Towards the development of a social media-supported organisational learning framework

Abstract

Social media (platforms categorised as Web 2.0 platforms) have been reported and presumed to have a significant impact on organisations and can be used to improve organisational learning (OL) in businesses. Although OL has been discussed throughout literature in the Western world, only a few OL studies have focused on organisations in Africa, particularly in the South African context. Furthermore, there are a limited number of studies that have discussed the role and impact of social media on OL. Consequently, there seems to be a gap and a lack of guidelines for organisations that would like to implement the use of social media to facilitate OL.

This thesis, therefore, presented an overarching conceptual theoretical framework that can assist organisations to integrate social media and OL. The framework helped explore at what level and what type of OL occurred from the use of social media by employees in an organisation; this separates the study from previous work. This also helped fill the gap that exists in terms of the integration of OL and social media. The thesis used the OL theory alongside a qualitative interpretive research paradigm approach, in order to understand how the use of social media could facilitate OL.

The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews from three different companies with seven industry experts. The data were triangulated by comparing the results from the three companies, and the research findings were used to develop a conceptual theoretical framework (based on literature and data collected) with key concepts that explain how the use of social media could facilitate OL. The conceptual theoretical framework was tested and reviewed by experts. This resulted in making a significant theoretical, methodological and practical contribution to existing theory, methods and practical use, by offering guidelines on how organisations could use social media to facilitate effective OL.

The study offered recommendations for future research, such as broadening the case studies by collecting data from organisations in other provinces, conducting a longitudinal study with a different population, ethnic groups from a different country and a larger sample to enhance the validity of findings. Further suggestions included interviewing a sample of female participants, as they may have different experiences and perceptions, as well as testing out the theoretical framework in other provinces and countries.