Social Media and Knowledge Management
How can social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter be used to improve knowledge sharing, build social capital, support innovation, and aid problem solving in one of the following organizational context.
Knowledge management is the approach adopted by the organizations by making the use of knowledge for the achievement of its objectives. Furthermore, knowledge management can be defined as the process of using, managing, creating, and sharing information and knowledge linked with the organization (Becerra- Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014). On the other hand, knowledge sharing is the exchange of knowledge among communities, organizations, and people. Nowadays, the social media platform is gaining immense popularity and being used by millions of people on regular basis for interacting with friends and public. Multinational organizations are using social media for image enhancement. It also encourages the employees of the multinational organizations for making social interaction such that a number of innovative ideas can be generated which can lead the organization to new heights. The focus of this essay is on the increasing use of social media by the multinational organizations for improving knowledge sharing, supporting innovation, building social capital and aiding problem solving.
The emergence of social media has reduced the use of traditional marketing tactics such as publicity, public relations and advertising. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are being used by almost every organization and individual. These are being used by the organization for the purpose of marketing of its products to large public (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social media can be defined as the application working with internet through which easy exchange of information is facilitated between the users. Ambiguity and uncertainty can be reduced in a business if there is effective communication in the organization. Social media is considered as the shortest route for communication and marketing in an organization (Sigala & Chalkiti, 2015).
Knowledge and information is now being encouraged in most of the multinational organizations among the employees. When innovative ideas are introduced by the employees for undertaking such practices, they are rewarded in accordance with the benefits obtained by the organization. Furthermore, it has been observed by the multinational organizations that the interactive employees were more prone for creating knowledge. Pages have been developed on social media by almost every multinational organization such as P&G, Vodafone, etc. (Inkinen, Kianto & Vanhala, 2015).
Through knowledge sharing, the knowledge of individuals gets easily transferred to the company with the help of which innovative ideas are generated within individuals which leads the organization towards enrichment. Knowledge sharing also allows the organization to face competition effectively with the key competitors in the market. It further allows the multinational organizations to gather the relevant information so that the relations with the customers can be improved and can be maintained with more ease. In other words, organizations are able to survive the competition by achieving their objectives (Vuori & Okkonen, 2012).
Marketing through Social Media
Multinational organizations are interacting with the customers and prospective clients through the use of social networking sites. The customers can follow the organization on such platform and can offer valuable information and feedback regarding the products and services provided by the companies. On the other hand, the organization can publicize their brand through social media along with highlighting their environmental friendly activities which can enhance their brand image publicly. Social media also allows the multinational organizations to communicate with their clients in order to find out their personal views through personal messages and posts (Hemsley & Mason, 2013).
Employees are the intangible assets of the multinational organizations. Therefore, social media plays the role of a knowledge sharing tool among the employees thereby allowing the organizations to have competitive edge over the competitors in the market. Social media connects the employees over the internet and allows them to share knowledge. Valuable information is gained by the organizations from the knowledge sharing by the employees and therefore, organizations give great importance to the maintenance and management of social capital (Ngai, Tao & Moon, 2015).
A number of benefits are gained by the multinational organizations through the social capital as it facilitates communication among the employees and within the organization. Social capital also facilitates increase of knowledge among the employees which allows them to establish stronger relationships among themselves. Furthermore, exchange of ideas, videos and pictures is eased by social media between the employees working in different parts of the world. Also, there is an improvement in the employee’s performances due to their increased knowledge base. Team work is facilitated through knowledge sharing along with the personal development of the employees. Therefore, various advantages are offered to the multinational organizations through the development of social capital (Bharati, Zhang & Chaudhury, 2015).
Innovations have now become the necessity of businesses. Multinational organizations can sustain in the long run only when they bring innovative products in the market. When innovative processes are introduced, employees are motivated to perform well in the new areas by showing active involvement. Moreover, innovative products help the organization in attaining competitive advantage in the market. Such competitive advantage can be attained only when innovative products are brought forward by the employees (Chen & Huang, 2009).
Social media is now used as a platform by the employees for discussing their innovative ideas with the employees of their own or other organizations. Therefore, innovative and valuable ideas are gathered by way of social media platform. The most important benefit of this social media is that the organizations do not need to incur additional costs for utilizing this platform. It allows the multinational organizations to concentrate on innovative idea generation without leading to increased expenditures for the company. It is the duty of the employees to stay aware regarding the dynamic business market so that they can easily identify the threats and challenges and take proper steps for addressing them (Zeng, Chen, Lusch & Li, 2010). Companies can gain advantage of this practice only when the employees are encouraged to bring innovative ideas into the organization. The organizations that do not undertake such practices will lose out the opportunities to the competitors and will not be able to survive in the market for a long period of time. Furthermore, multinational organizations can also gain ideas from the customers who post their requirements and experiences on the social media platform. The consideration of the view point of the customers will provide the organizations with an opportunity to attain success in the market (Donate & Guadamillas, 2015).
Employee Engagement and Social Media
External service providers create a variety of problems for the multinational organizations on constant basis. Social media assists in providing a solution to such problems by offering open communication. Social media allows open communication and knowledge sharing which is capable of resolving a number of problems faced by the organizations. Employees of the organization can share the problems with the employees of the same or other organizations and external service providers for finding solutions for the problems. This will provide a way with the help of which such problems will not be faced by the organization in the future. One to one relation is facilitated between the companies and the employees with the help of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook (Yates & Paquette, 2010).
