Introduction
One benefit that has been growing in prominence as of late is the use of social media within the workplace. It has been acknowledged by various companies that due to the way in which the current generation of employees has developed, this has resulted in the need to be constantly connected to their peers via social media and, as such, it has been increasingly allowed by companies that their employees can chat or message online, albeit to a limited degree and within a certain set of boundaries.
Managing Teams across Borders
Social media within the past few years has been utilized by companies in order to help teams across borders communicate, collaborate and above all develop a form of camaraderie which leads to better collaborate practices in modern day workplace environments.
As indicated by Hearing & Ussery (2012)there are four characteristics that are in demand within a technology oriented enterprise, namely: high market responsiveness, fast developments, low cost, and finally high levels of creativity, innovation and efficiency (Hearing & Ussery, 2012)).
What must be understood though is that such characteristics are dependent upon the type of technical teams that are the backbone of the company wherein through the utilization of a variety of management practices a seamless integration of vertical and horizontal means of collaboration need to be implemented in order to create a stable organizational structure for proper operations and product development.
On the other hand what must be taken into consideration is the fact that though globalization and the process of outsourcing and off shoring technology teams are no longer isolated to merely being within the same building, state or country but rather are scattered across a wide breadth of countries, cultures and business cultures which management practices of contemporary technology intensive enterprises need to take into consideration (Bhalla, Sodhi & Son,2008).
For example Microsoft, which is one of the world’s largest software manufacturers, has development teams around the world working on different aspects of the operating systems that it produces. The inherent problem with this situation is that different methods of coding procedure combined with a variety of problems related to time difference, business culture and sheer distance involved invites problems in all stages of OS development (Bhalla, Sodhi & Son,2008).
In fact it was seen in the case of the development of Windows Vista that problems with the operating system (which was largely considered one of Microsoft’s worst operating systems) was due to problems in effective management practices in helping to consolidate efforts across different borders and cultures. This situation is not limited to the development of software but rather also includes the production processes of certain electronic goods.
For example lax managerial practices were blamed for one of Dell corporations recent fiascos wherein faulty components within several of its computer motherboards that were sourced from foreign partners were seen actually leaking some sort of fluid during normal methods of operation.
Not only that, the fact that Dell actually knowingly resold such units despite knowing of the inherent flaws is indicative of a failure of management practices from not only a production point of view but from an ethical sales perspective as well. Management practices in some of today’s technology oriented organizations need to facilitate better collaboration and communication between global teams despite the distances and diverse cultural differences involved.
One the solutions that has been developed has been the use of social media such as Facebook or closed social media such as company-wide instant chat services. Through these applications, teams from various countries, regions and localities are able to communicate and collaborate with one another despite the distances involved and, as such, this helps to facilitate a better working relationship which helps to prevent the aforementioned problems that were just mentioned.
The use of social media within this context means facilitating new means of cooperation through team exchanges (i.e. members of international teams messaging each other within a friendly setting and talking about the project), implementing means of open communication and conceptualization between the two teams at all times (i.e. the internal chat system) and facilitating better cooperative practices through the development of cultural understanding regarding how particular business cultures work over diverse locations.
It is only through this that effective practices can be implemented which result in characteristics mentioned earlier that are deemed necessary for a technology oriented company to survive and to thrive.
Social Media and the Development of “Virtual Corporations”
Social media is increasingly being incorporated into corporation in order to develop themselves on a “virtual” level thus facilitating more effective process controls and a far better method of communication and collaboration without the company having to spend money on creating its own internal systems for such actions.
The article “Virtual Corporations” elaborates on the concept of corporations that rely primarily on electronic means in order to coordinate operations, communicate instructions, implement manufacturing requests and enable a system that enables a company to operate beyond what its current resources are capable of doing. Before proceeding, it is important to note that the various concepts within the article center around 3 precise models for virtual corporations (Dominguez & Garrido, 2009).
The first model is comparable to a temporary network of firms that are placed together in order to exploit market opportunities as they arise while utilizing the innate specialties each firm possesses in order to produce the best results. Such a model can actually be seen in the present with the rise of outsourcing and off shoring wherein multiple firms usually work in tandem across national borders in order to produce certain products or services.
In order to manage such teams and help to facilitate shared best practices, Bucher, Fieseler & Suphan (2013) explains that corporations encourage team members to not only communicate among themselves via social media but actually have them develop social media groups with their counterparts in other departments so as to facilitate better inter-department relations as well as enable them to communicate on a more informal basis which leads to a far better working relationship as compared to the formality often seen in email messages (Bucher, Fieseler & Suphan, 2013).
