Organizational Politics versus the World Wide Web
published in Internet Reference Services Quarterly 2, No.1/2, 1998.
Many articles have been written and discussions held about the technical process of setting up a web site. What is less discussed, but even more difficult in some organizations is the role that organizational politics plays in the design, setup and success of a organization-wide web site. For some organizations, the political issues have taken well over a year to be resolved. For others the politics have prevented any progress at all. As a consultant, I am often called in when different parts of an organization are at such loggerheads that no progress can be made. Or, when no part of an organization wants to take charge of a project. The idea of a website prompts many a call to a consultant.
The very nature of office politics makes this a difficult article to write. Most of the people I talked with (either live or virtually) would contribute their stories only under a promise of secrecy and anonymity. To comply with this request, I have not mentioned by name any of the 23 organizations that contributed information for this article. In addition, I have amalgamated several stories to help preserve the anonymity of those involved. It shows the level of angst that can be involved that this is necessary. Apologies to those that have success stories to tell, and hopefully those of you fighting endless battles will take heart that you are not alone, and maybe you can benefit from the tales of others.
There are typically three routes that an organization may utilize to create a web site. The first, and most common in the past, is for an energetic and enthusiastic Internaut to discover the simplicity of HTML coding and to create a Home Page with whatever message he or she wishes to deliver to the Internet community at large. The second way, which is prevailing now, is for the senior executives to demand an internet presence, usually for the simple reason that everyone else has one. In either of these two case there is no coherent and planned entrance onto the web, and certainly no policies or guidelines in place. The third route, which is what this article hopes to create more of, is a carefully planned, well designed web presence, created to specifically meet an organization’s stated goal for being on the web.
The first route is exemplified by many of the major universities and libraries. These organizations recognized early on the value of being connected to the internet. The libraries used internet resources for reference work, faculty and students used email to communicate with their peers, and nearly everyone had access to the internet long before the World Wide Web came into existence. Some sites created gopher servers to help disseminate information on their department, library or service. When the WWW came along, many individuals were motivated to contribute information in this new graphic environment. The Computer departments had the servers and people started to create pages of varying content and worth. As the number of pages proliferated and people’s awareness grew, some organizations began to get concerned about the image they were presenting on the Web. Policies and guidelines were developed to try to present a unified image to the world, but without stifling the creativity of the authors. Copyright and trademark issues were dealt with, as well as decency and quality standards developed. Currently on the Web you can find policies and guidelines for over 150 organizations, primarily universities and a few government agencies. Many more organizations than these have web sites, but have either not yet developed policy guidelines, or have yet to publish them on the Web.
Most of these policies have designated some body, usually a committee composed of representatives of several departments, as the overseeing authority for the organization’s web site. More and more the Communications or Public Relations Department oversees the Top home page for the entire university or organization. This page is used as the standard template as far as design, layout and graphics for all other pages, and links to all of the official pages of the organization (and in a few cases even links to unofficial pages, such as student pages). Each department that wishes to create a web site then must link to this top page and follow the guidelines that are presented. Each department is responsible for the creation, accuracy, quality and updating of their own material.
The second route is exemplified by many types of organizations, including non-profit associations, government agencies and many commercial organizations. Since one cannot pick up any newspaper or business magazine these days without seeing the word Internet, many executives fear their organization is being left behind in the information age and they demand an internet presence. They often do not have any idea what they hope to accomplish on the web, but they want a presence because everyone else has one. What often happens in this situation is that different departments of the same organization strive to have their own web identity, with little concern for the other parts of the organization. For instance, one small government agency has six different web sites, none of which link to the others, all with very different logos, design, and information. This can be very misleading to the consumer, and damaging to the image of the agency as a whole.
Another problem that arises when taking this route is that management often does not recognize the amount of time and money that needs to be invested to have a good web presence. The computer department may be put in charge of the project, but they often have little knowledge of how to manage the information content or how to design and layout the information. There is a danger of creating a site that has lots of technical bells and whistles, but no content. The library should be involved to manage information content, and the publications, communications, marketing or public relations department should be involved for organizational information and layout and design. But, the people involved in the project need to be educated in internet culture, design and technical skills. In one association, the management had the web site created and up months before the majority of their own employees had access to the internet. Once the staff started using the site, and helping the association’s members to use the site, a major revision was required to meet the demands for information and access.
