BIZ101: Business Communications
The topic of this research is to evaluate the significance of Social Media in the workplace to communicate”.
Introduction (background and how proposal is organized)
In today’s developing economy, new technology and communication systems are developed rapidly worldwide. Communication is one major factor which is required to be considered on priority by the companies in order to achieve the organizational objective on time by interacting with the employees and workers. In context to it, Social media is also one way of communication process which plays effective role for the company to market their products and services in the market as well as help in maintaining the competitive edge in the market (Agnihotri, et al., 2016). The use of social media in the organization support in improving the communication network at the workplace so that right information is transferred on time.
At the same time, social media provide opportunity for employees to develop relationship with each other by doing conversation directly through commenting on blogs or posts. There are companies which faces issues related to communication process which they follow in their organization (Munene & Nyaribo, 2013). Similarly, Tesco also faces problem because of communication process at their workplace for which company focused to implement new communication strategy which will help in implementing the social media as a new communication way that will connect the employees and workers with each other. This research proposal involves research aim and objective, research justification, literature review and research methodology.
The main aim of this research proposal is to identify importance of social media in communication at workplace. So, to achieve the main aim of the research, the following objectives are required to accomplish from this research study:
- To identify different social media sites used for communication
- To examine the importance of using social media as communication channel in organization
- To recommend the ways in order to implement the social media communication strategy at the workplace of organization.
This research is beneficial for researcher as it help in identifying different social media sites which help the organization to develop an effective communication channel at their workplace for their employees and workers. The use of social media for communication will lead to reduction in miscommunication as well as information will be communicated very quickly. At the same time, this research will help in understanding more about use of social media and its importance for enhancing the communication process at workplace. Social media is playing a significant role for businesses as it engage customers, employees and candidates with the organization (McDonald & Thompson, 2016). On the other hand, this research topic will help researcher in developing academic and conceptual knowledge to huge extent because this proposal will help in identifying the communication strategy related to use of social media at workplace in order to complete research successfully. This research study will justify the further study by helping the researcher in understanding and analyzing the research topic through different perspective.
For this research study, research uses research methodology as a tool which helps in identifying and collecting the reliable information related to the research issue. For this research study, quantitative research will be helpful as this research method assist the researcher in developing knowledge and understanding about the requirement of new communication strategy in the organization. At the same time, data will be collected from primary data sources in which survey will help in identifying the use of social media at the workplace for improving communication network.
Using Social Media in the workplace to communicate
In this modern world, social media plays significant role as this created a huge influence by changing the nature of people’s towards development of social relationships. In addition, social media tools are easily accessible by internet users and this social media involves Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Leonardi, et al., 2013). However, this research study helps in understanding the use of social media at workplace is very limited and it is very effective approach which will help in developing a social relationship among the employees towards each other.
In context to it, the use of social media at workplace is valuable for the workers in different areas (Baruah, 2012). From this research study, it will be identified that the use of social media at workplace will create impact on the different cultural backgrounds and knowledge base across the world. In addition, this research study will provide discusses that Tesco can select social media strategy as communication strategy which will help in implementing the social media in their communication network.
The primary aim of this proposal is to evaluate the significance of Social Media in the workplace to communicate. In respect of achieving the main aim, the following objectives are required to accomplish by researcher through this research study:
- To identify different social media sites used for communication
- To examine the importance of using social media as communication channel in organization
- To recommend the ways in order to implement the social media communication strategy at the workplace of organization.
This research study is very useful for the research as it help in identifying the communication strategy as well as help in understanding the use of social media in workplace for communication process. In simple words, this research study will help in developing knowledge and understanding towards the use of social media as an effective tool for managing communication system efficiently (SHRM, 2016). This social media tool plays important role for employers and employees as it assist both by providing the benefits in terms of delivering their messages in the proper communication ways. At the same time, this research report will help in justifying that social media is growing as an effective corporate communications tool.
Miller-Merrell (2013) proposed that social media is best of social interaction among the people as it help in creating, sharing and exchanging information through defined communication networks. But at the same time, employee uses social media for managing the work like sharing right information and knowledge at the right time by interacting with colleagues and customer. According to Baruah (2012), there are various social media tools like Facebook, twitter and Instagram which provides services to different users in terms of enhancement of communication and interaction process. These tools help in developing an active communication relationship between people and employees at the workplace. But in oppose of it, Agnihotri, et al., (2016) stated that using the social media for communication has negative impact on the verbal harassment and offense.
In addition to it, Munene & Nyaribo (2013) stated that technical workers of the organization required to have accurate and full information about the benefits in their work for which they are required to engage with other people like engineers and developers who helps he workers by sharing information online through social media. Through this, they can balance a work and share the information easily by developing a relationship and trust with each other. However, the development or building a relationship is one major factor of using a social media at the workplace because this tool helps in connecting the employees emotionally with each other.
But at the same time, Leonardi, et al., (2013) also explained that in professional work environment, the use of social media is very important as it help in creating and developing a value of individual and company. In general, the knowledge and information sharing efficiently is major motive behind using a social media as a tool for communication. The research study of McDonald & Thompson (2016) also suggested that social media strategy can also be used as a communication strategy which will help in creating a various social media account for different purpose and also to avoid the conflict and maintain privacy between the workplace information and their social life environment. For organization, this social media strategy will help in implementing the use of social media within the organization work environment. In supporting to this, SHRM (2016) stated that in social media, the privacy is major factor which develops issues for the business in terms of verbal threats who uses or hack the official information easily.
The research method which is used for collecting the information related to the use of social media as communication is quantitative method. This method will help in collecting the primary data through survey in which company’s workers are observed i.e., how they communicate the information to each other and what issues they faces. According to Fuchs (2017), this quantitative research study is very effective for researcher as it support in understanding and analyzing the importance of social media for corporate communication.
From the above study, it can be summarized that use of social media in the organization will be very effective as this social media is best source to get connected with two or more persons easily. The social media strategy is sustainable for Tesco workplace as this improves the communication network and interaction process among the employees which ultimately results into the achievement of organizational objective successfully. There are many business firm globally who are using the social media tool efficiently in order to develop their own value worldwide. At last, it can be summarized that use of social media to the workplace to communicate will be right decision as it don’t have any negative side effect on the development of social relationships.
Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., & Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172-180.
Baruah, T. D. (2012). Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(5), 1-10.
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. UK: Sage.
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.
McDonald, P., & Thompson, P. (2016). Social media (tion) and the reshaping of public/private boundaries in employment relations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(1), 69-84.
Miller-Merrell, J. (2013). The Power of Social Media for Workplace Communication & Distribution. Retrieved from: https://workology.com/social-media-enterprise-communciation/
Munene, A.G. & Nyaribo, Y.M. (2013). Effect of Social Media Pertication in the Workplace on Employee Productivity. International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics, 2(2), 141-150.
SHRM (2016). Managing and Leveraging Workplace Use of Social Media. Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and samples/toolkits/pages/managingsocialmedia.aspx
