Some companies, like IBM, started using social media to communicate in the workplace. But can social media replace normal interpersonal communication?Social media indeed draw distant between people much closer than in the past, but that only applies to people who are not in the same location. But as for work place, can they produce the same effect? Personally, I doubt so.
I am not an expert in psychology and behavior science, but from personal experience, interaction is very important. Interaction is not only with verbal conversation, but also non verbal communication. We pick up clues from all the non verbal communication a person make, and sometimes get our satisfactory there. Will you feel better when your boss
send you a one page email to praise you in your work, or having a pat at your back from him and receiving a big smile from his face? One of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is socialization, and human relation in the work place is one of the most important factor for work satisfactory.
And these socialisation in work place can bring along more ideas for the company in a meeting when different ideas come together to form a new one. Some companies try to make things more convenient for their employees by having these discussions on a Wiki site where everyone has a platform to share everytime anytime. However, this limits the chances to get non verbal responses and also blocks positive arguments.
Nice sharing, Secret.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if there's only some social media site which links the colleagues together, that would limit the chances to get non verbal responses and also blocks positive arguments.
All human has the needs for socialization. Not only we need to share our joy and burden about our work, sometimes we also need to share with our co-workers about our personal life. That can be anything unrelated to work such as the happiness and sour about our family, partners and friends.
Yes... And actually, social media are pulling close people further, e.g classmates. Most of the time we just add them as friends and that's all. We do not communicate with them throughout the year. And this is sad...
ReplyDeleteAlthough those social media like the intranet and wiki site have its advantages of increasing work efficiency, it limits 'quality communication' in another aspect.
ReplyDeleteWe are always being taught and reminded about the importance of interpersonal communication and face to face communication contributes to a great part of it. The social media are only complements which helps us to maintain relationship without geographical limitations. People nowadays are seems forgetting about it and that’s why there are so many people who are good 'online' communicators but fail to communicate well with the others in their real lives.