The third route sounds like a success story, but may not be. Some organizations spend so much time worrying and planning and agonizing over the web site that it never actually gets done. One embassy has been planning their web site for over a year. A small publisher has been trying to decide what marketing material to place on the web, and with which Internet Service Provider for over 18 months. Sometimes too much planning is a bad thing. But often the problem with organizations that plan and worry to death is that there is a lack of education. The staff responsible for the web site may have very limited experience with the internet, and have no idea what they should be doing. It is unlikely that they have been given additional resources (either time, staff or money) to study the problem, and they must still focus on their main job. If they are lucky, one or two people may have the inclination to learn on their own, usually at home through America Online or CompuServe, and then try to transfer this knowledge to the job at hand.
Committees are usually formed to help with the design of a web site. This is a good thing, but only if there is a strong negotiator at the chair. Everyone will have a different idea of what the web pages should look like, what they should contain, the order in which they should be presented, and so forth. At this stage it is extremely important to let everyone have their say, but work quickly to an acceptable compromise position. Some departments may get so fed up they won’t contribute. In a major consulting firm, certain divisions refused to produce information in a style they didn’t like. So the Web site has nothing about their divisions. Who is the winner in this situation? Sounds silly, but the politics of the situation got in the way.
At another government agency, the web server is managed by a central computing department and all information must come to them in proper format for loading on the web. However, that department has yet to find time to publish its guidelines, and provides no help in HTML coding or web page design for any of the other departments it supposedly serves. The only information that appears on that web site is from senior management and from the computer department.
For commercial firms, there is a balance between providing valuable information to staff and clients, but not to competitors. One major information service provider has decided that their web site will not point outwards. All the pages and links are generated in-house. They don’t even point to their partners or suppliers pages. The philosophy is simple--let’s keep the customer on our own site. Another philosophy is to provide valuable links and information, but to charge for the service. Many publishers are providing a certain amount of information for free, but to get more details you must subscribe or pay in some manner. A few large consulting and law firms are creating internal intranet sites with proprietary and internet resources for their own use, and then also licensing these out to select clients. The importance of standards and a coherent policy for what information is available on your web site becomes greater as you charge for the service.
GUIDELINES
After talking about the hazards of organizational politics to your web presence’, what can you do about it?
First of all, get the full support of your president, CEO, and senior executives. No one else will be able to demand cooperation from all the departments and people involved.
Write down the goal of your web presence. Is it to promote your entire organization? Specific products or services? Provide information to the general public or just your customer base? Be as specific as you can about who is your target audience and what information should be available to reach your goals.
Create an Internet Committee. Involve as many departments as you can. Make sure the Chair of the committee is a strong negotiator with a clear sense of the goal and importance of the web site.
Develop a detailed plan for creating the site. Include what information will be put up, who is responsible for creating, coding and maintaining it. How much time and money will this require? What hardware resources are necessary. Depending on the size of your site and the personnel, two roles need to filled. Someone needs to control the technical side of the web site, usually a Web Master job, and a different person is often necessary to oversee the content and design, something like a Web Editor. In too many organizations content is controlled by the computer department. This is not what computer people are trained for, or necessarily good at. Make sure the content and design of your web site is organized by someone experienced in those areas.
Develop a policy for what may be placed on your web site. Link this to other existing policies that you may have for computer use, or marketing materials. If there is already someone who must approve all marketing materials, surely that person is also appropriate to review marketing materials on the web. Incorporate the web site into as many activities of your business as possible.
Delegate responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the material on your web site. This gives more people a personal interest in the information, and spreads the workload for the HTML coding. Remember that HTML coding is grunt work. If you have a lot of material to put up, it is more cost effective to hire clerical staff to do the coding than to have professional level staff code.
Provide training and support for all staff in using the Internet. Browsing the World Wide Web is easy. Finding useful information is a lot harder. Understanding and evaluating what you find is extremely difficult. The higher the level of knowledge about the Internet and the Web within your organization, the better your own web site will be, and the less arguments you will have over the value and function of your web site.
The effect of office politics on a project like creating a web site cannot be overestimated. This kind of venture is new and scary to many people. Senior level people may not want to admit their ignorance of the Web. Junior level people may not have the opportunity to learn about the Web. Departments will compete to either control or not be involved in such a high profile project. But underlying the whole scene is usually a fear of the unknown. Do what you can to eradicate that fear, educate the people involved as much as you can, call on outside resources for help, where possible, and you, too can conquer that beast known as the organizational politics of the web.
