MGT502 - Social Media in Workplace Communication: Telstra Case

This report proposal explores the use of social media for internal communication within Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company. It highlights the importance of internal communication for employee engagement and organizational productivity, contrasting it with the common focus on external communication. The proposal discusses how social media platforms can facilitate timely information sharing, improve transparency, and bridge communication gaps within large organizations like Telstra. It acknowledges potential challenges such as information leaks and crisis communication management. The report aims to provide recommendations for Telstra on leveraging social media technologies effectively for internal communication, fostering a two-way flow of conversation, and breaking down communication barriers among employees and management. The study is based on secondary data sources and focuses on extending internal communication within Telstra.

Running head: MGT502 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
MGT502 Business Communication
Proposal
Topic: Using Social Media in the workplace to communicate: Study based on Telstra
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Context.............................................................................................................................................4
Proposal...........................................................................................................................................5
Reference List..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Social media is a great place to involve and engage the employees with the organisation
for the purpose of sharing the resources, news and information. Social media platforms are
powerful tools for the organisation to communicate with the customers and with the employees
(Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). Within the workplace, the management of organisations can
use social media intranet platforms so that the employees can communicate with the
management under one umbrella and the communication issue of the employees can be sorted
with this. Secondary sources discuss the technologies to communicate with customers and the
authors may not focus on the internal communication through social media within the workplace.
Of late, social media platform using cloud-based software can be used within the workplace so
that the different departments and employees can share their information and management can
share the notice or memorandum with the employees using social media platform. The purpose
of the proposal is to explore the use of social media in the workplace to communicate with
Telstra, a public company in the telecommunication industry in Australia. Telstra operates and
builds the telecommunication networks and it offers mobile telephony, internet and fixed-line
and data services to the customers.
In particular, this proposal will examine the usage of social media as a method of
communication in fostering the employee engagement and communication. In addition, internal
communication is led by the PR professionals and marketing department with the expertise in
human resources and public relations. However, the limitations of the proposal are that the study
will be based upon the secondary data sources which are available and the study will focus on

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extending internal communication of Telstra by sharing the company information on a timely
basis.
Background
According to Mishra, Boynton & Mishra (2014), most of the companies consider that the
significant thing for the management is to focus on external communication with the customers;
however, internal communication is very important with the employees to engage the employees
fostering the production of the organisation. Companies make own communication system based
on cloud-based social media technologies. The management can form the group in social media
platforms where the employees can share their concerns to let other departments know about the
development of the projects or the management can share the information for the employees. As
stated by Ali-Hassan, Nevo & Wade (2015), talking and communicating with the employees is
very crucial fact and step to the management in order to avoid the mistakes in communication.
Using social media for internal communication helps to avoid communication delay,
mistakes and lack of transparency (De Choudhury & Counts, 2013). In multinational
organisations, the management has to manage the employees which are from different regions
and locations. Communication in Telstra seems to break down as the management has options to
select communication methods apart from the social media. Social media provides the benefit of
communicating with the employees through written, visual and auditory methods (Rossetto,
Lannutti & Strauman, 2015). In large organisations like Telstra, top-down messages are usually
used on regular basis to make a bond of trust among the employees. Social media is beneficial
for workplace communication as it frees the boring and monotone newsletters and emails by

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adding lot more features in content and employees can share the doubts and admiration in front
of others (Ioanas & Stocia, 2014).
Context
Telstra was formed by merging together Postmaster General’s Department and Australia
Post. Telstra is the largest telecommunication service provider in Australia and Telstra has it
headquarter in Melbourne. Telstra has more than 150 subsidiaries and more than 32,000
employees (Telstra.com.au, 2018). Therefore, it is quite clear that Telstra management needs
good internal communication so that the management's decision may reach to the employees in a
proper way. Telstra has its presence in Australia in different places with regional offices. Telstra
management fails to reach the employees at right time and the employees cannot reach the
management so that they can solve the queries of the customers at the right way. The customers
sometimes get disappointed by not reaching to the executives of Telstra. There is a
communication gap between the management and the staffs when the staffs do not get any
serious intimation from the management.
On the other side, the customers face the communication gap when the staffs fail to
answer the queries of the customers. According to Razmerita, Kirchner & Nielsen (2016), social
media can change the way the employees work in the workplace as it is an integral part of how
the employees connect with each other. Telstra management has Telstra Exchange as it is the
technological idea hub to connect with the employees via news, insights and opinions. Telstra
also has CrowdSupport community where they provide support to the employees and customers.
However, the communication flow is not smooth as it should be and the management fails
difficulty to reach the employees from different workplace and locations. Telstra can introduce

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the company blog page, private company Facebook Page, set a social wall and private tweets so
that the employees can reach the management.
Proposal
In the report, key issues which employees have with the managers in communicating
through social media will be focused. In addition, the process of using the social media in the
workplace to communicate will be highlighted. In a previous time, social media platforms were
used to communicate with the external customers to solve their issues and increase the brand
awareness. Communication must encourage a two-way flow of conversation and the social
media network is an inexpensive medium where the management can use to internally
communicate. The report will highlight the use of Telstra's internal communication media using
social media platforms. Social media platforms are inflammable for the management as the
employees can leak the confidential information and it will be difficult for the management to
mitigate the crisis communication. In the report, the benefits and challenges of using social
media in the workplace to communicate would be discussed. In the report, a set of
recommendations will be given to Telstra management so that they can use the social media
technologies in internal communication. Marketing strategies can incorporate the organisation’s
plan correctly; however, right internal communication can break the barriers among the co-
workers and make it easier to reach senior management.

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Reference List
Ali-Hassan, H., Nevo, D., & Wade, M. (2015). Linking dimensions of social media use to job
performance: The role of social capital. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems,
24(2), 65-89.
De Choudhury, M., & Counts, S. (2013, February). Understanding the effects in the workplace
via social media. In Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported
cooperative work (pp. 303-316). ACM.
Financial Time. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.ft.com/content/d8734dfc-2dca-11de-9eba-
00144feabdc0
Ioanăs, E., & Stoica, I. (2014). Social media and its impact on consumers behaviour.
International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, 4(2), 295-303.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication,
51(2), 183-202.
Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K., & Nielsen, P. (2016). What factors influence knowledge sharing in
organizations? A social dilemma perspective of social media communication. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 20(6), 1225-1246.
Rossetto, K. R., Lannutti, P. J., & Strauman, E. C. (2015). Death on Facebook: Examining the
roles of social media communication for the bereaved. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 32(7), 974-994.

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Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189-214.
Telstra Social Media Communication. (2018) Retrieved from:
https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/social-media