Report on Digital Skills and Research Methods in the Workplace

This report comprehensively examines digital skills and research methods within the modern workplace. It begins by defining digital literacy and its importance, then delves into the effective use of technology, including cloud computing and cybersecurity, highlighting their pros and cons. The report explores various applications like data sharing, knowledge management, and decision-making. It also analyzes social media's role in information gathering, marketing, and communication, and its impact on organizations, including tools like social media marketing and analytics. The report compares different technologies, emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing and cybersecurity. Overall, the assignment provides insights into how digital tools enhance workplace efficiency, innovation, and communication, offering strategies for businesses to leverage these technologies to their advantage.

DIGITAL SKILLS AND
RESEARCH METHODS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Digital skills are related to being digitally literate. It is highly valued and used in
organizations mostly. Today many companies are using digital technology which is helping them
to grow their business. Advancement in technology is helping business in using their resources
optimally and helps them in competing with their competitors. In this assignment effective use of
modern technology in workplace, different technologies used in workplace with their pros and
cons, exploration of social media as a tool for information gathering, marketing and
communication within workplace and its impact on organizations will be explained (Hatch,
2018).
MAIN BODY
Modern technology use within workplace
Today advancement in technology and its use in organizations has been continuously
increasing especially in terms of information, today data is one of the most important resource
for organizations. This advancement has provided workplace with various tools for production,
communication etc. These technologies are used for various purposes within the organization
like data sharing, data protection, knowledge management, decision making, internal
communication within the company , to enhance production work etc.
These modern technologies within workplace can be used in various ways for different
purposes like:
 Improve flow of information: Today this modern technology has helped in creating a
shared information environment in organizations. In this environment information is
stored, organized and centralized at one location which allows everyone at workplace to
access and use that information accordingly. This helps in faster flow of information in a
better way .
 Supports Innovation: These technologies has not only helped in flow of information but it
has also enabled innovation within workplace. Employees can use this technology to
create or suggest new ideas of innovation to transform a business. This has also helped in
gaining competitive advantage and increase companies customer base.
 Quick decision making: Information processing within an organization has also become
fast and efficient which can be used for decision making. Workers can easily access and
process the information or if needed they can easily make changes in the existing
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database. Through this decision making task can easily be performed which are also
known as online analytical processing.
 Ensure computational accuracy: Today in this modern world, this technology use has
increased the computation and accuracy in business work. It is useful in many business
processes like accounting where accuracy is much more important than anything else
whether it is inventory keeping, making and recording sales, managing pay bills or
handling payroll. In finance related work time and money is everything and for that
accuracy in work is important. With the modern world technology storage of these
financial information and using it afterwords is also easy.
This modern use of technology has given many advantages to the business and helped
them to grow in many ways. Few of then are:
 Storage and sharing: Today there is no need to waste time looking for any document, files
or any information, with the advancement in technology any required information can be
found within few minutes. Companies also do not need to worry about storage of data as
today organizations can store unlimited data and use it whenever required. This has also
helped organizations to reduce their capital and storage cost (Attaran and Woods, 2018).
 Remote connectivity and mobility: Growth of freelancer economy and adoption of
flexible working from anywhere policy, employees today can easily access and use
organizations technological system remotely. It has also helped organizations to connect
with the best talent globally and instantly. Today employees can work at anytime and
from anywhere with this technology use.
 Automation: Another advantage of this technology is that it allows companies to
automate many functions that initially required many employees. Many tasks like
bookkeeping, data entry, analytics or contacting management can be fully or partially
automated which has helped organizations to reduce risk, error, time and cost.
Comparison between technologies
There are many technologies used in organizations which has increased their efficiency
of work. Out of all those technologies two are the most important and common technology used
by companies are:
1. Cloud Computing: It can be defined as delivery of on-demand computing services over
internet that are provided to the users on payment. These cloud computing service providers
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gives companies an ability to manage services and applications through a global network. It has
helped companies in various ways such as cost reduction, increased flexibility in its oprations
and optimal resource utilization. It can be used for various services, few of them are described
below:
 File Storage: It offers companies storage space for storing, retrieving and accessing their
files from any internet enabled interface. These files can be accesses any time, any device
and from anywhere, if the device has high internet speed (Dempsey and Kelliher, 2018).
