Knowledge Management

Question: Write an essay onKnowledge Management. Answer: Introduction The study is based upon the social media and its role in multinational corporations. The essay presented here is considering several multinational companies and giving the comfortable in a generalized way. The question still keeps pounding our minds that how does social media helps to enhance knowledge sharing, supporting new innovative ideas, building social capitals and last but not the least solving problem related to aid. The most important factor that needs to be considered by any organization is communication. But it still depends on upon many other aspects such as language, political situations and other conditions that may not be present in many international enterprises. It has been seen for some years now that many of the Multinational companies are showing interest in the social media arena. It's a still a question that remains that how do big companies under-estimated the power of communication tool by which they can reach to their potential customers and keep an eye on d ay to day activities around the globe. The presented document explains how social media is helping multinational corps to deal with various aspects as mentioned in above. 2. Social Media and Knowledge Management Social media is a tool that allows individuals or companies to share information publically with their known once. It is sharing and exchanging information's, ideas and career interests, etc[1]. It is the most influential in today computing world. It keeps us updated on a regular basis providing us that extra bit of information and tells us what exactly has been going around in the world[2]. Whereas Knowledge management is a process of gathering or capturing data, developing them, share it and use it in an organizational knowledge. It is used to reach or achieve the organization objectives by using the gathered knowledge. As far as knowledge management is a concern, yes it does play a critical role for multinational companies because the company performance ultimately depends on upon their existing knowledge[3]. 2.1 Social Media There are many multinational corporations such as IBM, NIKE, etc. are getting to know the importance of social media and contributing significantly to the latest trends in global consumption and production. Multinational companies as mentioned above are creating their straight channel to personalize their branding and operations for their global customers[4]. The company does use various tools to attract much of their potential customer using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, etc. For an example in Australia KFC keeps sending messages to their customer about its latest recipes such as its Pepsi Max that is being added to the menu which is of zero calorie cola etc. It shows that food brands like KFC are trying to communicate with their potential buyers and customers and to be in the race and give a healthy competition to their rivals by reaching to their local and global customers using the powerful tool of social media[5]. Considering big multinationals companies from other parts of the country then we can review their Twitter account, we can see how they are posting a message to engage with their clients who are so useful for any big multinational corporations. But it is also true that only using the social media tool is not at all about sending messages and trying to communicate with potential leads or customers[6]. The multinational companies need to understand that its just a tool to reach them and using it they can express their words and make their clients feel that whatever they are saying is honest, and their aim is only to provide a better quality product with a better service experience. 2.2 Social Media and Knowledge Sharing Knowledge Sharing and Social Media have a significant relationship. Sharing something is so simple for everyone, but when it comes to sharing the experience in an organization, then things becomes many complicated and complex issues. Knowledge share refers to a single person experience which is turned and presented in such a way, that it can be understood by other individuals in the same organization or this case for any multinational company[7]. It also refers to tasks to help another person with their knowledge and collaborating with them to develop new innovative ideas, solve any issues and implement processes. Another significant feature of social media is to maintain and build relationships. They do provide the strength to get connected with their potential customers and create a healthy business relationship between them and their clients[8]. Social media plays a critical role in any organization whether its big or small. The purpose of it is to build up the business relationship and to find out who their right customers are. So that they customers can directly reach to them through it and can provide the feedback and experience of using their service and products. Social media do strengthen the knowledge sharing. Mainly to stimulate the learning process, there are three significant characteristics of social media Firstly the possibility of individual or person to develop their content, and they can easily share that content with others[9]. The shared content is not imposed on other persons by any means of rules; they are free to pursue their requirement or needs. It means that the knowledge or information the person is sharing is of its own, and it can be expressed by any way they want. The knowledge sharing cannot only be dependent on an individual; it also depends on upon the organizations. Multinational companies those who established that their learning is no longer relate to their multinational corporation challenges must shift their focus to making changes to their multinational corporation culture and structure[10]. The primary object of shifting the focus is to optimize the learning. So the multinational corporation structure and culture needs to be entirely focused on easing the knowledge sharing. Three organizational infrastructures are information technology infrastructure, organizational structure, and culture. Based on the latest survey it has been found that the corporate culture plays a significant role in influencing knowledge sharing. It is vital that the multinational corporations have to be flexible regarding enterprise structure which will help them to encourage and combine knowledge sharing between different departments inside or outside a business[11]. 2.3 Social Media and Building Social Capital Social Capital is a form of cultural capital or economic in which social media the main aspect to be considered and the transactions are marked by cooperation, trust, and reciprocity. It is the most significant and vital concept for the multinational corporations. Because these big companies need to operate outside their comfort zone and had to have a right amount of resources to be in the race with the other competitors in the global market[12]. So either informally or formally then needs to be in a business relationship with the other companies to access the needed resources. The social capital refers to the value of resources and resources both intangible and tangible. It can be split into two types bridging social capital and bonding social capital. Where bridging relates to building the links between the individuals that don't know each other's interest and the bonding refers to building up the strength of the person they are already linked up or connected[13]. The social capital has been embedded like informal networks among the multinational corporation employees or workers. Reciprocity is the key tool for understanding and explaining the social capital functionalities between individuals. Therefore, we can understand that the social media plays a significant role in building up and maintaining the social capital because if its social and technical affordances of social networking sites which enable communicational interaction and reciprocity with a huge network of social connections[14]. The vast networks may include weak ties (friends of friends, acquaintances) that can provide some diverse perspective and new information. Bonding social capital is another dimension of social capital and within an enterprise or multinational company this idea or concept may be related to the feelings of tangible and social support, and it allows evaluating the way in which the social relations might ease the knowledge exchange. It has been observed that social media makes the social capital more real. It has been seen that social media does help in building up the social media. 