The Use Of Social Media For Internal Communication Within An Organization
Benefits of Social Media as a Communication Tool
Social media provides a cost-effective communication tool, especially important for the case, in which the organizational members were separated by distance (Upchurch & Grassman, 2016). In the present globalization era, presence of working units which are functional at a remote location, separated by difference in time zone, and have separate infrastructure is common. The motivation behind using social media as a communication tool within the organization comes from the fact that employees tend to log into social account more frequently during working hours. Furthermore, since social media provides a platform to collect information from external agencies as well, utilizing the same for communication practices is a handy option (Stohl, Etter, Banghart & Woo, 2017).
The discussion in the preceding section will be based on the findings of peer-reviewed reports, for the adopted analytical schemes used by the author to support their statements; in relation to the adoption of social media as a communication tool within the organization.
According to the report by Robertson and Kee (2017), the use of social media at the workplace by the employees is directly proportional to their job satisfaction. The finding of the report is based on an online survey which includes 512 participants, working in California location, for collecting the information. Among the existing social media platforms, Facebook is found to be highly popular among the engaged participates. In this study, the rationality of social media utility, for communication purposes is categorized to full-time employee, contracted, and part-time employees. The study identified that the level of job satisfaction is positively associated with the time spent by employees on Facebook. However, the utility benefit of communication is more associated with personal life and perspective of implies, rather less than 30% of communication is related to organizational purpose. Among the existing categories of participant, part-time employees were reported to be the highest in terms of time spent on Facebook and engaged in communication with co-workers. While, contract employees have reported obtaining the highest degree of job satisfaction, in conjunction with their engagement for communication requirement with co-workers over Facebook. The orientation of this strategy can also be useful to promote job satisfaction at work. In contrary, the report by Razmerita, Kirchner, & Nielsen (2016), argued that the adoption of communication practices within the organization using social media also includes barrier related to social perspective. The effectiveness in sharing information our only fruitful when it is related to enjoyment, encouragement, monetary reward, and knowledge-sharing related to management practices. In this study, the authors have included the factors which influence the motivation of employees for sharing of knowledge. These factors mainly include elements such as demographic, individual perspective, technology, and organizational behavior. The research objectives were then analyzed based on the information collected from 114 respondents, working in the local organization of Denmark. The identified social factors that act as a barrier to communication via a social media platform includes, lack of trust among co-workers, lack of time to access the social media platform, and change in organizational behavior pattern. However, it could be argued that the same factors are also responsible for limiting the communication and information flow with routine working practice at any organization. It was also argued that important social factors that can motivate the communication practices within the organization to the social platform are; social dilemma theory and social determination theory. Above all, this study gives inference that the communication practice is affected by social theories and personal perspectives, irrespective of the selected platform as a communication tool.
Barriers to Using Social Media as a Communication Tool
The utility benefit of using social media as a communication platform within the organization is also described by Leonardi, using the personal interview. Collecting information from employees working in the finance sector, the author identifies that social media is a leaky platform where directionality of information flow can only be productive, if the sender and receiver are making use of it. However, in order to adapt to this communication practice as an organizational strategy, the managers are required to motivate employees. The motivation will bring objective of engaging employees willing to contribute and communicate knowledge sharing he was in the social media. Further, based on this study the authors concluded that using social media as a communication platform within the organization can be effectively used as a key strategy. It was also argued that using a social media platform as a communication tool is presently at its developmental phase. With due progress in time and technology, this strategy will be able to identify unique and improved abilities to render effectiveness, within the organization. However, in order to render effectiveness in the communication mechanism via social media, it is also important for the organization to frame adequate policies. This has been effectively demonstrated in the work by O’Connor, Schmidt & Drouin, (2016), which was based on information collected from young adult workers in local companies. The authors concluded that the organization must create social media policies to guide the utility content among the users. As a result of which, organizations can render effectiveness in utilizing the work time to communicate and transfer knowledge with co-workers. Also, such a policy will help in avoiding time loss and employees engagement in non-organizational activities over social media.
