Social Media Problem: New Horizons Agency - Assignment Example

Social Media Problem: New Horizons Agency Introduction The New Horizons Agency is a California-based organization that provides educational and advocacy services to both organizations and people that take care of autistic children. Autism is a condition, mostly seen in children, in which victims experience acute memory lapse and relatively poor cognition. Owing to the nature of services offered by the company and the volatility of the autism patients, effective communication is imperative. The communication observes the vision and mission of the institution and ensures that they are observed to the latter. Additionally, autism needs customized care and specialized attention in which the stakeholders involved in taking care of its patients must always be reachable for consultation at all times. New Horizons Agency is highly regarded since it offers varied services to legislative and guidance groups that play an integral role in influencing the legislation and policies related to the treatment of and education of autistic kids. For this reason, the agency is instrumental in policy formulation. Problem statement The sensitivity of the New Horizons Agency makes it highly delicate and its reputation is most likely to be soiled by ineffective and unauthorized disclosure of purported company policies. Such communications can be made through a number of media including social media that has been at the center of all media of communication lately. As already noted by Jane and Jim, who are employees of the agency, quite a number of other company employees have social media accounts including Facebook and blogs. They not only use these media in highlighting personal issues alone but also in communicating issues related to New Horizons Agency (MacTaggart, 1997). Over the last couple of years, New Horizons Agency had been using social media as a platform for communication. Jim and Jane confirm that the use of social media as a communication tool has positive effects in the marketing of the company (Bodnar, & Cohen, 2012). As Jims looks at Jane’s Facebook page, he realizes that there are very interesting comments from parents with autistic kids. This is an implication that Jane's Facebook page has solicited discussion concerning the condition that New Horizons Agency deals in. As a result of this, her page has been instrumental in selling the organization. As if that is not enough, Jim is told of Jerry Humphrey's blog that does twice as much like Jane’s Facebook page (Bodnar, & Cohen, 2012). The problem with the use of social media in this business arises when Jim receives a call from Edward Hooks (a leading health and education reporter) from Star-Ledger. Ed then tells Jim about a piece that Jerry wrote in his blog that reflected the position of New Horizons Agency when it comes to policy matters even though he wrote on his account. Jim wrote his opinion in his blog, but it seemed like he was writing on behalf of the company (Bodnar, & Cohen, 2012). He might have done this intentionally or unintentionally. Nonetheless, he or any other employee, for that matter, is not permitted to speak policy issues on behalf of the company; especially without consulting the management of the company (Hinchey, 2008). The dilemma arises in this case comes about primarily because no proper guidelines for the use of social media have been formulated and implemented in the company. Even if there were stipulated guidelines for the use of social media here, a blog is a rather personal medium of communication. It would hence be very difficult to control what people write in their blogs as Jane puts it. Therefore, it is imperative that the company comes up with a comprehensive corrective measure in order to avert such an occurrence in the future. Characterization of the problem It is worth noting that the problem in New Horizons Agency arose when Jerry decided to write issues related to company policies in his blog without consulting the management of the company. This in turn portrayed an institutional image and position despite the fact that it was all Jerry’s thought. From a psychoanalytic point of view, this was an act of instinctual drive because Jerry was acting from his instincts and thoughts. For this reason, the problem in New Horizons Agency was an instinctual drive. It thus ought to be addresses from the psychoanalytic point of view as opposed to any other approaches that might be fit for the mitigation of this issue (Bodnar, & Cohen, 2012). The action research 1. Problem identification As already noted, social media have been a productive tool for New Horizons Agency especially when it comes to marketing of its services and getting insights from other stakeholders like parents. Social media have been pivotal in making sure that the company’s services are communicated to intended stakeholders in a bid to reach more parents with autistic children. However, this exploration of communication media has had some detrimental effects to the company as well. Recently, Jim was informed about Jerry blog in which he posted some policy issues of the company based on his instinctual drive. The post did not spark concerns until it was read by Edward Hooks (a leading health and education reporter) who in turn reported the case to Jim. Ed had noted that Jerry wrote about some policy issues oblivious of the fact that his audience saw it as the position of New Horizons Agency and not his idea. For this reason, this became a problem for the company because readers of Jerry blog are bound to have a formed opinion about the company whereas New Horizons Agency had nothing to do with the post. It is, nonetheless, noteworthy that this problem can recur. It can happen again because it is not just Jerry that uses his social media account to promote the company, but also the rest of the employees of New Horizons Agency. This Includes Jane, who is one of the members of staff. The instinctual drive psychoanalytic problem needs immediate mitigation. This is especially considering after considering that no proper guidelines have been put in place to guide the use of social media to communicate the interests of the company. 