Executive education and social media trends
As the New Zealand economy shows signs of growth, the focus of many businesses will switch from survival to gaining the edge. When it comes to executive education, is social media the new trend?
As the New Zealand economy shows signs of growth, the focus of many businesses will switch from survival to gaining the edge. To stay ahead of the game, executives should be equipped with the latest knowledge and insights, backed by up-to-the-minute cutting edge research.
When it comes to executive education, what are the trends? A National Business Review Executive Education special report in September examined the latest trends in the executive education scene.
Victoria Business School MBA and International MBA Director Natalie Stevens was interviewed for the report and says her students have been using blogs as a tool in the creative leadership course.
"We just took a group of students on the first study tour to China as part of their professional development and they had to run a reflective blog on lessons learned about what China is like, the contrasts to New Zealand -- they had to be quite deeply reflective."
And that's where new technology worked, she says. However, Ms Stevens has deep reservations about using social media in courses, citing concern about risk management of social media and data protection.
"The emphasis in the Victoria MBA is strategy and critical thinking, and learning how to use the social media. That's the key, it's giving executives the skills to find solutions to the digital problems, not utilising the digital media itself -- it's just a tool".
Ms Stevens argues that Facebook is early technology that needs a lot of development before it can be used effectively within organisations.
"It has no rules, it’s incredibly social, it is unfettered, it can be as damaging as it can be useful -- we are still waiting for the right platform.
"Lots of people are closing their Facebook pages because there is too much information on them -- social information -- and that's true of LinkedIn too.
"Recruiters are using Facebook and LinkedIn to vet candidates, so if you have stuff on your Facebook page -- say you are seen planking off a university building -- that can be really damaging.
"The concept is right but we need the next evolution in the platform. I think it will be more serious -- it will be a combination of an intranetblogfacebook site, easy to use, with rules and regulations, and people will be very careful about what they post."
Source: National Business Review