Employees and Technology Usage

Communication is key for any business and even more important that employees can communicate with one another and understand the different methods that they have access to.  Much of our business communications have changed and been influenced by the way we communicate outside of work.  Today employees are interjecting their own methods of communication mainly, social media, into their work environments. 

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Outside of work, employees utilize social media, other forms of technology in order to stay connected with the rest of the world, and this has begun to creep into their work environments as well. Twitter, also known as a micro-blog debut in 2009, it was a radical way of thinking and communicating with others.  Skeptics did not believe one could create enough interest in 140 characters or could attract the attention of an audience in so few words and yet, here we are six years later and Twitter continues to be a popular tool used to communicate.  Twitter usage began with individuals but today most companies have multiple social media sites including Twitter.  According to Alfred Hermida, journalism has begun adopting Twitter and utilizing it to distribute the news quickly and efficiently (2010).  This proves how popular Twitter has become among organizations if the journalism field has begun incorporating it into their day-to-day operations.  The journalism field is known for being extremely closed off and does not adopt change very often or easily, but they have realized that Twitter can be useful in connecting the news with their audience.  One of the main reasons that Twitter has been adopted by the journalism field has to do with employees being willing to incorporate it.  If employees had been unsure, I do not think that Twitter would have been adopted as quickly as it had been.  The fact that employees have exposure to this social media format because they use it in their personal life helps ease the transition, and creates an almost seamless adoption. 

Further supporting this idea that employees are responsible for including new technologies into their work life is the below video.  In the video, Andrew McAfee discusses how employees are bringing about change to business through the adoption of new technology.  McAfee continues by acknowledging that giving employees freedom to explore new technology options they are more likely to be engaged and creative in their work output.  To view the video please click the link http://www.mckinsey.com.

Without such freedom, employees would remain stifled and the company would continue to remain stagnant.  The idea to allow communication methods to change naturally and give employees the opportunity to include social media that they are comfortable using brings a fresh perspective to the communication field. 

  

Hermida, A. (2010). Twittering the news: The emergence of ambient journalism. Journalism Practice. 4(3).  297-308. http://www.tandfonline.com

(2009). How web 2.0 is changing the way we work: An interview with MIT’s Andrew McAfee Retrieved from: http://www.mckinsey.com.