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Week 8 Blog – Lessons Learned in a Digital Age & Impact on Leadership

There are so many lessons I have learned about technology and leadership throughout this course. However, I will address the following three themes that stand out to me the most and the impact they have on leadership: 1. Advancements in Technology Are Disruptive, Borderless, and Difficult to Predict Improvements in technology have already created fundamental changes at the individual, group, and societal-level. The internet has not only become as a place to obtain information, but is also a place in which social and participatory processes exist. One only has to look at the various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) to observe how technology has expanded the manner in which people all over the world connect and communicate. According to Shirk (2016), t echnological improvements don’t equate to success overnight, and instead, are developed through incremental changes in which course corrections are necessary for a particular technology
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Week 7 Blog – Emerging Technologies: Ready or Not, Here it Comes!

Wow! This week presented a lot of exciting content! To be honest, I found the article by Andriole (2017) to be the least informative, and I took Gartner’s 10 technological predictions with a grain of salt knowing that previous weeks have pointed out how inaccurate we typically are with predicting what things will be useful in the future. Instead, I thought both of Kelly’s videos this week regarding the future of the web were more interesting and thought-provoking.   Kelly’s (2017) assertion that technology gives us a sense of where it is going but doesn’t provide specifics on what will be developed makes sense. I also agree that the continual improvement and development of artificial intelligence (AI) with the capability to “cognify” it will likely be groundbreaking and have a major influence in the near future (if not already). Kelly’s (2017) point about our poor understanding of how to measure intelligence and his description of different types of intelligence was very abstract and
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Week 6 Blog - Ethical Use of Social Media

Social media and its multitude of platforms is reshaping the current social world, rewriting the rules in which social engagement occurs, and the manner in which information is shared and collected. As a result, ethical use of social media has become a controversial topic with no clear consensus that has emerged. Ethical Use of Social Media for the Purpose of Research When researching the topic concerning ethical use of social media, I came across several articles discussing the appropriate use of social media for the purpose of research. For example, a study by Bagdasorov et al., (2017) suggests that social media and people’s perceptions of ethics do share a relationship in that the mere exposure to ethical violations is enough to produce awareness in individuals regarding ethical issues. Although organizations are increasingly relying on social media analytics (SMA) to derive business value, an article by Michaelidou & Micevski (2019) suggests that his has also raised c
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Week 5 Blog - Networked Workers: Challenge or Opportunity?

Everybody is online, all the time. Rapid and increasing developments of the Internet, artificial intelligence, and technology has resulted in workers becoming more connected, but is also presenting both challenges and opportunities associated with networked workers. Although the primary concern of technological advancements is that automation will continue to replace standardized and routine work, it also facilitates the growth of new work and provide an opportunity to bolster human capabilities when adapting to these changes (Anderson & Smith, 2014). Networked workers increase business value because faster access to knowledge is forcing employees to engage in more critical thinking when addressing complex problems, to become more transparent and creative with solutions, and to do so without the need for managerial oversight (Jarche, 2013). Jarche (2017) suggests employees need to learn and develop human capabilities while simultaneously engaging in work, and Davies, Fidler, &a
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Week 4 Blog - The Changing Nature of Today’s Workplace

There are endless possibilities for what the future of technology and the internet can be used for and how it can impact the nature of today’s workplace. According to Weinberger (2014), the problem with our current method for addressing the future is that we are typically inaccurate with anticipating what information will one day be useful for society, and these possibilities continue to narrow the closer we move toward it. However, whereas ‘old data’ (e.g., books and encyclopedias) limited the amount of information that could be included, improvements in technology and the internet has now enabled the rise of ‘big data’ and the inclusiveness of all information to be published and filtered through without having to remove any of it (Weinberger, 2014). In other words, big data avoids the inherent problems that old data presented in having to anticipate and narrow what information  might be valuable  in the future because big data’s “when in doubt, include everything” disposition helps
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Week 3 Blog - Knowledge Management, the Future, and the Role of Leadership

The Evolution of KM This week, the topic of knowledge management (KM) was highlighted, in which several scholars have noted its evolution since its conception (Davenport, 2015; Dixon, May, 2009; Dixon, March, 2009; Jarche, 2010; Jarche, 2016). KM was first considered important for organizations to identify and store explicit knowledge and to connect people to content, then shifted for the purpose of formulating social networks and communities of practice and to connect people to people, and then transitioned to a third generation in which KM was considered essential for leveraging collective knowledge and generating conversations (both in-person and via virtual spaces) and to connect people with decision makers (Dixon, May, 2009). This third stage of KM stemmed due to the erosion of cognitive authority that existed within traditional centralized and hierarchical organizational structures, failing to include strategy at the level of top and middle management, and recognizing the v
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Week 2 Blog - Twitter and Inevitable Change

             Twitter is one of the most influential global online social media and networking services currently existing. Essentially, it is a microblog service in which users can send and read short 140-character messages, also known as “tweets”, that may include plain text, URL page links, images, and acknowledgement of other users (Riquielme & González-Cantergiani, 2016). The company website shares that Twitter is all about “what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now” (Twitter.com), providing free access and usability to anyone who wants to “spark a global conversation” (Twitter.com). Twitter’s website also provides the company’s mission statement which is:   “to power positive global change by fostering respectful conversations, creating deeper human connections, and encouraging diverse interactions among individuals and teams, across our organization, and on the platform resulting in a more globally inclusive culture and more globally div
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Week 1 Blog - The Evolution of the Internet and Technology

Week 1 Blog - The Evolution of the Internet and Technology As noted in the introduction lecture this week, the internet is not only a place to obtain information, but is also an active place in which social and participatory processes exist. Friedman (2005) suggests that it has become more and more difficult to keep up with the ever-increasing pace of globalization as a result of the creation of the Internet and complementary software, and points to ten forces responsible for flattening or leveling the global playing field. However, whereas Friedman (2005) asserts technology and the rise of the Internet has made talent more important than geographical proximity, Florida (2005) suggests proximity is still a vital and relevant factor. Rather than flat, Florida (2005) asserts the world is better depicted as “spikey”, in which cutting-edge innovation is growing and flourishing across only a number of cities and regions. According to Florida (2005), innovation, economic growth, and pros
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