Improving Knowledge Sharing through Social Media
Discuss about the use of social media improves knowledge sharing, builds social capital, supports innovation and aids problem in multinational corporations along with the risks associated with it.
Knowledge management can be defined as the process of creation, use, sharing and management of information and knowledge related to an organization. It is a multidisciplinary approach used for the purpose of achieving the objectives of the organization by making the best possible use of knowledge (Verma & In, 2016). Knowledge sharing is the exchange of knowledge among people, communities or organizations. With the passage of time, social media has become an integral part of marketing strategies adopted by multinational corporations (MNCs). Social media easily connects people in a way which was not possible earlier. It further allows the individuals to establish a relationship with multinational organizations. Social media now acts as the backbone for the multinational organizations for knowledge sharing. This essay focuses on the way in which the use of social media improves knowledge sharing, builds social capital, supports innovation and aids problem in multinational corporations along with the risks associated with it.
Social media acts as a platform where millions of people interact daily. Companies are increasingly making the use of this platform for the purpose of enhancing their image. The employees of the organization also interact through the use of social media and use it for generating ideas so that the business can lead towards a new direction. The traditional marketing tactics have completely changed after the emergence of social media. It has now become the part of life for almost every individuals and is also being utilized by organizations (Panahi, Watson & Partridge, 2012).
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn facilitate the formation and sharing of ideas, information and other expressions by way of networks and virtual communities. MNCs can easily improve knowledge sharing through the use of social media. Firstly, the MNCs should make a differentiation between the internal and external knowledge base as the external knowledge base is required to be in modest and understandable language without any professional jargons or technical terms. On the other hand, the internal knowledge is for the purpose of assisting the employees in the effective performance of their duties so that they do not require searching for the required information. Such differentiation will improve the knowledge sharing by MNCs as the internal knowledge base will not be shared with the public as it will not bring positive results. Similarly, the employees will not be offered external knowledge base as they might already have such information.
Building Social Capital through Social Media
MNCs also share knowledge through social media in terms of promoting the products and services offered by them. For this purpose, an effort is required to be made for creating informative, thorough and engaging content that explains the products and services of the organization. A lot of attention from the customers is attracted in this way towards the brand that offers proactive support and valuable information. MNCs can also include internal knowledge base in their external knowledge base for improving their knowledge sharing and attracting the customers. Therefore, the information shared includes information related to ecologically safe production processes and product design, its videos, etc. The knowledge base comes from any content that is of education value to the loyal clients and the prospective customers. The feedback or reply given to the customer queries by the organizations on social media also constitutes a part of the knowledge base. Therefore, the MNCs should aim at providing thorough, helpful and detailed answers (Ma & Chan, 2014).
Social media can also help MNCs improve their internal knowledge base to the employees. A bridge is created between the employees and needed information through the use of social media. Private and closed groups can be created on the social networks so that employees can interact for resolving their queries, uploading files and exchanging information. This can make the employees proactive and eager to learn more (Treem & Leonardi, 2013).
The employees of the organization s are considered to be the intangible assets which are equally important like the other tangible assets. Social media acts as a tool which assists in knowledge sharing among the employees so that competitive advantage can be acquired by the organization among the competitors in the market. Social media makes it easy for people to interact with others and further allows the employees to share knowledge with other organizations. Valuable information is brought to the company by the employees and therefore the companies should importantly manage and maintain the social capital (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013).
The social capital is advantageous for multinational organizations as it allows communication between the employees and also within the organization. The knowledge of the employees is also boosted with the help of this social capital and therefore, it plays an important role in developing stronger relationships between the employees. Exchange of pictures, videos and ideas is also facilitated by social media along with the supporting video conferencing with the employees present in any part of the world. Dual benefits are provided by social media i.e. it increases the knowledge base of the employees and also increases their performance in the organization. The personal development of the employees is enhanced through knowledge sharing and development of team work spirit among the employees. On other words, multinational corporations obtain a number of advantages through the development of social capital (Gibbs, Rozaidi & Eisenberg, 2013).
Supporting Innovation through Social Media
MNCs can also make the use of social media for supporting innovation as it allows people to express their competitive ideas and inventions for the organizations. Innovation can be supported with the help of creativity and wisdom of the people who are not the part pf the workforce of the organization. The perspective of the customers can be taken into consideration by the organizations who may see some opportunities and issues that the organization is unaware of. Obtaining the ideas from social media can also provide a benefit to the organizations as they do not require employing an individual who will perform surveys and then suggest the required innovation in the products. This in turn reduces the cost of product development and provides a certain market success to the organization. Moreover, Social media can also be used by organizations in the form of crowdsourcing. This will allow the MNCs to ask their network to share solutions relating to a specific problem experienced by them. The contributions will be collected, developed and ranked by the community for revealing the strongest performers (Kwahk & Park, 2016).
