Emerging media and internet technologies for organizational connectivity and collaboration

¶ … Technology

Internet technologies have developed to become important elements of communication in today's world. Emerging media and internet technologies like blogs, social networking sites, and virtual meetings like webinars and tele-seminars have transformed the modern working environment. In light of recent developments, emerging media and internet technologies have contributed to enhanced interconnectivity because of their flexibility. Given this trend, it is increasingly important for organizations to embrace and utilize emerging media and internet technologies for their various work processes. The organization selected in Week One utilizes emerging media and internet technologies to enhance its work processes and productivity. However, there are potential pitfalls of using emerging technology, which implies that it's important to develop a plan of action to overcome these pitfalls.

Analytical Framework for Organization

As previously mentioned, the organization selected in Week One of this course uses emerging media and internet technologies to enhance its processes and productivity. Emerging media and internet technologies that are used in working environments across organizations are described as digital media. According to Couldry (2012), digital media is made of the latest phase of the contribution of media to modernity (p.2). Together with internet technologies, emerging media provides a wider space of communication for all kinds of interactions i.e. one-to-one and group communications. As a result, emerging technology provides enhanced interconnectivity, particularly with the emergence of mobile internet access and connectivity.

The most relevant academic theory for creating an analytical framework for this organization is social theory. Through this theory, the consequences or impact of emerging technology are examined with regards to the society and the world. Therefore, one of the components of this analytical framework for the organization is enhanced communication and connectivity between the organization and its various stakeholders. As previously indicated, emerging media and technologies exist to help improve interconnectivity and communication between people. Given the significance of these technologies in improved communication, the organization should examine whether its use of blogs, social networking sites, and virtual meetings help improve interactions between its various stakeholders. Blogs and social networking sites should provide an avenue through which this organization interacts with the outside world, especially potential and existing customers. The organization should examine whether these communication platforms contribute to enhanced interactions and connectivity with its customers and the overall outside world. On the other hand, virtual meetings like webinars and tele-seminars are used for interactions with the organization's internal world such as employees and shareholders. Using social theory, the organization should examine whether the use of these meetings results in frequent and better interactions with these stakeholders.

The second component of the analytical framework is knowledge sharing since emerging media and internet technologies are collaborative technologies used in the workplace to develop relationships and promote teamwork. Shirky (2012) states emerging technology enables large scale organizations and communities to engage in collaboration. The organization should examine whether the collaborative capabilities of blogs, social networking sites, and virtual meetings contribute to knowledge sharing. Generally, knowledge sharing usually occurs through procedures that include discussions in online forums such as social networking sites and virtual meetings as well as storytelling through blogs.

The third component of the analytical framework for the organization is the business benefit of these collaborative technologies. Social networking sites are platforms through which employees and other organizational stakeholders interact. However, these sites have sometimes become distractive in the workplace and harmful to organizations. To this extent, the organization should examine or determine business benefits can be obtained from employees' use of emerging technology in the workplace. The effectiveness of current strategies and policies towards the use of blogs and social networking sites in the workplace should be evaluated relative to the desired business benefits.

Actions for the Organization to Consider

Based on this analytical framework, this organization should consider several things for its current workplace. First, the human resource department for this organization should consider creating, communicating, and implementing policies for governing the use of emerging technology in the workplace. These policies will help ensure that the use of emerging media and internet technologies across work practices generates improved communication, promotes knowledge sharing, and results in business benefits. Secondly, the human resource department should stay up-to-date with the changing landscape of these technologies and make necessary changes to policies to ensure that desired objectives are achieved. Third, employee engagement and external communication should be enhanced so that emerging technology will be beneficial for the organization in relation to improved work processes and productivity.

Plan of Action for the Organization

To avoid these pitfalls, the organization should have an effective plan of action that will help in realizing the full potential of emerging technology. First, the organization should create a policy and strategy that guides the adoption and use of emerging technology across work processes and activities. Secondly, the organization should ensure it has the right message for the right media when utilizing emerging technology. In his 2008 presidential campaigns, Obama ensured his digital media campaign involved matching the right message with the right media (Jarvis, 2010, p.801). This implies that matching the message and the media is crucial towards avoiding pitfalls. The other aspects include adopting technology based on business strategy and gradual implementation of the technology based on desired goals and objectives.

In conclusion, emerging technology has become an important part of modern communications and business processes. An organization that utilized emerging media and internet technologies should evaluate usage based on communication processes, business benefit, and knowledge sharing. Moreover, the organization should develop an effective plan of action to help identify and deal with any pitfall in order to realize the full potential and benefit of emerging technology. For this organization the adoption and use of emerging technology entails evaluation using communication processes, knowledge sharing and business benefit as well as creating a policy and strategy for its use.