It also provides high security, scalability, availability for the environment it is being used.
 Backup: Backup has always been a time consuming operation and sometimes it also
created problems for business like lack of storage space, incompatibility etc. With the
help of cloud-based backup automatic storage and dispatch of data can be done to any
location with the assurity of security, availability etc.
Cloud computing also has some advantages and disadvantages like:
Advantages:
 Stored files can be accessed from anywhere from devices with internet connections
 Can avoid emailing files to everyone and instead of emailing, web link can be send to
recipients with the help of e-mails. It also helps in annual reduction of operating cost of business. Additional cost saving can
also be done as it does not require internal power to store data.
Disadvantages:
 Users need to be careful while using drag and drop facility in cloud storage as it
permanently moves original folder to cloud storage location.
 User has a limitation that it needs internet connection to access their data, without which
they cannot access their data (Mohammad, 2018).
2. Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity is also an important technological innovation that has
benefited workplaces. In today's world need of cybersecurity in organizations has been
continuously increasing for protection of companies data or information as cyber crimes or
hacking is increasing. Cybersecurity for organizations has become a need as companies are
aware of the fact that cyber threats are increasing and hovering over the internet as nowadays
mostly companies are storing their valuable information online, so strong security of data has
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become an uttermost importance of companies which is unavoidable(Caulkins, Marlowe and
Reardon, 2018).
There are many advantages and disadvantages of cybersecurity technology used in workplace
are:
Advantages:
 It has increased cyber speed and cyber defence.
 Fights against computer hackers and identify threats.
 Protects computers or systems from any worms, virus, spyware, malware etc.
 Protects companies or individuals private information. It also protects companies data or information as well as their clients data or information.
Disadvantages:
 Firewalls sometimes can be difficult to configure correctly.
 If configured incorrectly then it might block users from performing certain actions or
operations internet, until and unless firewall is configured correctly.
 Sometimes it can be costly for users.
 Use of cybersecurity sometimes also makes systems slower as compared to their
performance before (Clark and Slayton, 2018).
 Regular updation of software is required in order to keep security of systems up to date.
Cloud Computing Cybersecurity
 It provides security to all the data that
is been stored.
 It can be provided to customers at very
optimal cost.
 It cannot resolve any threat, if occurs.
 If firewall is not configured correctly
then there can be some security issues.
 Sometimes it can be much costlier to
users.
 Identifies any threat and remove them.
Explore social media as a tool within workplace
Use of social media has been continuously increasing from past few years. It has become
a part of everyone's lives and has changed the way people communicate or interact with each
other. Many organizations are also using Social media as a tool for information gathering,
marketing, communication, improving their brand image. It has become a platform which has
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created a chance to create strong social media presence by interacting with their customers. It
has also helped them to strengthen their brand image and increase their customer base by
interacting with them. Many organizations forbid employees to use social media during working
hours even though it is an important tool for companies in many ways. There are many ways
through which social media can be used as a tool to benefit business:
 Social media marketing: It can be used as a strong tool for creating an organization's
digital marketing strategies. It can also help companies to boost their competitive edge by
regularly sharing rich contents related to their brand, products or services. Social media
marketing is a cost effective way of marketing which can also help in maximising ROI of
a business and also one of the best way to reach one's customers. Today it has become an
important part of marketing for organizations as customers has many choices to choose
when they decide to buy a product (Toscani, Tosin and Zanella, 2018). It has also
increased competition for companies so as a result it has become an essence for
companies for the growth of their brand, products and services. It can also help
companies to meet their marketing goals such as: increasing website trafficking, building
conversions, raising brand awareness, creating a brand identity and positive brand
association, improve communication and interaction with the customers or stakeholders.
