Building Social Capital

Write an academic essay on the following topic:

– How can Social Media such as LickedIn, Facebook and twitter be used to improve knowledge sharing, build social capital, support innovation and aid problem solving in a multinational corporation.

– Discuss the associated risks and benefits for this context.

The social media is a platform where millions of people interact with each other daily. It was not very long ago that this platform was used by only a few people, or who are experts in the field. Standing at this point it can be said that this has taken up the time of almost every individual. There are three top social media networks that have the largest number of customer base or are followed by the people (WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?, 2015). With the growing popularity of the social media it can be said that many multinational companies are using this platform to enhance their image. This form of media plays essential role in shaping up the organization. With the passing days the organizations are now considering a more people oriented job rather than the task oriented job. These are done so as the employees of the organization are able to socially interact with each other and they can generate new ideas and can lead the business to a new direction.

Social media has changed the traditional marketing tactics which included the advertisings, public relations, publicity (WALTHER, 1996). More over it has become a part of the life for all the people, whether it is an individual or an organization. It needs to be noted that most of the organization are now using this platform to market their products. The trend is new and has been greatly done for the past 3-4 years. Social media is a computer based application using the internet by which people can exchange information between the users (Soukup, 2004). It can be said the communication in business can reduce the ambiguity and uncertainty of the business. More over it can be said the social media are the shortest route if communication and marketing for an organization.

Today there are a number of social mediums or social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace etc. it was seen that almost 90% of the organizations are using the social media sites to build the company’s brand as well the image of the company. It is also to be noted that there are certain conflicts as to whether the company uses the social media as s source of marketing or are they using it for the sake of using. Though on the other hand the organizations must ensure that the social medias (Haythornthwaite, 2005).

 are used as an effective tool for the communication and not simply using it as a social media like the common people. Thus, building social capital, improving the knowledge sharing, supporting innovation and aid in problem solving are some of the ways the organization can use the social media.

2. How the social media are used to build social capital?

Importance of Knowledge Sharing

The people in the organization are considered to be the assets of the organization which are intangible. The social media can be said as a tool for the sharing of knowledge among the employees so that the organizations can have a competitive advantage over the others in the market. It makes it possible for the people to connect online so that the employees can share their knowledge among the various organizations. Moreover the employee also bring in valuable information to the company, thus it is important for the company to maintain the and manage the social capital of the company (Treem & Leonardi, 2015).

The advantage of the social capital is that it sets up a communication of among the employees of the organizations as well within the organizations (Gil de Zu´ niga, Jung & Valenzuela, 2015). It also helps to boost the knowledge of the employees; it breaks the ice between the employees as well as develops a stronger relationship among the employees. Moreover the social media are used to exchange the ideas pictures, video and even can support the video conferencing with the employees across the world (Jantsch, 2015). With the increase in the sharing of the knowledge among the employees of the organization, it increases the performances of the organization. It also enhances the personal development of the employees through the sharing of the knowledge as well as develops the team works among the employees. In brief it can be said that the multinational companies will benefit from the development of the social capital (Burke, Huma & Marlow, 2015).

3. How the social media can improve the knowledge sharing?

The employees share knowledge among themselves when the share information among them. Most multinational organization practices this use and they encourage the employees to share important information as well as access intellectual capital (Knowledge Sharing using Social Media in the Workplace, 2015). There are several organizations where such practices are followed and the employees are rewarded for their actions. In companies like IBM’s Lotus Development, a system of rewarding the employees have been initiated so that the employees are more encouraged to share the knowledge. More over the employees are able to produce the information in the annual meeting of the company which develops 25% of the company’s development.

Through the process of sharing of the knowledge, the individual knowledge of the employees are transferred to the company which improves the innovative ideas being generated within the individuals and ultimately enriches the organization. It also helps the organization to face the competition from the other players in the market. Since the company will be able to gather the knowledge as well as improve them so that they are able to keep up with their competitors. Thus the companies are able to combat the competition from the others in the market or the competitors, so the organization can achieve the goals (Winkelen & Tovstiga, 2009).

Moreover it was seen that the individual who were interactive were more prone to create knowledge. It can be seen that most of the companies have well developed pages in eth social media, like Vodafone, P&G, etc. These companies and many others facilitate the customers to follow them in the social networking sites where the users are able to share the valuable information about the products of the company. It also encourages the company to communicate with the people and get to know the views of the people in personal as it facilitates the easy as well as instant transformation of the message. More over the interaction over the social media helps in the creation of teams of people with discuss matters over this platform.

4. How the social media helps in communication?

Improving Innovation

The social media helps in creating an internal channel of communication within the organization. The communication channel develops between the employees of the organization and the organization itself. This process of communication helps to transfer the knowledge to the various departments of the country as well as in various countries where the company is operating (Maggiani, 2015). The process of communication often helps in the solving of the problem of the company. With this the companies are able to have a healthy communication with the employees vertically as well as horizontally. The employees are able to share their valuable comments and solve complex issues by discussing over the topic. There is an advantage that the social media sets up a communication channel between the external parties and the company.

5. How does the social media support innovation?

It can be said that, to sustain the market, it is necessary that the company constantly innovates. With the process of innovation, being in process, new ideas flow in the business. There is more chance that the people in the organization take part in improving the ideas of the business. This is done so that the company in a competitive advantage from the competitors. This can be only ensured if the employees of the company are constantly innovating new ideas (Great Valley Publishing Company, 2015).

