Robert Thomas spoke about the topography of social technology describing an organization's choice of which technologies to employ as a “political process.” Thomas's key points were as follows: social networks are changing continuously, the patterns of use of personal technology are age and geography-related, social technology is making it possible for all work activities to be online all the time, and as a result organizations have moved from a document centric approach, to a process centric approach, to an activity- centric approach. This will pose a challenge to the legitimacy of management in organizations as management decisions will be reviewed continuously, and discerning who is an expert will become increasingly difficult.  At present we are far away from knowing how to manage a "networked organization."

Robert J. Thomas is Executive Director of the Accenture Institute for High Performance and Professor of Leadership at the Brandeis University International Business School where he also chairs the advisory panel for the Perlmutter Institute for Global Leadership. He writes, teaches and consults about leadership and transformational change.