The second models that the article elaborates on are virtual companies that focus on creating virtual products in order to address consumer needs. This particular type of virtual company often takes the form of software development firms that specialize in the development of applications that directly serve consumers.
Corporations such as Java, Sun Microsystems, McAfee, AVG, Norton and other virtual production companies are some of the best examples of this particular type of company. It is due to this that such companies incorporate social media into their operational framework since it is a method of sharing, collaboration and communication that is already ubiquitous, familiar to the general worker population as well as being free to use.
It due to such characteristics that the development of the modern day “virtual corporation” incorporates social media as an important aspect of its development given the need for cost effective communication as well as facilitating improved sharing of ideas.
As Hamer (2013) explains, one of the pitfalls of modern day corporations are the practices related to business formality and procedure which have hampered the process of sharing and communication due to the various “ropes” that employees have to pass through in order to get their idea or concept heard.
As a result, this actually causes a degree of discouragement resulting in new ideas that could have helped the company being left to fester and rot (Hamer, 2013). This is not the case though when it comes to companies that have begun to develop the virtual corporation concept and have adopted social media as a means of communication.
Through social media, company employees from different levels and departments are able to communicate ideas in a more informal setting which helps these ideas to grow and develop resulting in more innovative practices being incorporated into the company business culture. The last model the article elaborated on focuses on turning fixed workforce costs into variable costs during periods in which the market demands a particular market or service.
This particular model is actually utilized in the present by numerous retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and Whole foods that have set up a flexible workforce scheduling system based on computer programs that take numerous external factors into consideration before assigning employees to particular shifts.
It is at this point that social media enters into the forefront of business operations again wherein it is used by managers to instantly communicate with employees regarding schedules with employees negotiating among their peers regarding particular shifts and exchanging schedules among themselves.
Necessity of Social Media in the Modern Day Workplace
Based on the work of Leino et al, (2012), social media is considered to be an essential tool in the modern day work environment given the need for workers to feel connected in a manner that conforms to the current social predilection towards connectivity via social media sites. Hearing & Ussery (2012)indicates that research and development into new ways of producing and utilizing technology is one of the practices most often seen in technology intensive enterprises (Hearing & Ussery, 2012)).
This is due to the fact that technology has as of late been under a constantly accelerating level development and as a result has enabled new players to enter into markets whereas in the past distinct barriers to proper entry would have been present (Hearing & Ussery, 2012).
As such failure to sufficiently innovate along with new technological trends and products can be thought of as a failure on the part of the managerial practices at a company since being able to anticipate trends and use them to either reach greater market penetration or keep the company relevant to consumers is a necessity in today’s technology intensive market economy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of incorporating social media into the modern day work environment (Leino et al, 2012).
Brice, Fifer & Naron (2012) explains that social media has penetrated modern day culture to such an extent that people cannot help but want to communicate via social networks. As a result, companies have either attempted to actively embrace the use of the technology within the workplace or they have outright banned in.
In the former practice, this has lead to better collaborative practices and communication both vertically (i.e. between lower level workers and management) as well as horizontally (i.e. between different members of different departments) (Brice, Fifer & Naron, 2012).
This level of communication goes beyond mere email and actually allows workers to feel that they are part of a greater whole that they can collaborate with which has resulted in better attitudes towards workplace environments. On the other hand, during instances where social media has been outright banned within a company, this has usually resulted in workers in utilizing social media anyway albeit in a more secretive fashion resulting in resentment towards the company.
Resistance to Removing Social media
Unfortunately, the present day generation of employees is addicted to social media with the use of such services actually peaking during office hours.
Companies have attempted to address this particular problem by instituting a variety of rules and regulations preventing social network use within the workplace (Diercksen et al., 2013). The inherent problem with such a strategy is that employees are so addicted to being connected to their peers, friends and family via social networks that they routinely violate such regulations (Blacksmith & Poeppelman, 2013).
Humans are creatures of habit in that they enjoy daily routines and standards of procedure that do not constantly change on a daily basis, it is only in instances that change is introduced that it is met with significant resistance due to the inherent desire to keep things as they were (Blacksmith & Poeppelman, 2013).
Such a case is often seen in various corporations wherein changes implemented by the company is often met with significant resistance due to the desire of employees to retain the operational procedures that they have grown accustomed to. In the case of banning the use of social media, employees usually find a way around this through the use of their own devices or some workarounds that they have figured out in order to stay “connected” so speak.