The social media acts as a platform for the people to discuss ideas with various people from the company or from outside, thus gathering valuable and new ideas. This platform requires no additional cost on the part of the employees and the company thus they are able to concentrate on the generation of the ideas without being to worry about increasing the cost of the company.

The market is ever changing and it is the duty of the employees to keep updated in formation of the market scenario so that they are able to see the threats and be alert of the coming situation. Thus the innovation of new ideas are a  target that the employees must achieve so that the company can be benefitted; failure of which the company will lose out and the competitors will be ahead of the company.

6. How do the social media help in the process of problem solving?

There are constant problems within the organization as well as external to the company, with the external service providers of the company. But the company will be able to solve the problem with the process of communication. It needs to be kept in mind that the various attribute of the social media are inter-connected to each other (Page, 2015). Thus it can be said that with the process of communication and sharing of the knowledge, the problems can be solved to a great extent (Foster, 1999). It can be used as a tool to open a communicating channel between the employees and the external service providers as well employees of other organization. This will in turn lead to solving of the problems which had arisen previously. It must be noted that knowledge sharing of problem areas will ultimately improve the problem to a great deal. This is possible as the social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter provide a one to one relation to the employees.

Problem Solving through Communication

Moreover it needs to be seen that the company will be able to solve the problems of the company as the basic information as well as solutions to the problem can be given to the people through the process of social networking. Moreover the social media provides online solutions to the customers to solve their respective problems.

The advantages of the social media are elaborately discussed above. Thus a brief summary is given to assess the advantages of the social media.

7.1 The social media promotes the communication between the employees and the organization- not only the social media provides internal communication of the organization but also external communication. The process of communication also enhances the sharing of knowledge of the organization as it allows everyone to participate (Amine Chatti, 2012). This creates a pool of prospective people who will ultimately share their knowledge over the social media. The employees are able to give in more detail once they share their knowledge with each other. Communication process also increases the chances of the people of the organization to solve their problems internal or external to the company.

7.2 The convenience that the social media provides- it must be kept in mind that the social media has gained a lot of popularity over the last few years. Not only are the people using this platform to share their views, but also the multinational organizations are also using this platform to communicate with the people as well as other organizations (Page, 2015). The popularity of the social media has risen due to the fact that the people are finding it more convenient as well as time saving. Moreover it also facilitates the process of learning and sharing of knowledge among a large number of people, within the organization as well as outside the organization.

7.3 Innovation is enhanced with the help of social media- the increasing usage of the social media helps the employees to innovate various ideas so that it can be implemented to the business and that the company is able to stay in business and have a competitive advantage over their competitors. If the company is not innovative enough then the company can lose out to its competitor (Kenly & Poston, 2015). Moreover the employees also change pr remodel the ideas so as to fit with the changing needs of the market.

Though there are various advantages to of using the social media, the disadvantages of using the social media are also several. The disadvantages of using the social media are:

8.1 There are increased crimes and fraud in the organization due to the technology- the companies should be aware of the increased rate of the cyber crimes that are taking place over the internet. Thus the communication of the employees is under the risk of being impersonate. Thus the company should be aware of the fraud, impersonating that are taking place over the internet so as to stop the piracy of the confidential information.

8.2 The threat of the information being public- there is a greater risk the information being publicized while the employees are using the social media as a tool for the sharing of the knowledge. Moreover there is risk that the employees may leak the secret data of the company to the employees of the other organization (Gehman, 2015). There is also a chance that the company’s product may be criticized publicly in the media, and in turn can hamper the image of the company.

Conclusion

There is a major threat the company will lose its potential employees or the prospective candidates if there is a bad publicity of the company. As more and more people are using the social media, there are no hidings of the news or bad publicity of the companies thus leading to the disruption in the image of the company.

8.3 There is decreased level of productivity of the organization as well as the employees- if the employees spend most of their time in the social media, then their production level will decrease over time, as they will engage in retrieving information, and not implementing the change in the process (Kenly & Poston, 2015). The employees will lose their capability to present before the company any performance, as they will be present physically in the organization, but their work quality will be below the normal. Thus it can be said the employees who engage themselves in the social media during the work hours as they will decrease the product quality and ultimately will let down the image of the organization.

9. Conclusion

To conclude it can be said that the social media is a very recent development in the field of marketing of the employees and it should be wisely used by the organization (Mandiberg, 2012). The social media plays an important role in the multinational organization. It helps in the process of communication of the employees among the organizations. It also helps in the development of internal as well as external relationship of the employees which assists in the development of new ideas.

The transformation of information of the organization can be the process from the creating of the knowledge to the sharing of the knowledge (Gehman, 2015). Thus the multinational organization will get advantaged if there is an integration of the social media and the management of the knowledge.

Apart from the advantages of the social media, it can be said that there are several disadvantages of the social media. There is a threat that the increased use of social media will in turn increase the crime rates and miscommunication within the multinational organizations. Moreover there is a chance that the productivity levels of the individuals as well the company in turn. To control the increased crime rates and the level of miscommunication, the companies should try to enforce the corrective measures as well as implement management policies so as to bring the situation under control (Bryfonski, 2012). It needs to be seen that the processes are implemented, so that the organization are able to take the advantages of the innovation, collaboration, problem solving and social capital within the organization. By doing these the organization will have a competitive advantage over the other companies, and also the performance of the company will improve.

10. References

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