2. Collecting data New Horizons Agency has a total of forty (40) employees. This will be the population of the research. Since forty is a small number, the entire population became the respondents of the study. It implies that the population was not sampled to come up with representatives. The cause of the problem at New Horizons Agency, as already noted, was instinctual drives that led employees into posting their thoughts regarding the company on their social media pages. They did this without prior consultation with the relevant authorities to ascertain the consequences the post bore to the company. Owing to the nature of this problem, data was collected with the help of questionnaires that relevant questions to the problem. It is worth noting that the respondents of these questionnaires were anonymous because they were asked not to state their names. Anonymity in the questionnaires was intended to ensure that respondents gave correct answers without neither bias nor fear of incrimination (MacTaggart, 1997). 3. Generating hypotheses The following hypotheses were generated after a comprehensive analysis of the problem at New Horizons Agency. 3.1. Null hypotheses Employees of New Horizons Agency do not have a social media account The New Horizons Agency employees are not active on social media The New Horizons Agency employees do not always post your views related to New Horizons Agency without prior consultation or authorization from the company’s management 4. Questions in the questionnaire Do you have a social media account? Are you active on social media? Do you always post your views related to New Horizons Agency without prior consultation or authorization from the company’s management? The questionnaires were then distributed to all employees who then filled them and returned them to the relevant authorities. 5. Data results and analysis The following were the results of the data collected from the respondents of the study. Questionnaire YES NO Do you have a social media account? 40 0 Are you active on social media? 35 5 Do you always post your views related to New Horizons Agency without prior consultation or authorization from the company’s management? 30 10 From the results obtained, it was noted that the majority (40 out of 40) of employees at New Horizons Agency have social media accounts. This is inconsiderate of whether the accounts are Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts or personal blogs. In addition, it was also noted a majority (35 out of 40) of these employees are active on their respective social media accounts. Finally, the results also showed that most of them (30 out of 40) post their views related to the company without prior consultation or authorization from the management of the company. 6. Planning the action steps Owing to the results obtained from the data collected, it was agreed that a comprehensive action plan was required in order to help mitigate the problem at New Horizons Agency (MacTaggart, 1997). The recommendations included precise guidelines that would be observed by all the employees of New Horizons Agency when publishing matters related to the agency on their personal social media accounts. These included: Observing workplace ethics while posting issues related to the company on personal social media accounts Consulting with the management of the agency and obtaining permission from them before posting any issues related to company policies on personal social media accounts Asking fellow employees to ascertain the reactions, the posts would elicit from the general public and other institutions when posted on public communication media like social media 7. Implementing the action steps The courses of action that were recommended were then implemented while observing the privacy of employees especially when it comes to their social media accounts. For this reason, the employees were required to observe workplace ethics while posting issues related to the business on individual social media accounts. In addition, the guidelines formulated required that all the employees were to consult with the management of the agency and obtain permission from them before posting any issues related to company policies on personal social media accounts. Lastly, they had to ask fellow employees to ascertain the reactions the posts would elicit from the general public and other institutions when posted on public communication media like social media. 8. Collecting data to monitor change After the implementation of the recommendations, a second study was carried with the intention of monitoring the change that occurred. Owing to the complex nature of this second research, a sample was randomly selected from the entire population of New Horizons Agency. Ten employees were thus randomly chosen for the purposes of this study. Employees Number of posts on social media related to the company in two months Number of posts that portrayed the position of the company and yet they were opinions Employee 1 35 0 Employee 2 54 0 Employee 3 37 0 Employee 4 24 0 Employee 5 55 0 Employee 6 46 0 Employee 7 25 0 Employee 8 23 0 Employee 9 41 0 Employee 10 15 0 9. Analyzing and evaluating According to the figures obtained after implementation of the guidelines, it was noted that all the posts of the selected employees that were related to the company did not portray the position of the company and were purely interpreted as personal opinions by the audience. Conclusion In conclusion, therefore, the recommendations that were derived at after the first study showed that all the posts of the selected employees that were related to the company did not portray the position of the company. They were purely interpreted as personal opinions by their intended audience. For this reason, the solution offered for the mitigation of the problem that arose in New Horizons Agency was efficient. It is because of this that the final figures of the last study indicated zero relations of personal opinions of employees to the institution's guiding principles and policies. References Bodnar, K., & Cohen, J. L. (2012). The B2B social media book: Become a marketing superstar by generating leads with blogging, Linkedln, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and more. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Hinchey, P. H. (2008). Action research primer. New York: Peter Lang. MacTaggart, R. (1997). Participatory action research: International contexts and consequences. 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