Analyzing Social Media's Role in Human Resource Management Strategies

This report delves into the complex relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) and social media within the workplace. It begins by establishing HRM's strategic role in managing employees and achieving competitive advantages, then highlights the significant impact of social media on various HRM functions. The report identifies key challenges, such as employees using social media during work hours, which impacts productivity and creates potential security risks. It also addresses issues of cyberbullying and harassment on social media platforms like LinkedIn and the damage to an employer's public reputation caused by negative online content. Conversely, the report explores the positive implications of social media for HRM, including fostering innovation, enhancing employee engagement, and facilitating talent development. It concludes by emphasizing the dual nature of social media's influence and the importance of strategic HRM practices to leverage its benefits while mitigating its risks. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Human Resource Management
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Use of Social Media in Human Resource Management
The paper starts with the idea of human resource management within the workplace. HRM is the
strategic approach for the effective management of the staff members within the organisation,
which help the business to gain competitive advantages within the market. There are numerous
other factors within the organisation that the HRM needs to maintain for providing some of the
best value for the firm. One of the primary concerns of HRM is the use of social networking sites
by the employees within the organisation. It is one of the severe concerns as this consists of
numerous issues that the HRM needs to deal with and also there are some of the implications that
the HRM could use for expanding the use of social networking sites within the business.
The social media, as well as the networking sites, are considered to be one of the most ingrained
activities within modern society. There are numerous issues that the Human Resource
Management has to face within the business process for maintaining the activity of the
employees that are associated with the social networking sites (Delery, & Roumpi, 2017).
LinkedIn is one of the most effective social media that the employees generally utilised within
the workplace. Some of the issues that are being faced by human resource management within
the workplace are as follows:
Using social media during the working hours: The use of social media has created some of the
significant issues for the HRM as the staff members are using them while they are on the
working operation. This primarily affects the work quality as well as the organisational value as
the staff members are busy performing activities in the social networking sites. In LinkedIn,
there are many posts and places that are being browsed and like and comments by the staff
members that also during their working hours (Bennett et al., 2017). This eventually creates an
issue for the business to get developed within the market and enhanced its value. In most of the
cases, it can also be seen that the staff members use social media for various scam process and
harmful activity that lead to a negative impact over the business. Human Resource Management
had to deal with the staff members for using social networking sites, especially within the
working hours of the organisation. In most of the cases, it also creates an issue for developing the
value of the firm and maintaining their business quality level within the market.
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Bullying as well as Harassment: This is another issue that has been faced by human resource
management within the workplace for using social networking sites. In most of the cases, it
could be seen that the use of social networking sites like LinkedIn then Facebook is being
utilised by the staff members to harass their colleagues bypassing negative comments and post
on social media (Stone, & Deadrick, 2015). This is one of the serious concerns as the social
networking site is open for all and whatever post or like or comment is posted on that the other
people could see the entire things. In most of the cases, it could also be understood that by
creating the fake account the people use to bully or harass other within the workplace to hide
their identity. It is the primary concern of human resource management to maintain their team
and provide some of the best value within the workplace for dealing with the issues. The use of a
social networking site in the organisation has the most negative effect on the entire team
members of the firm.
Damage of the employer’s public reputation: The use of a social networking site can even
damage the reputation of the organisation in the market. It could be seen that people using the
social media are mostly used to update the various post and other facts within the site and for that
sometime they even post some contents that might lead to the destruction of the organisation. In
most of the cases it could be even seen that the employees are providing negative comments on
the social media sites regarding the organisation they are working in and this bring serious
damage for the business within the market (Sigala, & Chalkiti, 2015). The human resource
management is unable to control the activity of the people because some of the staff members are
using fake identity and other facts for using social media and providing negative comments on
the site. This eventually destroys the trust and the value of the common people towards the
organisation, and for that, it leads to the destruction of the firm within the market. The belief and
the confidence level of the common people are highly affected by the negative comments and the
post of the employees in social media.
