Of Personalizing Social Environments for the Purpose of Collaborating in Businesses - Essay Example

Analyze and discuss possibilities of personalizing social environments for the purpose of collaborating, knowledge exchange and life-long learning inbusinesses Creating an environment for learning in businesses is vital in creating a progressive talent management system in which job skills are passed from one person to the next. In order to facilitate this type of sharing, environments that are intended to create a socialization between colleagues can be very useful. These types of environments can range from casual conference rooms that are designed to create interactions through comfort and inspired leisure, to events in which a designated business purpose is underscored by a vacation style setting. However one of the more useful systems for this type of socializing has been created through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The exchange of knowledge and the potential for collaboration can be developed within an organization or between organizations, with connections made through social interaction that creates inspiration. Modern society has evolved into a place where social learning has developed a consumerist society that is obsessed with finding ways in which to create and spend leisure time. Because of this cultural trend, innovation in business has required the ways in which business is conducted to be restructured. Many businesses that are designed around creative industries have changed their environments so that a casual atmosphere is designed so that innovation and creativity can be more easily promoted. According to Allen and Henn (2006), communication is the key to innovation and in order to have good communication, organizational structure and physical space work together in order to create an optimum environment for innovation (p. 6). When a business environment is designed with the socialization between workers taken into consideration, higher levels of collaboration will result through the available interactions and communication. Talent management within human resource departments requires that methods be developed in which learning can be facilitated, whether it be from mentors to underlings, internal job training, or to external skill enhancing education. Some of the necessary relationships that must be built in order to network mentoring relationships or to encourage job skills training from one employee to another can be promoted through social networking environments that are designed to create interaction. According to Vaiman and Vance (2008), “effective knowledge management rests primarily with an organization’s ability to enable the exchange, enhancement, and application of social capital” (p. 13). Social capital is the investment in relationships through social interaction that will provide a beneficial return (Lin 2007, p. 19). Business has infiltrated many spheres within life. According to Carroll (2009), business power can be manifested in economic, political, technological, environmental, social, and individual spheres (p. 30). The way in which the organizational climate is designed will lend itself to the usefulness that can be gained from social relationships that promote innovation and enhanced learning (Anderson, Carter, and Lowe 2007, p. 125). Conklin (2006) suggests that the conversations in the social environment lead executives towards learning more about the internal workings of their business, creating conversations that are rich in innovation and lead to greater success(p. 415). Therefore, the ways in which the spheres overlap is crucial to creating the appropriate flow of communication. Creating a personalized social environment on the internet through the social media in order to create relationships between business coworkers develops a system of rewards when people display empathy, humanitarianism, sociability and friendliness. The behavioral tendencies that are displayed in these environments are not devoted to explicit, ordered, or systematic activities, but are centered on the acquisition of interpersonal competencies (Smart 1985, p. 333). Furthermore, social networks can create microcosms of culture in which behavior becomes tailored towards business ends as they are framed within the social environment. The social media networks that have developed on the internet have been fruitful resources for linking people in business and creating relationships that can help to evolve one’s career. Places like Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way in which people reveal their lives to one another. Facebook provides a wall for giving out information about ones daily life, while Twitter goes one step further in creating a space where people can give moment to moment updates on what they are doing. These types of sites can be used to increase business by promoting what a business is doing or propagandizing the business through positive statements that promote the business. According to Shih (2009), Robert Putnum who coined the term social capital states that it is “the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other” (p. 43). The use of social networks on the internet has raised the phenomenon of developing empathy, humanitarianism, sociability and friendliness through which motivation is created towards helping one another. Shih (2009) states that “Individuals with greater social capital close more deals, are better respected, and get higher ranking jobs. Online social networks offer access to social capital, empowering those who are well connected with private information, diverse skill sets, and others’ energy and attention”(p. 43). Creating a well designed page on a social network can provide a high energy response to those who would engage in ‘friendship’ through that page. Inside CRM (2008) has a list of 50 social networks where businesses should have a presence. In addition, there are sites that are intended for professional people to promote themselves so that their achievements are readily available to other professionals. This creates an environment in which networking can be achieved with associations that can last a lifetime. When these environments are personalized, the ability for others to see into the individual or into the business is achieved and this promote better connectivity. Social networks like LinkedIn are designed specifically for professionals to connect. Having both a business presence and a personal presence can help to promote relationships that will define a career for a lifetime through engaged social interaction through the internet. Using tools that help to create a personal expression will help to further promote a designed intimacy that makes a statement about the individual or the business. References Allen, Thomas J., and Gunter Henn. 2006. The organization and architecture of innovation: managing the flow of technology. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. Anderson, Ralph E., Irl E. Carter, and Gary Lowe. 2007. Human behavior in the social environment: a social systems approach. Modern applications of social work. New Brunswick, N.J.: Aldine Transaction. Carroll, Archie B. 2009. Business & society: ethics & stakeholder management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Centre for Educational Research and Development. 2006. Personalising education. Schooling for tomorrow. Paris: OECD. Conklin, David W. 2006. Cases in the environment of business: international perspectives. The Ivey casebook series. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Inside CRM. 2008. 50 social sites that every business needs a presence on. Inside CRM. Found at http://www.insidecrm.com/features/50-social-sites-012808/ Lin, Nan. 2007. Social capital: a theory of social structure and action. Structural analysis in the social sciences, 19. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smart, J. 1985. Higher education: handbook of theory and research. New York: Agathon Press. Shih, Clara Chung-wai. 2009. The Facebook era: tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff. Boston: Prentice Hall. Vaiman, Vlad, and Charles Vance. 2008. Smart talent management: building knowledge assets for competitive advantage. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Read More