Social media information benefits, knowledge management and smart organizations

Abstract

Social technologies can provide a potent means for organizations to manage their information flows and thus induce changes in their knowledge management (KM) systems, which can then be linked to performance improvements. This paper examines the growth of social media within organizations, considering the impact this may have upon knowledge sharing in a particular type of KM system - Community of Practice - (CoP) based discussion groups (KMDG). We focus on this KM tool because it provides employees with an opportunity to strategically reach out to different groups of people within their CoP, and engage in information exchange and communication. Using a content analysis method, we investigate two intermediate information mechanisms (information richness and informal communication) that social media KMDGs are theorized to generate, and quantify their effects on labor productivity and return on assets. Our findings provide evidence of KMDG positively affecting organizational performance through embedded information and social communication.

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ORCID for Tahir M. Nisar: orcid.org/0000-0003-2240-5327

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