The social media in most of the situation is also useful for human resource management and with
proper maintenance, they can expand the use of social networking sites within the firm. There
are numerous processes which HRM could eventually use to maintain the activity of the staff
members as well as use social media within the workplace. The primary fact of this situation is
that the value of the business has been created with proper working function and activity
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followed by the HRM and the other staff members within the organisation (Roth, Bobko, Van
Iddekinge, & Thatcher, 2016). Some of the implications of HRM for expanding the use of social
media in the business are as follows;
Innovation and knowledge creation: The use of social networking sites have helped the
organisation to bring some of the innovative as well as a creative value within the market by
opening various sites for the employees to look into. As social networking sites are the internet
based, so it opens the accessible area for the employees towards the entire world. Human
resource management can get a clear view regarding the various activities around the world for
developing their business value and maintaining the staff members (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, &
Wright, 2017). It even helps the HRM to exchange the information and provide some of the
valuable understanding for the staff members within the organisation. LinkedIn is one of the
social networking sites that are mostly used by the organisation to post their viewpoints and their
activities within the workplace which help the HRM to capture the idea and innovate them for
getting better performance level within the business.
Employee engagement: The use of social media is also used to develop the engagement level of
the employees within the business. It is one of the best processes for getting the view of the staff
members and providing them with the best working value within the market. The staff members
can get entertainment and also information by using the social networking site, and for that, they
can provide their best in the business to develop the organisational value (Stewart, & Brown,
2019). In most of the situation, it can be seen that the use of LinkedIn social media site helps to
upgrade the working function of the staff members, and also it helps HRM to communicate with
the workers effectively. The use of social media opens up new space for both the manager and
the staff members where they can exchange their views and their values in the most effective
way. It even helps to develop the business process within the field for maintaining the activity of
the firm and providing the best value within the market.
Talent Development: The use of social media also helps to develop the talent of the staff
members in the organisation by allowing them to gather new as well as innovative information
from all over the world. HRM in this process is effectively developing their level of work and
understanding process for analysing the facts and the business value within the market. In the
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recent years, the use of social media is considered to be one of the most effective values for the
firm and human resource management to develop their organisational value and their working
function within the market (Stone, Deadrick, Lukaszewski, & Johnson, 2015). The process of
developing the business within the market for providing some of the valuable understanding
processes within the market. The talent of the people are also developed by accessing innovative
ideas from all over the world, and for that, one of the best sources is the use of social networking
sites.
The use of social media within the workplace is having both the negative as well as positive
facts. It can be concluded from the paper that it is the duty of the human resource management
for managing the entire team members for providing their view and maintaining their
organisational value within the market. It can also be concluded from the paper that human
resource management has to deal with the issues like the bullying then harassment occurred due
to social media along with the negative impact of the negative comment on the business and also
the damaging of the reputation of the organization. It can also be concluded that the use of social
media is effectively developed within the workplace for managing the value and providing
outsource knowledge to the staff members regarding the business value and the working function
of the firm within the market. It is the fact that the use of social media by the employees can both
create a problem and positive impact on the business.
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References
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Delery, J. E., & Roumpi, D. (2017). Strategic human resource management, human capital and
competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?. Human Resource Management
Journal, 27(1), 1-21.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
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Roth, P. L., Bobko, P., Van Iddekinge, C. H., & Thatcher, J. B. (2016). Social media in
employee-selection-related decisions: A research agenda for uncharted territory. Journal
of Management, 42(1), 269-298.
Sigala, M., & Chalkiti, K. (2015). Knowledge management, social media and employee
creativity. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 45, 44-58.
Stewart, G. L., & Brown, K. G. (2019). Human resource management. Wiley.
Stone, D. L., & Deadrick, D. L. (2015). Challenges and opportunities are affecting the future of
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Stone, D. L., Deadrick, D. L., Lukaszewski, K. M., & Johnson, R. (2015). The influence of
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