In other words, innovation is supported through social media as MNCs are able to establish better interaction with the consumers, customers and partners. Moreover, it allows feedback loops and idea generation for the ideas that are in the process of development. Social media helps MNCs in the identification of individuals who can support the individuals in their efforts towards innovation. It also assists in promotion, branding and marketing of innovation outcomes along with innovation capabilities of the company (Leonardi, 2014). For sustaining in the market, it is necessary for the companies to continuously make innovations. It is the duty of the employees to stay updated with the changes taking place in the market along with gaining knowledge regarding the threats surrounding the companies so that company can take action proactively (Majchrzak, Faraj, Kane & Azad, 2013).
The process of problem solving is facilitated by the use of social media by the multinational organizations. The external service providers create problem for the organizations both internally and externally. Social media allows the resolving of such problems through the process of communication. However, it must be kept in mind that a number of features of social media are connected to each other in various ways. Therefore, the sharing of knowledge and the process of communication assists the organizations in solving their problems at a fast pace. Social media can be used as a tool for opening a communication channel between the external service providers and the employees along with the employees of different organizations. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn provides one- to- one relation to the employees. Online solutions are also offered by social media to the customers for the purpose of resolving their respective problems. The organizations are able to resolve their problems through providing the basic information and solutions related to the problems can be provided to the individuals through social networking process (Razmerita, Kirchner & Nielsen, 2016).
Aiding Problem Solving through Social Media
However, there are a number of risks associated with the use of social media by the MNCs. With the increased use of technology, the number of fraud and crimes in the organization has increased which must be taken into consideration before circulating any information on the social media as there is a risk of the piracy of the confidential information. When a set of information is shared with the employees, there is a risk of its circulation on the social media or to the employees of other organizations. The products of the company also may get criticized publicly through the use of social media which can hamper the company’s image. The risks suffered by the organizations also include the loss of prospective candidates or potential employees due to the bad publicity of the organization. With the increased use of social media, the bad publicity of news related to the company cannot be hidden thereby leading towards the image disruption of the organization (Leonardi, 2017).
The productivity of the organization along with the productivity of the employees is also decreased through the use of social media. When most of the time of the employees is spent on social media, there is a decrease in their production level as they will be engaged in the retrieval of information and not in the implementation of change process. The capability of the employees will also be lost when there will be a fall in the work quality. Therefore, the employees who spend their time on social media during the working hours suffer from lower work capabilities which in turn ultimately results in lowering the image of the organization. Furthermore, an internal communication channel is created within the organization with the help of social media. Proper communication assists in sharing the knowledge with different departments of the multinational organization within and outside the country and helps in resolving a number of problems (Veil, Buehner & Palenchar, 2011).
Therefore, it can be concluded that today’s competitive business environment requires the multinational corporations to make the use of the social media strategies for communicating internally and externally. Such communication avenues are integral of the overall development of the business as the usefulness of social media have extended far beyond the marketing of goods and services. Social media plays a significant role in facilitating the communication process in the organization along with the development of internal and external employee relationships that further helps in developing new ideas. The advantages are obtained by the multinational organizations through integrating knowledge management and social media. However, there are a number of risks associated with the use of social media by the multinational organizations. The threats include the risk related to piracy of confidential information and low productivity of the employees. The organizations can also enforce a number of corrective measures along with the implementation of management policies for keeping the situation under control. The implementation of the processes is for allowing the organization to take the benefit of collaboration, innovation, problem solving and social capital. This in turn will allow the organization to gain competitive advantage over the competitors in the market and to improve the overall performance.
References
Gibbs, J. L., Rozaidi, N. A., & Eisenberg, J. (2013). Overcoming the “ideology of openness”: Probing the affordances of social media for organizational knowledge sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 102-120.
Kwahk, K. Y., & Park, D. H. (2016). The effects of network sharing on knowledge-sharing activities and job performance in enterprise social media environments. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 826-839.
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Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The social media revolution: Sharing and learning in the age of leaky knowledge. Information and Organization, 27(1), 47-59.
Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.
Ma, W. W., & Chan, A. (2014). Knowledge sharing and social media: Altruism, perceived online attachment motivation, and perceived online relationship commitment. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 51-58.
Majchrzak, A., Faraj, S., Kane, G. C., & Azad, B. (2013). The contradictory influence of social media affordances on online communal knowledge sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 38-55.
Panahi, S., Watson, J., & Partridge, H. (2012). Social media and tacit knowledge sharing: Developing a conceptual model. World academy of science, engineering and technology, (64), 1095-1102.
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.
Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association, 36(1), 143-189.
Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work?in?process literature review: Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of contingencies and crisis management, 19(2), 110-122.
Verma, S. and In, I.J.I.P. (2016). Exploring the Correlates of Knowledge Management. RED’SHINE Publication. Inc.
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