Social networking process, therefore, acts as the best way of resolving the problems faced by the multinational organizations. Online solutions are also offered to the customers with the help of social media so that their problems can be easily resolved. Social media also helps in creating effective internal communication channel through effectively transferring knowledge among various departments of the organization (Ellison, Gibbs & Weber, 2015).
The use of social media is beneficial for the companies in a number of ways. Both internal and external communication is facilitated by the use of social media. A pool of prospective employees is created who gain knowledge about the companies and plan for joining the organization. Furthermore, convenience is provided by social media by allowing easy communication with people, customers and other organizations. The process of learning and knowledge sharing is eased among various employees and people within and outside the organization. The most important benefit of social media is innovative ideas provided by the employees, customers and other people. When such ideas are implemented within the operations of the business organizations, the company is able to sustain in the market for a longer period of time and have a competitive advantage over the competitors. Such innovative ideas allow the businesses to meet the changing needs of the market (Hamoud, Tarhini, Akour & Al- Salti, 2016).
However, there are a variety of risks faced by the organizations due to the use of social media. The frequency and number of crimes and frauds in the multinational organizations is increasing with a rapid pace due to increasing use social media. The circulation of information through such platform publicly leads to the chances of piracy of information of confidential nature. Employees also have sensitive information about the companies which is under danger through the increased use of social media by the employees. The employees may share confidential information regarding the organization with the competitors who may use such information for their own benefit. Another risk of use of social media by organizations includes getting criticized openly due to non-meeting of expectations of the customers by the products of the organization. This also leads to hampering the image of the companies. The bad publicity of the companies also results in the loss of potential or prospective employees of the organization. The image of the company is disrupted due to bad publicity of the company and such news is difficult to be hidden (Leonardi, 2017).
Social Capital and Multinational Organizations
When the employees make the use of social media, their productivity is automatically reduced as they spend most of their time in using it. The fall in the productivity of the employees results in the fall in overall employees of the organization. Use of social media by the employees engages them in continuous retrieval of information and diverts them from the implementation of change process which constitutes the most important factor. The employees ultimately suffer from the loss of capability and fall in the work quality. In other words, lower work capabilities are noticed in the employees who use social media during the working hours of the organization. When employees are not able to perform well, the overall image of the organization is lowered in the market.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of social media has become essential due to the increased competitiveness of the business environment. Internal and external communication in the organizations is facilitated through the use of social media. The use of social media has extended as a communication avenue for the development of the organization. Moreover, it helps organizations in the marketing of their products and services. It plays an important role in developing internal and external employee relationships and in facilitating effective communication for the development of innovative ideas. The integration of social media with knowledge management offers various advantages to the multinational organizations. On the other hand, there are also a variety of risks associated with the usage of social media by companies. Such risks include threat of the loss of confidential information and reduction employee productivity. However, a number of corrective measures can be enforced by the organizations along with management policy implementation so that the situation can be kept under control. When there will be effective implementation of the process, the organizations will be able to gain the benefit of innovation, problem solving, collaboration and social capital. Ultimately, the organizations will be able to bring the required improvements in their overall performance and will have a competitive edge over the competitors.
References
Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Sabherwal, R. (2014). Knowledge management: Systems and processes. Routledge.
Bharati, P., Zhang, W., & Chaudhury, A. (2015). Better knowledge with social media? Exploring the roles of social capital and organizational knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(3), 456-475.
Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of computer?mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
Chen, C. J., & Huang, J. W. (2009). Strategic human resource practices and innovation performance—The mediating role of knowledge management capacity. Journal of business research, 62(1), 104-114.
Donate, M. J., & Guadamillas, F. (2015). An empirical study on the relationships between knowledge management, knowledge-oriented human resource practices and innovation. Knowledge management research & practice, 13(2), 134-148.
Ellison, N. B., Gibbs, J. L., & Weber, M. S. (2015). The use of enterprise social network sites for knowledge sharing in distributed organizations: The role of organizational affordances. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(1), 103-123.
Hamoud, M. W., Tarhini, A., Akour, M. A., & Al-Salti, Z. (2016). Developing the main knowledge management process via social media in the IT organisations: A conceptual perspective. International Journal of Business Administration, 7(5), 49.
Hemsley, J., & Mason, R. M. (2013). Knowledge and knowledge management in the social media age. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 23(1-2), 138-167.
Inkinen, H. T., Kianto, A., & Vanhala, M. (2015). Knowledge management practices and innovation performance in Finland. Baltic Journal of Management, 10(4), 432-455.
Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The social media revolution: Sharing and learning in the age of leaky knowledge. Information and Organization, 27(1), 47-59.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 33-44.
Sigala, M., & Chalkiti, K. (2015). Knowledge management, social media and employee creativity. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 45, 44-58.
Vuori, V., & Okkonen, J. (2012). Knowledge sharing motivational factors of using an intra-organizational social media platform. Journal of knowledge management, 16(4), 592-603.
Yates, D., & Paquette, S. (2010). Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. In Proceedings of the 73rd ASIS&T Annual Meeting on Navigating Streams in an Information Ecosystem, 47 pp. 42
Zeng, D., Chen, H., Lusch, R., & Li, S. H. (2010). Social media analytics and intelligence. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 25(6), 13-16.
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