The influence of social media on processes, structure and strategies within organisations.

In the last two decades, business organisations have seen the emergence and rise of social media platforms that are fundamentally different from traditional Information Technologies. During this time, the use of social media by organisations has advanced from experimentation to become a mainstream activity within the organisation. Despite the influence and advancement in the use of social media in business organisations, the existing literature suggests that organisations are struggling with organising and managing social media as well as understanding what broader changes in the organisational structure and processes are necessary for implementing social media in the organisation. This suggests that organisations are struggling to integrate social media within organisational processes and structure as well as in developing a social media strategy within the organisation. This research aims to explore the influence of social media on processes, structure and strategy within the organisation. Respectively, the intention is to explore social media practices within the organisation using the ‘strategy as practice’ perspective to understand how social media practices affect processes, structure and strategies within the organisation. Guided by the interpretivist philosophy, twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted in this study with staff and managers from two case study telecommunication organisations in Tanzania: Kili and Mwiko (pseudonyms). The data collected was analysed using the reflexive thematic method. The thesis findings highlight several contributions to knowledge. First, it highlights that context, competition and behaviours influence how social media is embedded in processes, structure and strategy within an organisation. Second, this research highlights that the influence of social media on organisational processes is mainly through knowledge sharing. Third, this research demonstrates that planned social media practices are influenced by structure whereas emergent social media practices influence structure. In addition, this research contributes to knowledge on IS strategy by identifying seven elements of social media strategy development that are: adoption, recognition, structure, strategizing, resources, management and processes. Furthermore, this research contributes to knowledge about practice by offering insights on how organisations can manage and maximise the influence of social media on processes and strategy through providing IT training and skills to their employees and how informal organisational practices can enhance knowledge management. Finally, the research shows how flexible structures can enhance social media practices, especially planned social media practices. Limitations and directions for future research are also presented