To further shed light on the consequences of using public social media for internal communication, the report by van Zoonen, Verhoeven, and Vliegenthart (2017) offers adequate information. Based on their survey data from 421 employees, the authors have focused on organizational traits which include work, engagement, exhaustion, and opposing interruptions for employees. From this study, the others have identified that social interruptions and work-life conflict are the key factors that either promote or discourage employees from using social media to communicate within the organization. Notably, they also argued that when organizational strategy motivates them to use social media for communication, the flow of information renders effectiveness. In contrary, when the workload of employees is high, they tend to prefer other modes of communication rather than using the social media platform. However, despite the positive and negative consequences, it is realized that employees are willing to use social media in either case. However, to engage the effectiveness of the organizational benefit, specific strategies are required to be implemented, which is also supported by the report of Roshan, Warren, and Carr (2016). In this report, the authors have analyzed 15650 posts on Facebook and Twitter to analyze the crisis communication relationship within an organization. It was identified that the use of social media to communicate crisis messages within the organization, is the most effective strategy design mitigation framework.
Strategies for Using Social Media as a Communication Tool
In another report by King and Lee (2016), have estimated the impact of using social media for internal communication within the hospital. Using semi-structured interviews from twenty participants, the authors identified that among the hospital staff social media can help in building information capital. This include sharing work responsibilities among the hospital staff and outreaching the message with immediate effect. As a result of which, the overall outcome of healthcare institution was identified to be appropriate and effective. Similar effects were also identified in other sectors such as research institutions. In a report by Su, Scheufele, Bell, Brossard, & Xenos 2017, where the analysis was made on the basis of the Twitter post between 2012 to 2015 by the research scientists. It was identified that, among the scientists sharing of information such as publications, scientific contents, scientific topics, information about conferences and workshops, effectively communicated using social media as a tool. In this context, Anders (2016) have identified an alternative strategy which is similar to the social media platform. The author argued that team communication platforms (TCP), is this similar social media tool, but will include only the organizational members, among which sharing of information and messages would be possible. As a result of which, the visibility of socializing information will not divide employees off their responsibilities. In this context, the polysynchronicity of employees will only be increased for knowledge sharing and collaborative workflows. However, the effectiveness of TCP still remains a question within the organizational context.
Lastly, the report by Cardon, & Marshall (2015), have estimated the effectiveness of using social media tool within the organization in terms of clarity for team communication and successful collaborations. The authors have concluded their findings based on information from 227 business professionals. They identified that generation X and generation Y, are likely to adopt social media platform for communication within the organization. However, there will be significant resistance from old employees, who will be opposing such practices. It is a matter of fact that with progression in technology, social media and other similar advances are likely to be implemented for communication practices in both the public and private sectors.
Conclusion
In summary, the present report, the focus is on identifying peer-reviewed sources that illustrate the use of social media as a communication mechanism within the organization. The use of social media is found to be effective and motivating for employees, whereas their needs to be clear strategies and framework in this regard. Increasingly, for the successive generation, use of social media for communication within the organization will be an obvious practice.
References:
Anders, A. (2016). Team communication platforms and emergent social collaboration practices. International Journal of Business Communication, 53(2), 224-261.
Cardon, P. W., & Marshall, B. (2015). The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), 273-293.
King, C., & Lee, H. (2016). Enhancing internal communication to build social capital amongst hospitality employees–the role of social media. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(12), 2675-2695.
Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The social media revolution: Sharing and learning in the age of leaky knowledge. Information and Organization, 27(1), 47-59.
O’Connor, K. W., Schmidt, G. B., & Drouin, M. (2016). Helping workers understand and follow social media policies. Business Horizons, 59(2), 205-211.
Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K., & Nielsen, P. (2016). What factors influence knowledge sharing in organizations? A social dilemma perspective of social media communication. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(6), 1225-1246.
Robertson, B. W., & Kee, K. F. (2017). Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction, employment status, and Facebook use with co-workers. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 191-196.
Roshan, M., Warren, M., & Carr, R. (2016). Understanding the use of social media by organisations for crisis communication. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 350-361.
Stohl, C., Etter, M., Banghart, S., & Woo, D. (2017). Social media policies: Implications for contemporary notions of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), 413-436.
Su, L. Y. F., Scheufele, D. A., Bell, L., Brossard, D., & Xenos, M. A. (2017). Information-sharing and community-building: Exploring the use of Twitter in science public relations. Science Communication, 39(5), 569-597.
Upchurch, M., & Grassman, R. (2016). Striking with social media: The contested (online) terrain of workplace conflict. Organization, 23(5), 639-656.
van Zoonen, W., Verhoeven, J. W., & Vliegenthart, R. (2017). Understanding the consequences of public social media use for work. European Management Journal, 35(5), 595-605.