There are many social media marketing tools such as google analytics which help
companies can measure that whether the technique or strategy used is a success or not
they can even monitor social media marketing campaigns organized by the companies.
This analytics tool can also be used by companies to monitor that which of their social
content is performing best with their customers or audience. There are many social media
platforms available for companies to choose for marketing, it completely depends upon
the company to choose the platform which is suitable for their brand, services or products
marketing (Webster and Hume, 2018).
 Information Gathering: Social media in workplace can be used as a great tool for
employees as it offers significant resources for information gathering, meeting companies
goals or completing any given tasks. Information today is constantly shifting, changing
and arriving which changes they way a business is done or conducted. There are many
social media platforms which can be used for gathering all soft of information required
by the companies to accomplish their tasks etc. many platforms like Facebook can be
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used by companies to gather information about their shareholders, customers, clients or
their competitors as it has world's most comprehensive database which consist of all sort
of personal information of people using it (Social Media Marketing, 2019). It can also be
used to gather information about customers needs, requirement and any changes required
by the customers, through which it becomes easy for companies to work on their existing
or new products and services to ensure that customers requirements are fulfilled. It can
also be used to gather information about their competitors so that they can work
accordingly and compete with their competitors. In shot it can be used as a great tool by
the companies to gather information which can be used by their employees to survive in
this competitive world. (Forsgren and Byström, 2018)
 Communication: Communication is one of the most important factor that is needed to be
excelled within the workplace. Transparency within workplace can help in boosting
employees productivity level, morals and loyalty level. Effective method of
communication is important within workplace as it can help organization in decreasing
employees turnover rate. Social media can be used as a great tool for improving
communication within the workplace. There are many social media platform which can
help in improving internal communication within an organization like Facebook,
whatsapp, LinkedIn, slack etc. Slack and LinkedIn initially were used for professional
communications but today they are much more than that (Nisar, Prabhakar and Strakova,
2019).
CONCLUSION
Form the above assignment it has been summarized that use of modern technology today
has been continuously increasing within workplace. Many technologies like cloud computing,
cybersecurity, management tools can be used so better storage, security, mobility, remote
connectivity, automation and many more. This advancement in technology has changed that
organizations do business. Today social media is also used as an important tool by the companies
for various purposes like information gathering, improving communication, marketing or
improving their brand image and many more. Social media has provided a way to companies to
boost their business in many ways.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Attaran, M. and Woods, J., 2018. Cloud computing technology: improving small business
performance using the Internet. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, pp.1-
25.
Caulkins, B., Marlowe, T. and Reardon, A., 2018, July. Cybersecurity Skills to Address Today’s
Threats. In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp.
187-192). Springer, Cham.
Clark-Ginsberg, A. and Slayton, R., 2018. Regulating risks within complex sociotechnical
systems: Evidence from critical infrastructure cybersecurity standards. Science and
Public Policy.
Dempsey, D. and Kelliher, F., 2018. Industry Trends in Cloud Computing.
Forsgren, E. and Byström, K., 2018. Multiple social media in the workplace: Contradictions and
congruencies. Information Systems Journal, 28(3), pp.442-464.
Hatch, M.J., 2018. Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives.
Oxford university press.
Mohammad, O.K.J., 2018, June. Recent Trends of Cloud Computing Applications and Services
in Medical, Educational, Financial, Library and Agricultural Disciplines.
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Frontiers of Educational
Technologies (pp. 132-141). ACM.
Nisar, T.M., Prabhakar, G. and Strakova, L., 2019. Social media information benefits,
knowledge management and smart organizations. Journal of Business Research, 94,
pp.264-272.
Toscani, G., Tosin, A. and Zanella, M., 2018. Opinion modeling on social media and marketing
aspects. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.01892.
Webster, G.B. and Hume, M., 2018. Analysing the Role of Social Media in Dialogue Marketing
and Management as a Contemporary Franchising Local Area Marketing Technique.
In Social Media Marketing: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 176-205).
IGI Global.
Online
Social Media Marketing. 2019. [online] Available
Through:<https://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing >
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