Social Media Use in Internal Communication in Dubai Public Sector Companies

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Key Concepts
Problem Statement
Methodology
Cross-Sectional Survey
Interviews
Sampling and Procedure
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Nowadays, social media are used by managers in order to inform employees about the coming events, post updates regarding different projects, and initiate discussions (Mount & Martinez, 2014). Therefore, it is possible to speak about the active use of social media to change the patterns of internal communication. This topic needs to be discussed in detail while referring to the public sector of Dubai because the current impact of social media on the internal communication is significant.

In spite of the fact that the strict legislation is followed in Dubai regarding the use of social networks, many companies adapted social media for their communication purposes and chose to share the information with employees immediately (Golden, Wulf, Alanazi, Alhamad, & Shomefun, 2014).

However, the processes of applying social media to internal communication are different in private and public companies because of strict regulations followed in governmental companies, and the internal communication in this sector requires the further research. It is also necessary to refer to the key concepts that were identified by researchers in relation to the topic previously, the problem in the sphere of internal communication, and methods that can be appropriate to answer the research questions.

Key Concepts

In the scholarly literature, the study of internal communication in companies is associated with the sphere of management of human resources and development of the corporate culture (Huang, Baptista, & Galliers, 2013). The studies on the internal communication in the governmental organizations state that managers working in the public sector prefer to choose traditional ways of sharing the information like face-to-face meetings, conferences, and letters (Oliveira & Welch, 2013).

The evolution in the sphere of the online communication led to the active use of e-mails in the corporate environment. Oliveira and Welch (2013) state that many companies adapted the social media for the internal communication because of such advantage as flexibility.

The use of social media in the corporate context, especially in the public sector, is the new trend. Moreover, the researchers also note that the use of social media in the Dubai public sector differs from the approaches used in other countries as the field of the corporate communication in Dubai is highly regulated (Golden et al., 2014).

Problem Statement

Managers working in the public sector companies of Dubai tend to avoid or limit their use of informal language and creative or catchy posts in order to attract the employees’ attention while using the social media for communicating internally, why? This problem of the limited use of social media in internal communication in governmental organizations can be discussed with references to specific research questions:

Research Question1: Is there a relationship between the approach to using social media and changes in the internal communication in public sector companies of Dubai?

Research Question2: Can the use of social media by managers in the public sector influence the effectiveness of internal communication?

The operational definitions are related in this research to internal communication and social media use. Internal communication means exchanging the data and facts by employees in the corporate context. The social media use means the application of social networks’ tools to communicating internally while writing posts using different language, writing messages, initiating discussions, and sharing or updating the information.

Methodology

This research aims at examining the presence of a relationship between the approach to using social media and possible changes in the internal communication of governmental organizations in Dubai. Thus, the variables are the social media use (an independent variable) and the internal communication (a dependent variable).

It is possible to assume that there are differences in the quality of internal communication in public and private sectors because of discrepancies in the use of social media. The study will utilize the mixed methods approach in order to collect the data and analyze it with the help of quantitative and qualitative tools.

Cross-Sectional Survey

The cross-sectional survey is selected to collect and analyze the quantitative data regarding the changes in internal communication that can be influenced by the use of social media. The form of using social media (creative posts, catchy titles, formal posts, formal updates, and other forms) adopted in the organization and its impact on the internal communication at the concrete stage of the company’s development will be analyzed basing on questionnaires with closed-ended questions.

The cross-sectional survey allows determining the possible changes at the concrete moment and supporting the conclusions by the numerical evidence (Reagan, 2006). For this study, questionnaires are cost and time effective to compare approaches in private and public sectors.

Interviews

It is important to use interviews in order to collect more detailed information on the social media use in the internal communication of governmental organizations. The semi-structured interview is appropriate to collect the qualitative data from the communication with the Internal Communication specialist working in the public sector company in order to determine what aspects make him choose the certain approach to utilizing social media and what outcomes are observed (Creswell, 2013).

Sampling and Procedure

The purposive sampling is used for the study. Two Dubai companies from public and private sectors will be contacted to participate in the research. Internal Communication specialists and managers from the governmental organization will be interviewed on his approaches to using social media, and the questionnaire on the effectiveness of internal communication will be distributed amongst the companies’ employees.

Two companies from different sectors are selected to compare the approaches used by Internal Communication specialists while applying social media.

Conclusion

The problem that needs to be researched is why managers in public sector organizations of Dubai avoid using the engaging posts in social media and other creative approaches to influence the internal communication. The questions to answer are whether there is a relationship between the social media use and the internal communication effectiveness in governmental organizations.

These questions will be answered with the help of using the mixed methods approach. The cross-sectional survey based on the use of a questionnaire and interviews are selected to collect the data and analyze it for determining the possible relationship between variables. This study aims at examining how different approaches to using social media can influence the quality of international communication in the public sector of Dubai.

References

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. New York, NY: Sage Publications.

Golden, M., Wulf, M., Alanazi, W., Alhamad, N., & Shomefun, O. (2014). The role of social media in transforming governments and nations. International Journal of Business & Public Administration, 11(1), 12-25.

Huang, J., Baptista, J., & Galliers, R. (2013). Reconceptualizing rhetorical practices in organizations: The impact of social media on internal communications. Information & Management, 50(2), 112-124.

Mount, M., & Martinez, M. G. (2014). Social media. California Management Review, 56(4), 124-143.

Oliveira, G. H. M., & Welch, E. W. (2013). Social media use in local government: Linkage of technology, task, and organizational context. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 397-405.

Reagan, J. (2006). Applied research methods for mass communicators. New York, NY: Marquette Books.

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