Assessment 2: Persuasive Argument on Social Media at Workplace

This report presents a persuasive argument regarding the use of social media in the workplace. It begins by highlighting the benefits, such as improved communication and potential for enhanced decision-making, citing statistics on employee perceptions. The report then explores the counter-argument, acknowledging concerns about productivity loss, legal violations, harassment, security risks, and potential damage to the company's image. The core of the argument defends the position by suggesting alternative solutions like using LinkedIn for recruitment and reinforcing effective management for internal communications. The report concludes that while social media offers advantages, its disadvantages necessitate careful consideration and the implementation of alternative strategies. References to relevant research and studies support the arguments throughout the report.

Running head: THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE
ARGUMENT
The use of social media at the workplace- Persuasive Argument
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
Executive Summary
The following report is a persuasive argument on the use of social media at work place. The
report discusses on the topic in detail and elaborates on the issue closely. Further, the opinion for
the argument is presented following by a counter argument. The opinion is defended at last for
considering the facts raised in counter argument.
Table of Content

2THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
s
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
The argument...............................................................................................................................3
Word on the argument.................................................................................................................4
Counter argument........................................................................................................................5
Defending the opinion.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

3THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
Introduction
The prime objective of social media is connecting people. The social media have
effectively achieved its objective of connecting people and have experienced a massive support
from the society. The boom in the social media is evident to the fact of success of social media in
the recent years and the successful social expectance of the social media. However, considering
the success and benefits of social media in connectivity it is still a controversial issue to be
applied at the workplace effectively. A few researches believe that incorporating social media for
official purposes at the workplace is beneficial for the business. However, there are significant
conflicts to these studies. The following report is a persuasive argument of whether the use of
social media for working environment is feasible or not. The report draws facts from different
sources and further draws conclusion for the applicability of social media at workplace based on
related theories and studies.
Discussion
The argument
The argument for the report is that, the social media is identified as one of the major
channel for communication in the twenty first century. Studies suggest that 82% of the
employees think that the use of social media can actually improve the work relationship and an
approximate of 60% employees think that incorporating social media can even provide assistance
in the decision making process and make the process more efficient (Bizzi 2018). However,
besides this the major conflict is that the raw platform cannot be offered to the employees. The
company needs to restrict few features of the social media platform for fitting it to the workspace
with significance feasibility. The employees imply these restrictions as an obstacle in their right

4THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
to freedom of speech and various other issues (Callaghan 2013). The argument drops down to the
point that is incorporating social media feasible for boosting organizational efficiency
Word on the argument
The incorporation of the social media at work place is a big controversy for the
organization; studies suggest that it have the potential to boost the functionality of the
organization. However, the employer worry about the misuse of the platform and believe that it
will definitely kill the productivity of the employees. The management is preventing itself to buy
out the connectivity benefits at the stake of employee productivity. There are sufficient studies
and cases of social media addiction and its disadvantages. There are much disadvantages of
social media, which surpasses the benefits, and thus, the feasibility of application is a still
questionable. The disadvantages of social media for working environment are identified as
follows:
 Loss of productivity- employees may spend more time on the social media at work for
personal reasons, contributing to fall in productivity of the workforce
 Legal violations- under section 7 of the National Labor Relation Act (Nlrb.gov 2019), the
odds of exposing the employees to charges of privacy violations, discrimination, and
interference with employees’ rights is increases.
 Harassment- it may promote harassing behaviour towards others co-workers over social
media.
 Security- the vulnerabilities relating to privacy breaches, hacking, viruses increases and
the security of the firm becomes less credible and secure.

5THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
 Negative exposure- the posts updated by employees may not be in the very best interest
of the firm, and potentially bring down the image of thee firm. Thus, additional resources
have to be deployed for monitoring and managing the following.
Counter argument
The counter argument to this is identified as the effectiveness of social media in
establishing the relationship between communities and contributing to the improved social status.
In the workspaces as per the studies, it suggest that incorporating social media in organizational
use have benefits such as (Choudhury and Counts 2013):
 Delivering internal communication
 Recruitment processes assistance
 Communication in an emergency situation
 Selective group informing
Defending the opinion
The claims of the counter argument are accurate; however, it fails to see the accompanied
shortcomings. There are multiple option, which effectively address these shortcomings and
deliberately reduces the need of allowing social media at workplace. The use of LinkedIn can
help in recruitment process and have been tailored for the specific purpose (Bonsón and
Bednárová 2013). Effective management in numerous ways can improve the internal
communication without actually relying on social media the role of an effective management is
prime in developing a strong network of internal communication, which consists of feedback
system, channel for listening to employees suggestions and concerns, Personal understanding
and empathy to the employees.

6THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE WORKPLACE- PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT
Conclusion
The report suggest that the disadvantages of social media at workplace is many like the
harassment, lack of productivity, security concerns and legal violations. However, as
counterargument it is implied that the use of social media enhances internal communication and
helps in the recruitment process. Further, the opinion is defended by the fact that there are other
options available which effectively addresses the concerns like using LinkedIn for recruitment
purposes and reinforcing the management for optimizing and strengthening the internal
communication.

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References
Bizzi. L. 2018. Employees Who Use Social Media for Work Are More Engaged — but Also More
Likely to Leave Their Jobs. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2018/05/employees-who-use-
social-media-for-work-are-more-engaged-but-also-more-likely-to-leave-their-jobs [Accessed 17
Aug. 2019].
Bonsón, E. and Bednárová, M., 2013. Corporate LinkedIn practices of Eurozone
companies. Online Information Review, 37(6), pp.969-984.
Callaghan. O. 2013. Outrageous Opinion on Social Media: The Correct Role of the Law – Oliver
O’Callaghan. [online] Available at: https://inforrm.org/2013/04/20/outrageous-opinion-on-
social-media-the-correct-role-of-the-law-oliver-ocallaghan/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2019].
De Choudhury, M. and Counts, S., 2013, February. Understanding affect in the workplace via
social media. In Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative
work (pp. 303-316). ACM.
Nlrb.gov. 2019. Interfering with employee rights (Section 7 & 8(a)(1)) | NLRB | Public Website.
[online] Available at: https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/whats-law/employers/interfering-
employee-rights-section-7-8a1 [Accessed 17 Aug. 2019].