Social Media as a Means of Communication in the Workplace

This study explores the usage of social media for effective communication in the workplace. It discusses the positive impacts of social media on employee productivity and engagement, as well as the negative impacts such as cyberbullying and decreased productivity. The study recommends providing proper training to employees and having an ethical code of conduct to monitor their activities.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Business Communication
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Social media as a means of communication in the workplace........................................................2
Social media improves the employee productivity and employee engagement..............................2
The effect of social media usage at work........................................................................................3
Usage of the social media in companies..........................................................................................4
Negative impacts of social media on the communication...............................................................4
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Social media is the most effective communication tool which can be used by the
employees for the effective communication. Usage of the social media provides a platform for
the employees that help them to communicate in real time through the devices that they are using
to access the social media (Thomas & Akdere, 2013). This study is based on the usage of the
social media for the accelerating the communication in the workplace.
Social media as a means of communication in the workplace
There are several different ways through which the social media can be effectively
integrated intoto the workplace. Irrespective of the HR professional, team member, business
leader or manager, it is important to note that the bringing the social media into the workplace
can effectively elevate the levels of communication and this effectively encourages the sharing,
collaborating and putting inputs. The various uses of the social media at the workplace are:
distribution and communication, hiring and recruitment, personal development and research,
engagement and employee recognition, collaboration and social learning, employee branding,
monitoring and listening (Dale, 2014).
Social media improves the employee productivity and employee engagement
Social media as a distribution and communication tool is vital for the team members that
are working together but are either located remotely or on different sides of the office. Social
media even is capable to connect employees that are located in different time zones, this helps
the employees to keep their personal and work life balanced. The work is still done within the
deadline and this is only possible through the effective usage of the social media in the
workplace that helps in effective communication (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014).

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Social media helps the employees to communicate effectively and keeps them engaged during
the work hours. Interacting, sharing and working along with the individuals that are part of n
organizations keep the employee engaged and the organizations reap the benefits or meeting its
goals. Gallup's report on the American Workplace has revealed that in comparison to the onsite
workers the remote workers are more engaged. The office workers are 28 percent engaged in
comparison to the remote colleagues that are 31 percent engaged. The remote workers also
register more hours of work due to the communication is done via the social media, telephone,
virtual meetings and email (Gallup, 2018).
The effect of social media usage at work
The present social media consists of various types of communication tools that facilitate the
different types of communication channels for the effective knowledge transfer and information
exchange. The definition of knowledge transfer may differ and it may be considered a process
through which the division, department or a group gets affected by the experience of another
group, department or division. Whereas knowledge transfer can be described as a process
through which the knowledge from one employee is transferred to another employee and the
knowledge is then learned and applied. The knowledge is incoherence to the task-oriented
communication. The communication performance is enhanced when multiple or combination of
media are used. Thus, social media perfectly fits the criteria and it is a combination of the
different types of the media and it acts as an ideal media for the knowledge transfer. Individuals
in organizations that have networked environments face challenges in different modes of
communication like the many to many, one to many and one to one. Different communication
tools provide the social media, emails and instant messaging provides an easy and effective way
to participate, communicate and collaborate in an unprecedented way. Social media offer both

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the asynchronous (online forums, blogs) and synchronous (microblogging) methods of
communication (Cao et al., 2012).
Usage of the social media in companies
Reports reveal that the in the year 2010 the top 500 fortune companies adopted more than
one social media platform into its organization. It was predicted that several organizations will
have the Facebook like platform for the purpose of internal communication. The organizations
adopted the social media platform to facilitate internal communication, the benefits are
increasingly considered important. Thus different attempts have been made to tap the benefits of
the social media platforms and its effects on the organizational communication. The manager
and the executives have taken the interest in implementing the social media in the organization
so the power and potential of the knowledge and information stay within their organization. It
has been found that social media has the potential to transform the data sharing and
communication in the enterprise. It has also been predicted that the usage of the social media will
gain importance over the telephone and the email usage. A major part of the research conducted
reveals that the internal social media focuses on the evaluation of its success and the effective
implementation of the potential areas for the improvement. Research reveal that the usage of the
social media for the purpose of internal communication has led to the enhancing the relationships
between the employees, improving the knowledge base of the employees, promoted
collaborations and supported communication (Haddud, Dugger & Gill, 2016).
Negative impacts of social media on the communication

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It is a fact that the incorporation of the social media in the workplace is to potentially
increase the means of communication, however, it has certain negative sides.
 Harassment and bullying- some of the employees the usage of their social media account
for the purpose of manifesting their work and also the work of the fellow workers.
Employees cannot be banned from posting derogatory comments on the social media but
organization can take steps to effectively identify the culprit and prevent such events
from occurring again. Cyberbullying is one of the major issues which is being faced by
the employees that work in an organization that has the internal social media for
communication (Mainiero & Jones, 2013).
 Social media provides a silent access into the lives of their friends and it is also not
possible for the employees to completely switch off during the work hours. Employee
communicating via the social media can spend more time doing chatting instead of giving
the productive work. Monitoring the activities of the employees can be done but at first,
the employees needs to be conveyed that they are being monitored (Sivertzen, Nilsen &
Olafsen, 2013).
 Certain social media are more focused on the work-life rather than the social life, such
employees can be easily targeted by the market competitors. Prevention of such actions
cannot be done physically and the employees that become rouge after they leave their
job. This can tarnish the image of the organization and also hampers the morale of the
employees (Majchrzak et al., 2013).

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Recommendation
It is important to mention that the present working condition in the organizations demand
a robust and dynamic means of communication. Social media is one of the best platform which
can both promote and enhance the communication between the employees. The high efficiency
with which the employee stays engaged and connected is the sole reason social media gets
preference over the other traditional means of communication. Thus it is best to provide the
employees with the proper training with respect to the usage of the social media. The
organizations must also have the ethical code of conduct to enhance the and monitor the
activities of the employees.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above study, that communication in an organization is
the most vital part. Communication is achieved only if the employees are engaged in a proper
way, thus the integration of the social media into an organization for internal communication is
the best approach. Social media for the purpose of communication effectively increases the
knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer. The effects of social media in terms of communication
is multipronged and it has helped the employee to stay productive and engaged in their work.


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Reference
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