Facebook Organisational Communication and Organisational Behavior - Case Study Example

Facebook, Organisational Communication, and Organisational Behaviour Name Course Course instructor Institution of Affiliation Date Facebook, Organisational Communication, and Organisational Behaviour Undeniably, organizations are structured based on political and legal constraints of their nation, needs of the customers and technological and economic changes affecting their environment (Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen 2010). With the introduction of social media, many organizations thought that that platform would help their product marketing and connect with customers more effectively (Abdelnour-Nocera 2013). However, they never expected the huge impact social media was going to have on their internal structure. The internet has provided a new communication paradigm, and it has empowered many people to network socially despite the geographical proximity confines. Facebook—a social media platform— has become an effective component of success to businesses (Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen 2010). Precisely, Facebook is for profit making corporation, social networking service and online social media that is based in California, United States (Ray 2013). Mark Zuckerberg launched the Facebook site in 2004 with fellow Harvard college roommates and students: Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin. The site can be accessed by desktops, tablet computers, smartphones and laptops over mobile networks and the internet. Today’s tool of Facebook has brought rapid change to the communication in the organization and the public relations. Such has shifted the emphasis of the services of the internet from consumption-based to becoming collaborative and interactive, and in the process, it has created new opportunities for interaction between publics and organizations (Ray 2013). Therefore, with the growth of Facebook as an organization's strategic tool, this paper sets to look into the impact of Facebook usage on organizational behaviour. Facebook Strategy within an organisation Most studies have found out that companies need proactive social media—in particular, Facebook—strategy if it can fulfill a strategic objective (Khang, Ki & Ye 2012). The researchers hold that to enhance organisational culture, the use of Facebook strategy should be established within the company’s communication and general strategy. Moreover, use of Facebook has similar elements as that of communication: that is, goals, target audience, competitors, tools, content strategy, and others (Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen 2010). Facebook use can be built by the department of marketing collaborating with sales department and in close interaction with the product managers and CEO or ideal mix to build Facebook strategy should be made up of professionals from the department of communication in the company and communication agency representatives (Khang, Ki & Ye 2012). The new companies must constantly with the public relations agency so that there can be an effective way of integrating Facebook into communications strategy and make sure that it is not an independent element (Ray 2013). The top management should always follow the Facebook implementation strategy, and results since such channels are both means of communication and ways of relating to the customers. The indicators of performance for Facebook should be set from the beginning depending on the communication and goals of the business: turnover, brand associations, and reputation. According to Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen (2010), the company should be able to measure the qualitative indicators such as some members/fans/followers and shares generated like tweets, comments, likes, referral, and mentions, tweets, and others. Also, the business should look at the conversion rate and interaction—whether it is negative feedback, positive or e-commerce (Khang, Ki and Ye 2012). Lastly, a qualitative indicator entails quality of the published items, relevance of conversations, and community involvement degree. Implications of Facebook use in an Organisation With Facebook, a company can easily reach out to different audiences in various socioeconomic statuses across the world. The company's position regarding saving money when it uses Facebook in the advertisement efforts will improve and reduce the costs of using face to face meetings in and out of the organization (Abdelnour-Nocera 2013). Companies can also enhance information sharing and communication by using Facebook video of Facebook live for teleconferencing, among other benefits. Facebook has been changing marketing strategies for organizations and the overall organizational culture. Business have realized that Facebook is an easy, quick, and economic place of advertisement and getting feedback from the customers Facebook implementation has enhanced worker relationships, and collaboration efforts since workers can be more connected and get instant resources for assistance and questions (Ray 2013). Even though there are some weaknesses and risks of Facebook effects, the opportunity and benefits of Facebook far outweigh the downside of the Facebook’s effects (Li, 2013). Moreover, Facebook is more likely to continue having a positive impact on the marketing efforts and organizational behaviour. Most hospitality companies are currently experimenting with Facebook using it to help in performing some of the human resource functions (Ray 2013). Most employers are using Facebook to recruit and research potential workers. The Facebook platform provides the employers with fast response benefit where the employer who will contact with the right candidate, will employ him or her, most likely (Abdelnour-Nocera 2013). Such provides the employers with the ability to find new candidates and taking them through the process of the interview as fast as possible. Moreover, employers can easily filter out the unqualified candidates. For the sentence, Alloro restaurant is fond of using Facebook in recruiting applicants. Matteo Scaccabarozzi, the general manager of the business, posts, recruitment requirements and messages friends to his Facebook page and when he ready to employ or replace employees. With the popularity Facebook, organizations prefer its ease of use and convenience for the internal communication. Some organizations have implemented internal Facebook networking and use middle grounds for the worker communication (Zarrella and Zarrella 2011). With this, employees can easily spark a conversation amongst themselves upon the status posted. All employees can be given opportunity f seeing and commenting no matter the hierarchy of the individual posting (Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen 2010). Such presents an opportunity, which may be, used for many years s other organizations start following the technology ad trend of Facebook becomes more and more advanced. Cost saving is a priority for the organizations using Facebook by directly engaging and supporting mobile employee group and remote groups with the Facebook site. The Facebook pages provide information such as discussion trends, current news, reports, memos, individual profiles and others (Pattison 2009). Because if the bonds formed within the organization, firms have reported being experiencing reduced employee turnover—a common challenge for most businesses across the world. Because the workers have become more occupied with their work, the level of performance has increased, and