Impact of Social Media on the Organizations-Samples for Students

Question: Analyze the impact of social media on the Organizations. Answer: The major focus of this essay is to analyze the impact of social media on the organizations. Many researches have been conducted on the ways in which the social media and networking affects the marketing and branding strategies of the companies. However, more investigation is needed in the area of positive and negative impact or effects of social networking on the processes and other practices of the organizations and the management. This is the essay that focuses on the various aspects of the organization that gets affected by the social media and networking tools along with its positive and negative impact on the same. Social media can be defined as the set of applications that expedite the interactions and the exchange of information between the two parties. This is the medium that has been used by all the organizations these days. These social media platforms are divided into various categories that are blogs, social networking sites, collaborative projects, virtual social tools, content communities and social worlds (Poba-Nzaou, et al. 2016). There are many functions performed by the organizations that are making use of the above stated social media tools. Human resource is one of the functions that make use of social networking sites and tools. The social media networking and tools are adopted by the HR department in most of the companies for the purpose of recruitment as well as for the purpose of internal interaction with the employees. It has been analyzed that inclusion of social media in this area has resulted in better recruitment process and larger reach of the companies to the relevant candidates. It has also been analyzed that integration of social media with HRM results in better opportunities for the employees to be connected with the HR department internally. Even the employees know about the vacancies at their company and recommend the candidates for the same. Apart from all of these benefits, the negative side of the aspect has also been analyzed. It has been identified by the research that the non-professional image of social networking restricts the organizations and the managers to accept the social networking tools for management purpose. It has been believed by the managers that its use can distract the employees from their actual working. Another challenge that has been identified in order to accept social media in HRM is its high speed and dynamic technologies and changes. It has been realized by the management that it is difficult to align the changing nature of social media tools and the needs of HRM of the company (Mujtaba and McFarlane, 2005). It is not the functions that are getting affected by the social media but the role of managers is also changing by time. The roles of managers in the organizations are shifting as per the change in the environment. This is because of the advances and the involvement of information technology in the business and the management. The competence of managers in the field of information technology and social media is very important for todays business (Khalil and Wang, 2002). Today, managers have to use IT in order to plan, control, manage etc. Recent development in the information technology tools have resulted in requirement of higher technical knowledge amongst the managers. Social media is the tool that can be used by the companies not only for external communication but also helps in internal communication amongst the employees. It has been analyzed that internal communication is the very important part of the organizations. Including social media at the business level improved the fu nctions and the process to a great extent. The communication at the internal level in the organization has become faster. The people used to make use of the social media tools to share information and the virtual meetings can be easily conducted on the same. Virtual meeting is the very interesting concept to be learnt (Gilson, et al. 2015). It has been analyzed that virtual concept helps in avoiding the drawback of distances in cost of the multinational corporations. It has been realized by the organizations that social media not only helps in making the communication easier inside the building but also allow the companies to make their international communication with the employees sitting at the international subsidiary of the company (Dijkmans, Kerkhof and Beukeboom, 2015). However, at the same time, it also results in loss of physical human interaction. The physical interaction of the people and the employees from overseas has vanished after the launch of social media tools in business. This is because the meetings and th e information sharing process can be easily conducted on the social media applications. It has been realized that most of the organization these days are making use of these applications such as Skype for video calling and this video calling services helps the companies to interact with their clients (Zhao and Patten, 2016). This also results in non-management of the diversification in the companies and the workforce. Physical meetings develop trust and virtual meetings do not create that impact on the clients which can be created by the physical meeting. Thus, it somehow affects the business deals. The major drawback that the company faces in order to implement the social media applications is the maintenance and control of the same. The company has to hire the full team of social media experts to handle the social media tools and applications of the company. The hired team needs to be technically very strong and should have the knowledge to deal with all the technical aspects (Nga i, Tao and Moon, 2015). Any wrong step by the social media manager can ruin the overall functions that are linked with social media. This becomes very expensive for the company to hire a big team and consistent controlling of the social media tools. It has been concluded from the discussion that as social media is the advancement in the information technology sector thus it has created various opportunities for the people in the sector of communication. Not only individuals but the business function is also getting affected by the same. In society, many positive and negative impact of social made can be seen likewise in the business functions as well. In HRM, this use of social media has given the opportunity for better recruitment but at the same time it has been realized that it is distracting the employees from their original goals. Even in order to have international virtual meetings, the company can have the advantage of conducting meeting in minutes but it ruins the culture of physical meetings that were very effective. Last but not the least, it provides better services and makes the function easier but controlling of the social media by the company is very hectic and expensive in nature. References: Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J., 2015. A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, pp.58-67. Gilson, L.L., Maynard, M.T., Jones Young, N.C., Vartiainen, M. and Hakonen, M., 2015. Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5), pp.1313-1337. Khalil, O. and Wang, S., 2002. Information technology enabled meta-management for virtual organizations. International Journal of Production Economics, 75(1-2), pp.127-134. Mujtaba, B. and McFarlane, A.D., 2005. Traditional and Virtual Performance Management Functions in the Age of Information Technology. The Review of Business Information Systems, 9(3), p.53. Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44. Poba-Nzaou, P., Lemieux, N., Beaupr, D. and Uwizeyemungu, S., 2016. Critical challenges associated with the adoption of social media: A Delphi of a panel of Canadian human resources managers. Journal of Business Research, 69(10), pp.4011-4019. Zhao, N. and Patten, D.M., 2016. An exploratory analysis of managerial perceptions of social and environmental reporting in China: Evidence from state-owned enterprises in Beijing. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 7(1), pp.80-98