Answer

Proposal on Using Social Media in the Workplace to Communicate

1. Introduction

Modern organizations are faced with the challenge of maintaining high costs of operations. As a result, they are considering leaner models of operations that are cost effective. In addition, they are looking forward to capitalize on advances in information technology and communication technologies to share knowledge as part of continuous learning organizations. The use of social media is believed to facilitate knowledge sharing and equally contribute towards cost saving. This is why this proposal seeks to assess the significance of using social media in the workplace to communicate.

The report focuses on assessing the significance of social media in enhancing communications in the workplace. Likewise, it evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of social media and proposes the most suitable social media site that will help organizations achieve their objectives.

The report purposes to inform the human resource department on cost effective approaches to communication and how they can be regulated to enhance knowledge sharing and the ultimate achievement of organizational goals.

The audience for the report include; human resource department, IT department and the employee in general.

 The proposed organization for research is Red Cross. The research will identify how social media is used in this NGO to enhance the delivery of humanitarian services.

The proposed digital communication strategy is the use of social media.

2. Discussion

The communication strategy will be the use of social media to enhance productivity in the work place. As supported by secondary research, through the work of Dutta, (2014) social media, especially Twitter could be beneficial in talent acquisition. Social media fosters interactions between internal and external stakeholders thus making it possible for sites such as Twitter to be used to advertise job opportunities.

Value Addition/ Reducing Nature of Social Media Communication

The research will also answer the question on whether social networking sites, increase value or decrease value accruable to firms. Pathak, (2015) observes that social media could be equally misused by employees which will create conflicts thus derailing them from productivity. On the other hand, it could foster relations and support knowledge sharing. This is advantageous to the organization.

Improving Interpersonal Relations, Motivating, Marketing and Procurement

Kase et al, (2009) add to this discussion by noting that social media could play a central role in promoting good HR practices such as improved interpersonal relations because of the real time communication. In addition, it could help promote intra-firm knowledge transfer in firms that are knowledge intensive. This author emphasizes that social media contributes towards strengthening of the social network perspective in the modern organization. Tarik, (2014) notes that social media could be used to motivate employees, conduct marketing functions and even the procurements of goods and services. As a result, it provides centralized support in the delivery of some organizational functions. This enhances productivity.

Social Media and Real Time Communication

In another article, comparison is made between pros and cons of social media where it is noted that social media is more advantageous when effective policies are put in place to protect its use in an organization.

Significance of Regulated use of Social Media

Based on the list of pros and cons, it is mandated to regulate the use of social media to capitalize on identified advantages and minimize the disadvantages.

3. Conclusion

In conclusion, this report emphasizes the need for modern organizations to advance their communication practices. This means making investments to improve social media such as Twitter and Facebook which can be used for knowledge sharing. This will enhance productivity.

4. Recommendations

Organizations need to introduce a common social media that will be used by all its employees. Currently, the options to consider are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, BranchOut and LinkedIn

It is recommended that the HRM department, in collaboration with IT department introduced strict regulatory framework to guard against misuse of social media.