employees do not feel less likely to look for the exit strategies (Bertrand, 2013). Facebook also provides a platform for the leaders and executives to praise employees. Such establishes a direct connection between different hierarchical levels with workers, aids in the communication of the organization, and when properly implemented, it reduces turnover increasing morale, in turn. Facebook increases worker’s organizational commitment through the purposeful decreases in the power distance—how power has been distributed among the workers in the organization. It creates a sense of belonging to the organization by increasing workers commitment in by using emotional capital. For instance, a power difference exists between the relationship between subordinate and then boss (Abdelnour-Nocera 2013). The executives who post entries regularly on the internet sites and who have better Facebook 'like' profiles may develop bonds important areas that need changes (Bertrand, 2013). The leader should be genuine, and his or her virtual actions be similar to their physical actions. No person should be able to distinguish between how he or she behaves in a virtual sense and physical sense so that the online community can built trust in the organisation. Facebook has its universal language, which has made it possible to eliminate cultural barriers leading to increasing in the desirable diversity practices (Khang, Ki and Ye 2012). Workers can connect and interact with the colleagues with the use of the Facebook site. However, some executives claim that Facebook has harmed the organizational culture and there is a need for managers to build a healthy organizational culture through face-to-face meetings, personal messages, and phone calls (Bertrand, 2013). Despite the case, social media has proved to have a lasting effect on the organizational culture. Moreover, Facebook provides the businesses with an opportunity of engaging in targeted marketing (Bertrand, 2013). The users of Facebook have profiles with information such as employer hometown, interests, religious beliefs, TV shows movies and favorite and education books—every of this fact can help the advertisers to effectively deliver messages to particular groups (Khang, Ki and Ye 2012). The ads created can target particular demographic criteria and the number of Facebook users who can fall into the target audience category. Facebook has a profound effect on marketing through the provisions of the interface between customers and business and strengthens the organization's internal structure and employee’s attitudes (Abdelnour-Nocera 2013). Even though some companies are not convinced that Facebook has a positive impact on the business, reduced power distance, increased organizational commitment and reduced cultural barriers have been the benefits that organizations that adopted Facebook experience (Liu, Ke, Wei, Gu and Chen 2010). In other words, Facebook is used by businesses and different organizations as a communication tool. The entities make use of Facebook for marketing and advertising, building relationships with customer, communicating with customers and branding (Khang, Ki and Ye 2012. For instance, Facebook pages are good places to collect fans the same way politicians, musicians, and sports teams do. There exist over 1.4 million Facebook pages collecting millions of fans on a daily basis meaning that Facebook is a sure platform for attracting ting new customers and maintaining the old ones. Apart from the advantages that are associated with Facebook, there are some shortcomings associated with Facebook. False advertising and security breaches are some of the dangers of communication via the internet. Moreover, disgruntled or competition can make negative posts, which can ruin the reputation of the company. Also, there are legal responsibilities to the type of information shared on social media (Bertrand, 2013). When a Facebook system is hacked, and credit card numbers and or rather persona information is stolen, an organization will face ethical and legal ramifications (Pattison 2009). Some of the weaknesses of Facebook relates to the sites abuse. For example, workers may use Facebook as a platform to vent out against their former employers, which may cause the organization to develop a negative reputation (Zarrella and Zarrella 2011). Organizations are also at a risk of cost production because employees might be obsessed with online socialization on the time of the company. Despite the current debates on pros and cons of Facebook, investment in such technology has grown high. Because many organizations are investing in the technology, it is critical to look for the factors, which influence the successful usage of Facebook in the organization (Khang, Ki and Ye 2012). Researchers have claimed that use of social media technologies such as Facebook has enormous benefits to the organization. Conclusion In the recent years, the Facebook popularity has grown exponentially mostly among the young generation. Because of this growth, marketing strategy has capitalized on social media in marketing goods, and services business have proved to grow website traffic and gain exposure by utilizing Facebook sites through advertisements and promotions of their services and products that translate to increased sales. Moreover, firms can build a strong relationship by constantly interacting with customers creating loyal customers. Moreover, it is common knowledge that social media like Facebook platforms are not used by all organizations, mostly for product promotion. For instance, if the organization target audience is not users of the internet, then an attempt of using Facebook will be futile. The organization addressing such audiences should, however, realize whether social media is necessary for internal communication, brand, or both (Bertrand, 2013). The organization must also find out the potential barriers, which may block attempt of introducing social media and the resources needed for its implementation. Reference List Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Abdelnour-Nocera, J. (2013). Knowledge and technological development effects on organizational and social structures. Hershey, PA, Information Science Reference. Bertrand, S. (2013). Use of Facebook by companies. [Place of publication not identified], Grin Verlag. Bondarouk, T., & Olivas-Lujan, M. R. (2013). Social media in human resources management. Bingley, U.K., Emerald. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1394850. Khang, H., Ki, E. J., and Ye, L. (2012). Social media research in advertising, communication, marketing, and public relations. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 89, 279-298. doi: 10.1177/1077699012439853 Li, E. Y.-Z. (2013). Organizations and social networking: utilizing social media to engage consumers. Liu, H., Ke, W., Wei, K.K., Gu, J. and Chen, H. (2010). The role of institutional pressures and organizational culture in the firm's intention to adopt Internet-enabled supply chain management systems. Journal of Operations Management, 28, 372-384. Pattison, K. (2009). Marketing Your Business With Facebook. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/smallbusiness/12guide.html [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016]. Ray, R. (2013). The Facebook guide to small business marketing. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. http://www.123library.org/book_details/?id=62668. Zarrella, D., & Zarrella, A. (2011). The Facebook marketing book. Beijing, O'Reilly. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=414846. Read More