Netflix: Too Arrogant or Too Paranoid to Listen?

I searched high and low. Through keenly worded Google and/or Bing searches I tried hard to determine if Netflix utilized social media for inner corporate communications. Here’s the best I could come up with: they are a customer of a company called CodeHaus Xfire which lists Netflix as one of their customers for intranet services. 

So it sounds like Netflix just might utilize an internal intranet for corporate communications but after scouring their website and the internet I could not find anyone who offered any definitive information about Netflix’s internal corporate communications. Plus this ‘intranet’ service could be something totally outside corporate communications as Joseph Georgi suggests on his blog, “Did you really think that TV shows were always going to be called “TV” shows? Sorry, it’s all about the intranet these days (yeah, I said “intranet”—and I just did it again).” (Read more)

Netflix does have what it calls a community blog. That community allows anyone on the Netflix website, subscriber, employee, or not, to read the blog. However, only employees are allowed to post to the blog. In that regard I found this interesting tidbit in a posting on Wikipedia: “On January 1, 2008, a Netflix employee unofficially stated on the Netflix Community Blog that customers used the RTW page to add newly released movies to the top of their queues, then complained about delays in receiving them after demand outstripped the supply of DVDs on hand. By removing the page, Netflix sought to quell complaints that these movies were not readily available. Critics, however, have suggested this was just another Netflix attempt at throttling.”

Judging from this entry on Wikipedia there is an official procedure that an employee must go through before posting on the ‘community blog.’ Notice that it begins, “...a Netflix employee unofficially stated on the Netflix Community Blog...” This indicates, to me at least, that the community blog is not a satisfactory channel for corporate communications unless Hastings & Co. are attempting to keep as tight control over communications within the company as they do without.

An anonymous review of Netflix by employees was compiled by glassdoor.com. In that review there seemed to be a running theme among employees of ‘expect to get fired’ but for the purposes of this blog I found an employee who zeroed in on inter-corporate communications. 

Netflix CSR-1 in Hillsboro, OR reports (among other things)
“-no communication between ops and CSR's when new things are launched

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication about new NRD's or other things being launched.”

Again, a cursory review of the comments on glassdoor.com reveals a company that experiences high stress among employees. Of course constant fear of being fired is a strong contributor to this lack of morale but the inadequacy of inter-corporate communication adds to the stress as well. At present Netflix sounds again very Web 1.0 in its interaction with employees. Not terribly innovative in my book. 

I cannot help but believe that Netflix would become an even stronger and more innovative company if they would only tap into the creative potential of their employees. Here they could take some guidance from IBM. IBM was leery of inter-employee communications until they recognized the value of not only allowing but encouraging employees to engage each other in meaningful conversations about the corporation and its products. Argenti, in Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications points out how this turnaround at IBM, allowing “Jam Sessions” through blogs and other social media, strengthened the company in the section he titled, “Happy Days: Employee Engagement Fuels Loyalty and Resilience.” (pgs. 119ff)

So what do you think? Is it arrogance or is it paranoia that keeps Netflix from allowing their employees to freely communicate with each other and management?