Influence of Social Media Practices on the Fusion of Strategies Within Organisations

Abstract

Contemporary information technologies such as social media have brought into question the usefulness of the alignment perspective in understanding the role and influence of technology in organisational strategy. This has prompted some scholars to argue for a fusion view of Information Systems (IS) which sees IS as integral to business strategy. Despite the suggestion of the fusion view, there is little empirical evidence of how the fusion of strategy is realised. For instance, literature suggests that executives are struggling with how to implement social media strategy within an organisation. This paper uses the strategy as practice lens guided by the interpretivist philosophy to explore the influence of social media practices on the fusion of strategies within an organisation. The paper uses empirical evidence from the case study of a telecom organisation in Tanzania to gain theoretical insight into the role of social media in organisational strategy. This research contributes to the management literature by arguing that the fusion of strategy is achieved by the intertwinement of historical background, context, technological advances and social intent. Also, it contributes to IS literature by showing how social media extends the IS scope within an organisation while minimizing the need for organisational IT infrastructure. In practice, this research highlights the significance of informal social media practices such as WhatsApp communication in organisational processes such as knowledge sharing and customer service.

How composition and compilation of international experience in groups influences knowledge sharing: a theoretical model

“…Leaders also have the positional power to elicit knowledge sharing by subordinates, which is especially useful in heterogeneous groups, where group members may otherwise be less motivated and willing to divulge information to dissimilar colleagues (Kwayu et al, 2021). But the research also indicates that leaders can sometimes hinder knowledge sharing by nature of their powerful position, because subordinates are afraid to communicate freely (Kwayu, 2020). However, greater stocks of international experience by the leader increase the likelihood of the leader sharing international experience with individual group members.…”

“…From this line of research, individuals' propensities to share knowledge with others increase when individuals perceive that contributing knowledge can enhance their professional reputations (Leonardi and Treem, 2012), when individuals share domains of expertise (Leonardi, 2017), when there are expectations of reciprocity (Leonardi, 2017) and with higher levels of interpersonal trust (Mejova et al, 2011). Furthermore, knowledge sharing is facilitated by greater professional homophily between individuals (Kwayu et al, 2021), by differences in status or hierarchical position (Kwayu, 2020) and by individuals holding accurate and shared metaknowledge of "who knows what" and "who knows whom" in the organization (Leonardi, 2014(Leonardi, , 2015, suggesting that group composition and structure influence knowledge sharing behaviors among individuals.…”