What you have to understand is that when employees are exposed to a particular procedural element for daily operations over an extended period of time they develop a certain sense of complacency in that they tend to prefer the current way of doing business. Not only that, it is often the case that employees are often not informed as to why specific changes are occurring in the first place which results in them feeling threatened.
In the case of employees and social media, it can be described as trying to stop a smoker from smoking immediately instead of trying to stop them slowly over time. The process simply does not work and often results in constant relapses As such, those who are under the belief that they would be unable to adapt to the new changes (i.e. the removal of social media privileges) are the most resistant to them being implemented since they have grown used to and even prefer the previous way of operations.
It should also be noted that managers often suffer from the same problem (i.e. they also use social media) and, as a result, are often skeptical when changes are implemented within the company (Diercksen et al., 2013). They often view such changes as completely unnecessary with the potential of negatively impact company operations given increase worker resentment over such practices.
Social media Usage as a Competitive Advantage
The use of social media is increasingly being thought of as a competitive advantage due to the fact that it is an IT resource that is free and does not require constant upgrades by a company that uses it for communication and collaboration.
The main thrust of the article “IT doesn’t matter” by Nicholas Carr is the notion that IT (Information Technology) is no longer a means of competitive advantage but rather has been relegated to the status of a utility. Carr states that “what makes a resource truly strategic, in that it has the capacity to provide a sustained competitive advantage, is not in its ubiquity but rather in its scarcity”.
To put it in simpler terms, the less access other competitors have to a resource you control the more likely you are to make a profit off of it. It must be noted though that with recent trends in generic software availability and ever decreasing prices in software cost, proprietary in-house developed systems are becoming a rarity due to their cost of construction.
Within the context of social media usage, while it may be true that virtually any company has access to the plethora of social media systems out there, the fact remains that the ideas generation through communication and collaboration via a company’s own employees is a resource that other companies do not have access to which enables them to develop new ideas and implement them on a company wide basis resulting in improved operational performance in the long term (Ying-Chao et al., 2012).
Most companies opt to forgo such a laborious and costly method of proprietary software creation and merely opt to purchase generic systems which can be configured to their needs. Such systems often follow specific formats and established methods of generalized standards resulting in multiple companies having the same system.
As a result, the competitive advantage that has be ascribed to the use of IT by various industry managers is in fact more akin to the use of a utility that is ubiquitous and not really a basis to be used as a measurement or tool for competitive advantage. If everybody is using systems that are widely available and affordable it cannot be said that IT is a method to be used to create a competitive advantage since literally anyone could pay to get the exact same systems as another company.
However, such a case does not necessarily exist within the context of social media usage within the workplace since the resource the company helps to enhance is not a proprietary system or a piece of equipment, rather, what they are enhancing is how people work together, share ideas, best practices and other such productive aspects which positively contribute to a company’s working culture (Ying-Chao et al., 2012).
Taking this into consideration, it can be seen that utilizing social media is an inexpensive (its free) method of enhancing current operations that does not tie up resources the same way that investing into an expensive IT infrastructure would do.
As stated by Carr “the ability of technology to differentiate a single company from the pack, namely its strategic potential, declines as a result of it being accessible to all”. It is from this that he poses the argument that the managers of companies who ascribe to the fundamental philosophy that an updated IT infrastructure is a means of gaining a competitive advantage over other companies are in fact wrong in their assumptions.
Carr states that this philosophy is costly and ineffective when taking into consideration the fact that a majority of companies rarely use the full capacities of their IT infrastructures which take the form of individual computers, servers, and software.
Most office computers are utilized mostly for office applications, email and various systems that barely utilize even a fraction of a computer’s capabilities. Yet inexplicably such equipment is replaced on an almost yearly basis as new forms of technology are released. It is based on this argument by Carr that the use of social media as a means of enhancing current operations becomes more appealing since workers already know how to fully utilize all aspects of a social media site in order to communicate and collaborate with each other (Carpo, 2004).
Not only that, the positive effects are not tied towards the use of expensive systems which lends further credence towards the viability of social media as a means of gaining a competitive advantage.
The fact is most computer systems within a majority of companies today do not need to be updated for several years, while there are exceptions such as various companies that specialize in software, gaming and media applications such companies are in the minority compared to the vast percentage of companies that don’t need to upgrade their systems for years (Taylor, 2006).
In the end, it makes more logical sense to simply incorporate social media into a company’s operations and reap the benefits from a free means of encouraging better worker collaboration than invest in new equipment that is not really needed.
Reference List
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