The Relationship Between Social Media and Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is a branch of management, which is very important for an organization irrespective of its size and nature. Knowledge itself is a collection of various findings, which happens because of various technological, social and scientific studies. To enhance the competitive advantage, more of the companies today have their separate knowledge management structure. These structures guide them to the organizational learning, which it uses for producing its competitiveness in the market. Knowledge can have various sources for its production; however, its continuous flow in the management produces one of the most effective ways of managing the gained knowledge (Arvand, 2012).
Social Media & Knowledge Management has deeper relationships now and is growing further with the growing usage of social networking platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Now, these social media platforms are widening the scope for the business for the different organizations in the world. The organizations are now using social media as their weapon to promote their products, making business relationships with other companies, enhancing their global visibility and many more. The organizational management is now more connected, which had never been the case before the popularization of the social platforms. Technological advancements in the field of social networking platforms have provided ample of options to the organization for knowledge sharing (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014).
Knowledge sharing happens in organization for several of purposes such as interaction of the higher personals with their employees, internal conversations of management in different organizations through different social sites and many more (Leal-Rodríguez et al., 2013). Now the meeting agenda, business proposals and many more are possible with these social sites. Operational achievements can be shared through different platforms such as YouTube, Tweeter, Facebook and many more. Knowledge sharing has its strong impact on the knowledge management of the organization. It is because of the fact that different forms of knowledge that are gained from different resources can be kept saved with knowledge sharing. It also enhances the understanding and skills of employees through various training & development programs. Resources are ample to gain the knowledge but it is required to manage it within the organization to utilise it to produce the maximum benefit. Moreover, various social platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, facebook and many more helps in propagating the knowledge inside the organization. Different forms of training and development program are also very useful in knowledge sharing inside the organization (Chilton, 2013).
Knowledge Sharing in Organizations
Social Media has become an integral part of the organization because of its advantages that it brings to the knowledge sharing. It is not only limited to the internal socialization of the knowledge but it has its dimensions that reaches to the outer part of it also. It has kept organizations engaged with various other companies that are not part of it for several of business means such as merger & acquisition, partnership and few others. Social networking sites are the first way to get information on the Company of interest. It also reduces the physical burden to a limit from the shoulders of the management who are engaged in searching the business performance of the Company and its competitors (Edmondson, 2012).
Social media and knowledge sharing have now become an inseparable part of organizations. Different organizations across various industries & countries are using social media platforms to facilitate internal & external knowledge sharing. One example is of Singtel Singapore, which believes in teamwork. Moreover, they conduct this by respecting ideas of every member in the team. It believes that teamwork is necessary for the achievement of organizational goals. Samsung represent one of the best examples of such usage that allows all its employees and various workgroups for taking participation in the knowledge sharing processes. Samsung uses three forms of knowledge management within the organization such as promoting the culture for knowledge sharing among employees, improving the productivity of workgroups and building the knowledge assets. The Company facilitate knowledge sharing by allowing voluntary contribution of knowledge, restoring the valued contributions and many more (Fuller, 2012).
SECI model explains the construction of organizational learning and knowledge with the help of tacit and explicit form of knowledge. It has four components such as socialization, internalization, externalization and combination. Socialization is the flow of tacit knowledge in the organization (Lin, Huang, & Sheng, 2014). Samsung represent one of the most understandable examples of the socialization part of a SECI model through its knowledge management process. In the knowledge management process of Samsung, knowledge sharing is given high importance, which knows no boundary and can even involve employees. The gradual development of the Samsung industry from just a small manufacturer of noodles to one of the biggest brands in world in electronic appliances tells the trust of the Company on its employees and competitive thoughts. The competitive thoughts of the Company have also encouraged them for social media platforms through which they gathered ample of information that eventually brought innovation in their production. It attracts the participation of employees working in the organization with their valued knowledge that might have developed into them for any valid reasons. Building of knowledge assets is the core part of its competitiveness, which it achieves through a collective contribution of its employees and various workgroups (Geisler & Wickramasinghe, 2015).
Social Media as an Integral Part of Organizations
Social Media helps in Building Social Capital through few ways such as by developing trust on someone from an individual or a group. Facebook platform gives one of the best examples of this where an individual or a group can earn lots of trust of others for irrespective of reasons highlighted. For an example, if someone is posting something in the Facebook to gather group crowding, it generally does so by attracting many of its admirers depending on the trust and faith, which the group or an individual has fostered among its social links. Samsung produces one of the best examples in this regard by topping the chart of brands in 2013 for displaying their advertisement contents in video form through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many others. The hiring of a firm of social media management namely Local Measure simply tells the strategy of Singtel for building capital on social sites. The hiring would help in getting updates from the stadium during the World Cup season. The derived information can then be converted into social content, which would receive significant home viewer’s responses. The number of interest that the post earns, it also increase the social capital for the individual or the group that has posted the content on the Facebook platform (Groff & Jones, 2012).
