This document outlines a theory about how student affairs organizations can function as virtual-networked organizations. It describes stages an organization may progress through, from having a basic online presence like a website or social media accounts, to those accounts facilitating engagement, conversations and knowledge sharing among members, and ultimately the online community becoming self-sustaining and influencing real-world changes for the organization. The peak stage is reached when what happens online becomes integral to the overall organization and its traditional operations.

2. Let’s look at what it means for
NASPA to be a Virtual-Networked
Organization…

3. From my standpoint, NASPA has traditionally
been a Learning Organization, mastering the
five disciplines is various ways(1):
Engaging in Systems Thinking
Through it’s interconnected nature
Fostering Personal Mastery
Many opportunities for personal growth, learning, feeding the soul
Challenging Mental Models
By creating a space for reflection, dialogue and action
Building Shared Visions
By listening to personal visions, “NASPA is it’s members”
Embodying Team Learning
Through commonality of purpose. The whole exceeds the sum of it’s parts.

4. But, as we have seen in the video, online
networks are allowing for an even
greater Collective Intelligence within the
organization

5. I did some crowd sourcing to find out how
Student Affairs professionals describe the
benefits of tweeting within the profession,
in hopes that this would help shape my
theory…
It started with:

6. www.twitterfall.com

7. In sum, the benefits of tweeting within Student Affairs:
• Connection
• Networking
• Conversation
• Dialogue
• Support
• Personal & Professional Development
• Keeping Current with Relevant News
• Knowledge Sharing
• Community Building
• Job Searching
• Celebration
• Twitter Connections > IRL Connections
• Connection with our students on a new level!

8. Building a theory...
Morgan’s brief discussion of Virtual and Networked
Organizations:
 Temporary, ad hoc committees
 Project-oriented
 Answer to geographic challenges(2)
Morgan’s description of “Networked Intelligence”:
 “Information systems that…create a potential for
individuals throughout an enterprise…to become
full participants in an evolving system of
organizational memory and intelligence”
 “…create a capacity for the evolution of a
shared “organizational mind””

9. The Virtual-Networked Organization
or Theory-#
Peak Virtual-Networked
Organization
Independently Functioning
Engaging Space
Bulletin-Board
Big 3
URL

10. URL
• Organization has a website
– Resource for information, events
– Website may have many visitors, but users do not
have a way of further engaging with the
organization online

11. Big 3
• Organization has a Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube account
– Presence has been established within the social
media world
– May have a few followers based on organization
following alone
– Easy to stop here, think this is enough(3)

12. Bulletin Board
• Organization uses their social media presence
to share information, advertise upcoming
events, and to relay important dates (3)
– One-way flow of information
– Slightly more followers

13. Engaging Space
• Organization engages their social media
community
– Shared information adds value to follower’s lives (3)
– Followers engage with website moderators and other
followers around topics
– Connections, Conversations, Networking, Knowledge
Sharing, and Sharing of Relevant News takes place
– Tipping point with regard to followership

14. Independently Functioning
• The online presence of the Virtual-Networked
Organization (VNO) becomes it’s own entity
– Online communication happens independently of website
moderators or organization representatives
– Members integrate use of VNO into their every day lives
– Critical Dialogue, Support, Personal & Professional
Development, Community Building, Celebration and
Online Connections turn into Real World Connections

16. Peak Virtual-Networked Organization
• What happens online becomes transcendent
– Members bring the conversation into real life
– Real world changes occur as a result
– A shared, evolving “organizational mind” exists
– Online aspects of the VNO get tied into the more
traditional aspects of the organization
– i.e. becoming standard aspect of conferences or
being tied into Student Affairs graduate programs (4)
+ perhaps, we don’t even know
what else can flow from a fully
functioning Virtual-Networked
Organization…

17. #thankyou
References:
[1]: Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the
Learning Organization- Revised. New York: Doubleday.
[2]: Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
[3] Stoller, Eric. (2011). Closing speaker session. NASPA Western
Regional Conference.
[4] Cabellon, Ed. (2010). The New Student Affairs Conference. The
Student Affairs Collaborative.