-media are installed currently and how they are being used, assuming that this would help a great many colleagues benchmark their own work. More than 550 people took the time to participate in the online survey. Two-thirds of them were managers in communication or internal communication, and around 20 percent were members of senior management (the remainder were in IT, marketing and human resources). More than half of the respondents were from companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, a quarter represented companies of 1,000-10,000 employees, and the rest had more than 10,000. In our sample, service providers represented the overwhelming majority, followed after a wide margin by the manufacturing and IT/telecommunications industries and/or the public sector. Headquarters were all over the world, with a bias toward Europe and Germany.

E-mail and intranet serve as a backbone

All of the respondents have installed e-mail and almost 90 percent have an intranet and portals at their disposal. Text messaging (SMS, or short message service) is the third most popular tool, with more than 40 percent penetration. This is noteworthy because text messaging apparently has been integrated into many aspects of professional life, acting as a complement to other media. Collaborative media such as groupware have reached around one-third of the respondents, with network-based exchanges via instant messaging, chat rooms and forums only slightly less widely adopted. Intranet TV and web meetings are available to just one in five respondents, with blogs and podcasts trailing even further behind. Web conferencing tools and blogs rated highest on the list for planned installations, with improvements of the intranet and instant messaging coming just behind.

The spread of electronic media is one thing; its optimal integration into company and management culture is a completely different story. "Personal communication cannot be replaced by electronic media; interpersonal contact is still the most important thing," said one respondent. While this is true, if companies are already using electronic media, they may as well use them properly. Is this possible? How?

In our sample, respondents preferred electronic media that do not require a great deal of technical preparation. The media used most often are those that are easily available. The most frequent reason for picking specific media was "enabling rapid information," followed by "many users can access them simultaneously," "easy storage of content," "easy availability, simple to use," and "maximum security." These are all very practical and straightforward reasons.

Other reasons for selecting modern electronic media, such as the capability to allow dialogue, to lead virtual discussions among all employees, to create teams and networks, to foster brainstorming or even to show a live video stream, played almost no role at all. To put it differently, working with electronic media in Germany is rarely more than traditional communication using other means. Some excellent opportunities to advance corporate culture through innovative technology are simply being missed.

Users make their choice

So if the full potential of the technology is not being used, one may wonder if people at least like what they get. User preferences were studied along two categories: choice of e-medium and content.

As for the first, there are few differences between various levels of hierarchy. With blue-or white-collar staff, managers or managing directors, e-mail came first and intranet/portals second. The third most frequently used tool was text messaging, except among managing directors, who made more use of web conferencing. Team/groupware is of some importance for everybody, while devices such as intranet TV, instant messaging, chat rooms and Web-based meetings are used much more selectively. Adding up all categories, white-collar workers use the most media, blue-collar workers the least.

The differences are more striking in the type of content that single senders and audiences prefer (see chart, page 21). In brief, bosses want to give orders, but people dislike seeing them online. Communication leaders love to place status reports electronically; employees seem to find little interest in them. Strategies and plans are not well liked either. On the other hand, while employees are keen to find information on products and personnel news, senior management is not really keen on making that available.

Overall it seems that mismatches prevail. Whenever this is the case, the attempted communication is a waste of energy. Employees disengage if they fail to find what they need or find items they do not regard as useful. Editors and communication staff end up working for the trash bin. And senior management does not find itself being as powerful as they thought. Measuring the effectiveness of e-communication more carefully would seem to be a worthwhile exercise--at least for the sample that we looked at.

E-culture has yet to grow

When asked to describe the management style they see implemented most often, respondents in Germany replied "making speed." "Creating closeness," easily possible by injecting some social clues in tough online business talk, was cited by fewer than a quarter of all participants, and "coaching staff" by even fewer. Small wonder that participants in our survey said corporate life became "faster, more superficial and more transient" as a result of electronic communication. Amazingly, instant messaging--a real turbocharger for the work of virtual teams--does not even exist at more than two-thirds of the companies polled. How will people perceive their boss if she or he is building up pressure on this channel as well?

How superiors deal with employees who report to them electronically is one indicator of corporate culture. How the typical advantages of the media are being used is another. Sadly, hierarchies in German companies and organizations have barely been weakened since the arrival of electronic media. More than twice as many respondents still believe hierarchical levels are more important than technical authority in their field, in spite of efforts at electronic knowledge management (see chart, page 21). "Knowledge" as an instrument of executive power has not been abolished in Germany.

