| The influence that social media has on organizations and the way in which information is being dispersed, along with the speed of access and consistency of the message, have changed the communication exchanges between an organization and its employees and stakeholders. Through the examination of social media literature and quantitative research, this applied research sh1dy explored the effects social media had on employees within an organization and the culture. In addition to defining the boundaries of social media, there was also an exploration of individual company policies and procedures as they related to the employees' use of social media and the impact on generational groups and the culture within the organization.;The evolving nature of the fast-paced and real-time technological advances of social media has created an impetus for organizations to consider changes to both their internal and external communication processes. This sh1dy focused on exploring how social media influenced and often changed the ways employees were accessing information and whether there was an increase to an organization's flow of information. Employee efficacy related to the new web technologies and organizational mandates were studied to see if these two forces within social media collided with one another, understanding that employees had the potential of becoming a mouthpiece for an organization with social media readily available at their fingertips.;Four areas of inquiry were considered: understanding employee usage of social media in the workplace, identifying the types of organizational culture developing around these interactions, increasing awareness of managing social media and the effect of policies to control it on workplace culture, and examining the generational differences in those who used social media through a case study design utilizing the Denison Culture Survey. The survey results indicated that reliability was low and three of the four areas were not statistically significant. Further exploration of the study's driving questions were examined in more detail to understand more fully the relationship between social media and organizational culture. |
