Knowledge Management

Name

Institution affiliation

1.0 Introduction

In the modern world, the field of communication technology has gone to another height where people can interact freely at any time. Presently, the social media that form the most significant improvement in modern communication technology has come to improve information sharing in an organization setting. According to Thom-Santelli et al. (2012), social media aims to enhance knowledge visibility and understanding in a work setting. In this regard, it is therefore imperative to acknowledge the power of social media and the benefits that accrue to an organization when it chooses to apply. Thus, the research aims to explore how multinational companies use social media to improve knowledge sharing and communication of its employees in their work setting.

2.0 Social media and knowledge management

Apparently, it is evident that social media and knowledge management has a direct relationship with employees in the multinational companies. It is crucial to acknowledge that social media play a vital role in knowledge management and interactions in an organization setting. According to Atkinson et al. (2017), social media technology afford to give users knowledge, communication connections, and understanding that was once invisible. When both Social media and knowledge-based system are in use, positive change in information sharing within the work setting. In that reason, when employees of Google Company are willing to interact through social media, they create an opportunity where they can build and manage their knowledge through learning from posts of other people and improve their work knowledge and experience. Therefore, the power of social media technology is significant as a result of its high contribution to knowledge management and mutual interaction among employees.

2.1 Social media and knowledge sharing

According to Kingston et al. (2015), knowledge sharing involve the process through which knowledge can be exchanged from one person to the other in an organization.  It is vital to all the level of management in the multinational companies. The staff of the multinational corporation must be willing to share and exchange knowledge to build a reliable work experience, ethics that improve the overall performance. It is imperative to acknowledge employees’ knowledge sharing through social media because it can improve staffs’ mutual interaction and understanding through all the cross-functional departments in the multinational companies.

 The Nonaka's SECI Model is suitable for supporting knowledge sharing in the organization setting. The model argues that knowledge sharing is a process in which organization interacts with its environment to solve emerging challenges within the work setting. The knowledge sharing process moves from tacit to explicit and back. Tacit is a personal and specific knowledge that cannot be formally communicated while explicit is a codified knowledge that is transmittable in a systematic manner. From the model, when the two forms of knowledge interact, four types of knowledge conversion are created namely; the socialization, externalization, combination, and internationalization. Socialization occurs when tacit knowledge is converted via exchanging experiences in daily interactions. Externalization involves tacit to explicit knowledge shared to become a foundation of new knowledge. Additionally, the combination includes the knowledge gathered either internally or externally, combined and edited to form a more comprehensive explicit knowledge which is shared among members of the multinational company. Finally, internalization involves a base in which the explicit knowledge created is disseminated over the organization and converted to tacit knowledge by members where it can be applied in operations as new routines.

Apparently, Nonaka’s SECI Model can be applied by Google in knowledge creation and sharing to cultivate staff synergy that helps to solve challenges that may occur within the work setting. The knowledge model can also be applied to the top level management to make strategic decisions that align with the mission and the vision of the company.  An example of the network used by the Google Company is employees’ enterprise...