Social Media and Supporting Innovation for its advancements have all helped the Smartphone industry in enhancing its knowledge management. The introduction of LinkedIn, Skype and many others are now serving much than before needs (Madden et al., 2013). LinkedIn is another social site but mainly popular as a professional site, which is in wide use among the business companies. LinkedIn is comparatively safer and free from any entertainment purposes. The growing usage of social media platforms in Samsung has also helped the Company in attracting mass towards the promotion. The displaying of different products in the form of videos through various platforms such as YouTube and Facebook has contributed in the enhancement of its followers. The staggering number of fans following for the Singtel tells the advantage of innovation brought by the advancement of technologies in different social platforms (Hislop, 2013).
Social media is also adding other dimensions in the feather of problem solving as it allows different people for posting their complaints with social networking sites. However, the official websites are more effective in this regard but still; it has not suppressed the importance of social sites (Rollett, 2012). For an example, if someone complaints about any of the Samsung’s Smartphone regarding any problem on the social sites such as Facebook, it makes a huge number of people enable in knowing about the problem. Nevertheless, a reputed company like Samsung would never want that it get wrong publicity on the social sites. It is dangerous for their reputation, which they have earned with their hard works. The Samsung Company would definitely step into the matter to check if it is exactly a problem. Singtel unlike Samsung has opened up its own social platform Wavee, which enables customers in making instant messages, both voice & video calls. Now, customers can also raise their complaint through this platform to seek for the solution (Arvand, 2012).
SECI Model and its Application in Knowledge Management
Risks of Social Media has overshadowed the large list of its benefits (Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). It can well be understood with the help of Facebook, which are the most popular social sites in the world. At one point, it has enabled people in getting touch with their friends and relatives who are far away from their physical contact. It has also allowed some of the smaller companies in posting their advertisement to earn for them a global visibility; however, the security level of the platform had kept big organizations away from the use of this site in major. The platform is constructed in such a way that it is almost impossible to keep it secure from the fraudsters. Moreover, anybody can post anything about a Company or person (Wiig, 2012). Singtel represents one of such examples of security threats when it announced the dismissal of its every connection with the various social sites. It all happened when one of the blogger in Singapore did conduct some negative campaigning of its rival companies such as M1 and Starhub. Singtel then apologised on this activity to its rival companies. Samsung did also suffer from such publishing stunt when videos of dejected customers gone viral on social platforms. It has all happened after the short circuit cases of Note 7 phones. The videos are just adding more pains to the Samsung Company (Holsapple, 2013).
Benefits of Social Media are in significant number for both the common people and the smaller organization. Common people can easily get into connection with some of its friends and relatives that are far away from its reach. It helps in destroying the bridge in between relations by letting the relationships prosper on the platform (Wiig, 2012). It also helps some smaller organizations in posting their vacancies on the platform to arouse the sense of awareness related to the requirement. It enhances the chances of getting bulk applications for the one kind of vacancy (Madden et al., 2013). However, it is problematic for the organization to handle a big number of applicants but it is helpful in getting a large number of options for the organization. Moreover, it allows a maximum opportunity to the organization for getting the best out of the rest. Marketing is the other benefit, which different organizations can avail on the Facebook platform (Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). Samsung is effectively engaged in attaining the full benefits of marketing stunts through different social networks. From Facebook to YouTube, every new product is aired on these platforms to earn mass recognition quite before its arrival in the market. Singtel has its own social network Wavee, which it uses for the purpose of all kinds of calling and instant messaging. Customers now can message and can even make both voice & video calls regarding any of their queries on this platform. It would help the Company in building a good relationship with its customers by solving their problems received through Wavee. The social media form of marketing has even replicated the paper form of marketing in most of the cases. Such a platform helps in reaching to millions in less than the anticipated period (Holtzblatt et al., 2013).
Knowledge management is such an effective asset of a management structure, which brings the competitiveness in the organizations across the globe. Different organizations have different structure for knowledge management. However, it is indeed difficult to predict the ideal form of a knowledge management. It just depends on the results that turn around for an organization. Knowledge management also depends on how it is executed and implemented in the organizational practices. A good structure can never bring the desired fruit unless it is executed according the management plan.
References
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Chilton, M. A. (2013). Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantage: Issues and Potential Solutions: Issues and Potential Solutions. IGI Global.
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Leal-Rodríguez et al. (2013). Knowledge management and the effectiveness of innovation outcomes: The role of cultural barriers. . Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 62-71.
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Madden et al. (2013). Teens, social media, and privacy. Pew Research Center.
Rollett, H. (2012). Knowledge management: Processes and technologies. Springer Science & Business Media.
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Wiig, K. (2012). People-focused knowledge management. Routledge.
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