Challenges organisations may face when participating in social Essay

Challenges organisations may face when participating in social networks - Essay Example They give you both the golden eggs and the goose that lays them† (Wenger and Snyder, 2000, p. 143). The approach of open innovation has many beneficial potentials but it also presents many challenges to the managers and the business organizations at large. When following the open innovation approach, many big-tech companies find it hard to let go of things in order to engage in a social network where knowledge is shared and many concealed points are revealed. Letting go is a hard challenge raised by open innovation. Actually, large and established companies find it hard to share and reveal information in front of other member practitioners because they are understandably used to follow their own ways, run after their own corporate objectives, and process their personal organizational ecosystem. Communities of practice basically comprise of groups whose members strive to share and gain experience-based knowledge in order to achieve similar set of goals. In doing so, many interpersonal conflict-based issues may also arise within a social network. As organizations grow in size and gain wider recognition in market, support of communities of practice also becomes increasingly important so that organization value could be strengthened, performance could be improved, and same goals could be achieved. According to a research study based on observing seven organization, Lesser and Storck (2001) claim that some of the major common challenges faced by organizations when participating in social networks include mishandling of relationships by members who engage in the knowledge sharing process and who may not be co-located. Also, conflicts may process into full blown problematic challenges when practitioners find themselves unable to build work relationships based on mutual trust and obligation. Communities of practice are also unable to enhance organizational value when there is absence of a common language which could be easily shared by the