2.4 Social Media and Supporting Innovation Social Media has been the best tool so far till date that supports various aspects such as presenting a new idea of the company in front of the potential customers using social media platforms. It will give the company an instant feedback about what people think about their new ideas or concept that they are planning to launch or manufacturing[15]. There are few ways in which the multinational companies can involve individuals in developing new services and products. They are: Open Innovation: It will allow the individuals to showcase their inventions and competitive ideas for any multinational company to harness. Crowdsourcing: Asking the individuals to solve a particular problem the company is experiencing either on their own or solving it by making a group. Social media plays a significant role in supporting innovation. The benefits we can have is that the potential customers can point out the issues in the new ideas which the individual or the company is not aware. It decreases the cost of production and improves the product or service outcome, and they become sure with their success because of their early changes and improvements were done. It has been observed by various surveys that 6% companies use social media for innovation, and 50% of them use it for to know the customer demand and other 29% use it for aid in product development. Most of the companies are using social media for their product innovation whereas some companies are still in an initial phase of their projects. However, more than 90% of multinational corporations does use social media for their product or service innovation planned to improve or increase the utilization in the coming days[16]. However, there is a lack of understanding concerning the efficient implementation and possibilities of innovation fostering campaigns in social media. Most of the companies are not familiar with the best estimation and practices possible for financial growth which makes things difficult for them. But there are some success factors by involving social media in innovation such as: Social media strategy. Quantifying engagement. Co-creation methods applications. Openness Culture. 2.5 Social Media and Aiding problem-solving Social Media helps in aided in problem solving. The multinational companies use it to simplify the dealing processes for legal situations. Social media is a tool where it gives various problem solving solutions for a single issue. For example, if any company has posted a post in their business page in social media it will be reviewed in public and will be solved by many numbers of people at once[17]. Moreover, if the company has any queries in mind, they can use the social media tool to ask solutions within the business or share it with free people to get answered to those questions which will help them in developing products and services. Sharing knowledge is also enabled by social media by which the problem solution can be shared with many companies and can have a better and number of suggestions related to that issue. Moreover, there are some downsides of SM (Social Media) in solving problems like the social media can fall into the hands of illegal practices, so the companies need to aware of those online or digital crimes[18]. In multinational corporations, the ex-employees can have the access to the list of customers, and they do know the methodology which will be helpful to them. 2.6 Risks of Social Media Social media does carry some critical risks that need to be addressed by companies. The company needs individuals who can check the company page on day to day basis and update the content of it on a regular timeline. Otherwise, there may be some fake customers or clients who want to perform a post negative feedback on the company page which is not at all genuine, and it can affect the business reputation[19]. Based on the survey made few years back it has been seen that there are some major risk factors in social media, they are: Hacking: This risk refers that your brand name can be taken away by a stranger and they can use it for fraud activities. Malware: The content when downloading from the social media websites or ads may have harmful malwares and can affect the enterprise network. No control on corporate content: Some content is been posted on the company page by mistake and the admin doesnt want it to be seen by customers that can lead to some legal activities. Non-compliance: The Company needs to need careful what they are posting on the wall which may lead to violation of government regulations which may expose the enterprise to legal action. Unrealistic clients expectations: If the company presence is been moved to online then customers might change their view towards that company. 2.7 Benefits of Social Media The main advantages of social media are that they are cost-effective because they provide us a platform where companies do not have to invest much to reach to their potential customers which are plus point for the enterprise[20]. Unlimited access is there for the industry for making the promotion of their products and services. They can reach global customers by using few clicks at their convenient location. It's simple, flexible and user-friendly to use and its measurability and building contacts are high which gives the companies that extra advantage. 3. Recommendations MNCs can easily have their presence globally by using social media as their promotional platform for their products and services. But it is also true that without investing time and effort it will not give them their potential clients. If a company wants to use social media tool for their branding, then they need to ensure that the page has to be attended on a regular basis because if the page is not visited, then there will be some customers who will negative feedback the company page which will create a negative impression on others. Multinational corporations or any organization should consider their resources before they are planning to use social media as their marketing strategy. Once they are into social media, they have to ensure that they pay regular attention to their page and need to communicate frequently with their potential customers who will leave a significant impact on their branding. Conclusion The study concludes that there are many benefits of using social media, but it is also true that there are many risks as well. So the big companies such as IBM, NIKE, ADIDAS, or any other big business need to make sure that they address those benefits and drawbacks before they think of utilizing the power tool of social media. Knowledge Management and Social Media play critical roles in Multinational Corporations by knowledge sharing using social media which is significant for any company to growth, and the employees can utilize that shared knowledge in good practices. Knowledge sharing is also important for the individuals working in the companies so that they can enhance their knowledge which will be helpful to the companies as well. 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