Social Media in the Workplace

This assignment examines the use of social media in the modern workplace, particularly within large organizations like the Commonwealth Bank. It analyzes both the positive aspects, such as enhanced communication, improved employee engagement, and faster information dissemination, and the potential negative impacts, including cybersecurity risks, data misuse, and decreased productivity. The document concludes by offering recommendations for managing social media effectively within a business context.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Business Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Negative aspects of use of social media in workplace....................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Introduction of social media in the workplace can be used as an effective tool of
communication. With the use of social media it is possible to enhance the communication
between different levels of workers in an organisation. The use of the digital platform as the
form of social media can help to enhance the productivity within the workplace. This is mainly
due to the ease of using social media can help in the process of dealing with most of the
Complex activities related in the workplace.
One of the positive impacts of the social media is that it can provide a platform to share
personal opinions for important social and public matters. For a large business organisation like
the Commonwealth Bank, use of social media can help to develop an advanced network within
the employees and the management. However, it is also important to consider few of the
negative aspects of social media. These include misuse of the same in the matter of sharing
unethical contents or violation of the ethical principles.
Discussion
The use of social media is highly common in today's corporate world. With the advent of
technology and the changes in the lifestyle, the usage of social media has become common in the
society.The use of social media is also believed to make use of the human resource within an
organisation that can help to improve upon the productivity. From the report of Edosomwan et
al., (2011), it has been found that 55% Australians use social media as a source of enjoyment
during the break periods in the workplace. This is mostly used as a source of relaxation,
connecting with friends as well as a platform for discussion on various topics with friends. Work
related information can also be shared with the help social media platform. Hence, it can be used

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as a source of developing internal network within an organisation. Thereby, it is possible for the
employees to keep themselves updated with the latest changes occurring within the workplace.
According toWang et al., (2012), the use of social media in the workplace also provide
the opportunity to the Employees to directly share their concerns with higher authority. For a
large scale organisation like the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the use of the social media
will help in the management to easiluy reach out to every catagories of employees. There are
several employees in an organisation, who are highly focused on their personal career
development and are aspirant to reach the epitome of success. The use of social media network
can help them in the process of personal and professional development, which will ultimately
help in the purpose of improving upon the workplace productivity. Individual employee can
compare upon their performance level with the help of the detailed information that are provided
within the social media network.
Social media Network and also serve as a platform to share important information related
to the culture diversity within the organisation. This aspect can be used by the management of
the Commonwealth Bank in order to improve upon their workplace diversity. Meredith, (2012),
has mentioned that the social media platform can act as an excellent platform to perfectly
evaluate the performance of an employee. This can help them to provide appreciation to the
employee and help them to retain within the organisation. It is also possible for the organisation
to properly evaluate the performance of weak employees and suggest them proper intervention to
improve upon their performance level.

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Use of social media is believed to be one of the fastest way to spread important information from
the management. This is effective in the process of implementing important decision in quick
period of time, thereby allowing the employees to deal with any change of information.
Negative aspects of use of social media in workplace
The primary causes of the negative impacts of the social media is due to the increased
rate of Cybercrimes. As the company will share their vital information and transfer it to the
employees, there is high risk of the data being hacked, thus resuting in the lack of data security.
This can thereby leak important Company’s information to the public domain.
From the survey analysis of Qualman, (2010), it is also clear that use of social media like
Facebook and Instagram also has the risk of compromising up on the productivity level of
individual employee. This is mainly due to the fact that the employees will highly get attracted to
the use of the social media, thereby reducing overall time devoted in workplace performance. As
more amount of information are being shared with the employees, there is also high risk of the
data being misused by the employees.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that use of social media in the context of modern day is one
of the effective way to enhance business communication strategy for large-scale organisation like
the Commonwealth Bank. The major advantage of this communication tool is that it helps to
improve the networking and communication within the employees of the organisation.
Nevertheless one of the major risk involved in the process is due to information can be misused
by the employees in order to harm the reputation of the organisation.

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Recommendations
It is highly recommended for the management of the Commonwealth Bank to properly
consider the important aspects of social media communication strategy and use the same for
better level of communication. The management needs to ensure that they provide the correct
and accurate information with the help of the social media platform. However, it is also essential
for the organisation to consider about the negative aspects of social media communication that is
implicated due to misuse of the social media. It is also recommended that the data security and
privacy rules need to be abided by the organization. Hence, there need to be strong monitoring
policy, which will help to ensure that no employees are able to misuse the communication tool in
order to spread false information.

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Reference
Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history of
social media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and
entrepreneurship, 16(3), 79.
Meredith, M. J. (2012). Strategic communication and social media: An MBA course from a
business communication perspective. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(1), 89-95.
Qualman, E. (2010). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do
business. John Wiley & Sons.
Wang, X., Yu, C., & Wei, Y. (2012). Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase
intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4),
198-208.