Does social media promote knowledge exchange? A qualitative insight

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits of social media to enhance knowledge exchange in the organizations. Moreover, the current qualitative inquiry elaborates the orientation of doctors about social media applications and knowledge exchange in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

The constructionism approach based on grounded theory followed by qualitative design is used to investigate the exposition with the help of 22 non-directive and semi-structured interviews from the doctors of Bahawal Victoria Hospital. The cases are selected by using convenience sampling and thematic analysis is done using NVivo-11 plus.

Findings

The results end up with four major themes. The social media applications, at the first door, extend communication and relationship among employees. Moreover, these applications are equally beneficial for acquiring existing and new knowledge. Additionally, social media applications advance knowledge exchange by promoting knowledge sharing and transfer.

Research limitations/implications

This study is equally beneficial for employees and management to promote knowledge exchange through social media applications. The effective and efficient use of social media applications helps organizations to boost knowledge strength among employees and can address various critical issues.

Originality/value

This is an attempt to sightsee the unattended dimension (i.e. knowledge exchange) in the context with social media. The social media applications are popular all over the world and pace of their usage is increasing day by day but their real contribution toward organizational well-being is still lacking in contemporary literature.

Citation

Imran, M.K., Iqbal, S.M.J., Aslam, U. and Fatima, T. (2019), "Does social media promote knowledge exchange? A qualitative insight", Management Decision, Vol. 57 No. 3, pp. 688-702. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2017-0477