The use of a company social media networking site in organisations creates a climate for employee engagement which increases the organisation's reaction to the competitor marketplace

Abstract

Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.