In Germany or any other country, one can only call this an anachronism when dealing with a technology that is perfectly suited to establish and illustrate interconnections, to explain complex subjects and to provide access to forgotten knowledge. Clearly; this is not a question of technology but of the right way to handle the opportunity that e-media presents.

Don't put the cart before the horse

A pessimistic response to the questionnaire stated that "e-communication is one of the greatest effectiveness simulation deceptions of our time." Does it have to be this way? Hardly, if those responsible utilize the media in a targeted manner, measure success and change course where necessary. The question is, Who calls electronic media into play and what are the motivations?

Having decisions on electronic media made primarily by management--with communication experts following the IT department and the users themselves last on the list--is like putting the cart before the horse. Too frequently, we expect our highly paid knowledge workers and other staff not to use the best tools for the job but instead to use those that the boss or the IT people have had installed. People notice. Communicators should, too, and make sure not only to know the strength and weaknesses of the e-media on the market but to act as users' advocates as well.

Technology is not the problem--usage is

At least in those companies and organizations contributing to our survey, much remains to be done. If one examines the most important criteria in the selection of media and compares them to the most important critiques made by users, one sees that simple remedies have only a modest impact. Those who only want to distribute information quickly do not create a sense of orientation. To reach many people technically does not mean actually getting through to them. Sending an e-mail does not establish a personal relationship.

Without any doubt, electronic communication can offer the best services if it is specifically chosen and used on the basis of its communication effectiveness. To do this, companies and organizations should develop their own strategies and rules oriented on one hand toward the latest research and on the other toward their own business goals. According to a 2004 survey by IBM of several hundred CEOs across the globe, the first goal of more than 80 percent of all companies was to grow. The majority say this goal should be achieved through improvements in the organization. Much could already be accomplished by training management and staff on the best use of the existing communication infrastructure. For example:

* How e-mail can function properly in spite of the complete absence of nonverbal communication.

* How modern portals can provide the exact orientation that a particular employee needs for his or her individual job right when he or she needs it.

* How chats and groupware can be used to produce faster, better results than just having people in the same room.

The pioneer of electronic work forms, Howard Rheingold, emphasized how very much the productivity of virtual social systems remains characterized by our human nature. "You don't share ideas with an organization; you share them with other people," he and co-author Lisa Kimball wrote in their article "How Online Social Networks Benefit Organizations." More than anything else, communication culture is all about leadership culture. Electronic media can easily multiply the negative behavioral aspects of those who already have difficulties dealing directly with employees. However, those who take clear structures, orientation and a positive attitude with them to the new world of electronic media can increase productivity in a sustainable way.

Frank Martin Hein is the head of executive communication services, based in Berlin, and an associate partner with Czwalina Consulting in Basel, Switzerland, Previously, he held several managerial positions at IBM.

The data at a glance

A recent survey of German organizations reveals the impact that
electronic media is having on users.

Preferences for types of content

                  In what capacity  In what capacity  In what capacity
                  is electronic     does your         do you use
                  media used most   management        electronic media
                  often by          want electronic   the most often?
                  employees?        media to be
                                     used?

Other                  23%                 18%                19%
Strategy, plans        34%                 46%                48%
Instructions           40%                 59%                51%
Market information     44%                 38%                52%
Personnel news
and nominations        49%                 40%                55%
Product information    51%                 38%                58%
Status reports         39%                 41%                65%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Network creation and importance of hierarchies

                      Is always          Is sometimes      Is not true
                      true in our        true in our       in our
                      company            company           company

Electronic
communication
creates networks
across departments        36%                48%              15%
Senior management
has a different
management style
than in direct
contact                   22%                51%              26%
With electronic
media, professional
authority is more
important than
hierarchy                 15%                53%              32%
Electronic media
have done away
with "knowledge"
as an instrument
of power                  12%                47%              41%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Aspects of electronic media especially criticized by users

Serve as a hiding place            13%
You can never finish work          15%
Distracts from work                15%
Are complicated to use             15%
Are used incorrectly               21%
Create misunderstandings           24%
Are used too much                  36%
You can't find what you need       39%
Are too impersonal                 44%
Have lots of information
but no orientation                 49%

Note: Table made from bar graph.