Digital Record of Assignments Submission

Nasser Y Miranda

Digital Presentation

University of Phoenix

November 21, 2021

Main feature of the Platform

One of the features on the platform is finding colleagues with similar experiences and problems on social media. The colleagues are able to gain from learning from each other by sharing knowledge, ideas, and solutions to problems. The colleagues become both teachers and students helping one another to gain more knowledge and skills. This is form of training and development where new skills are gained as the colleagues become good at problem solving. They are able to interact with one another an aspect that helps in building relations within the organization.

Social Learning

Social learning is described as a continuous learning process from other people. It is the collection and sharing of information learned from colleagues and social media (Aaron, 2018). Social learning is an interactive form of learning which can be effective at the organization. At the workplace people learn from their colleagues through the use of social technologies like social media tools. This has an important for the employees as they are able to take responsibility for their own learning. Social learning will have a positive impact at the organization. It will encourage collaboration among teams as the members are able to share content that is beneficial for the team. Employees will feel valuable due to social learning. This is because social learning allows them to either teach or be taught with everyone being able to contribute to the organization (Brandi & Elkjaer, 2015).

A social learning component has the ability of changing the culture of the organization. According to Albert Bandura’s theory of “Social Learning”, learning is supposed to occur from observation and modeling the behavior of others. Social learning can be incorporated in the training to help in modeling positive behavior at the organization. One of the benefits of social learning is that it encourages collaboration, teamwork, and cohesion. These are elements that are effective in developing and implementing organizational culture. The organization can create a virtual community where knowledge and ideas are shared. Positive behavior in the virtual community is encouraged and can change the organizational culture.

Employees learn best through observation and interacting with one another. When many people engage in a social activity, the social environment becomes more engaging. At the workplace, the employee will be able to take control of their learning which affects the role of the trainer. Typically, the trainer imposes the time and schedule of training. However, social learning allows the learner to take control of their own training. This will do away with the role of the trainer or the trainer will take a different role of engaging the learner differently from the traditional approach.

Employees should be held accountable for what they post online. They should be wary of who sees the content they share as it may harm their reputation and that of the organization. They should realize they reflect the business that employs them, whether within the workplace or outside the workplace (Gomez, 2014). Employee accountability and online reputation can be addressed through organizational policies. The company should set guidelines for employees' use of social media before social media tools are implemented in the organization. The guidelines will set the expectation that the employee will commit before the social media tools are implemented. They will set the standards of behavior, conduct, and performance that the employees will adhere to while working at the organization.

A social media policy will be able to regulate the employees' activities while on social media. This will be done before the organization launches a social learning platform. It will help in addressing a lot of concerns like responsible use of social media tools, confidentiality, and privacy. The policy contains the various rues that the employees will abide to while learning from their colleagues and social media. The influence of social media is excellent at the workplace and, if left unregulated, could have dire consequences for the business (Cilliers, 2013).

Benefits and Improvements

An integrated approach to training and professional development can help in improving interpersonal relationships n productivity within the organization. The approach ensures the employees bring prior knowledge and experience to support new experiences. This allows the learners to apply new skills gained to new experiences at the organization. An example is learning about the importance of communication and communication skills which will allow the employees to use any new knowledge on the concept. The new knowledge on communication is added to already existing knowledge on communication and applied to new experiences at the organization. Communication being one of the strategies of enhancing interpersonal relations makes it easier for the management to sustain interpersonal relationships.

Integrated approaches like mentorship and coaching allow the employees to gain an oversight on various strategies to enhance productivity. The employees become motivated when working with mentors and are able to interact with one another hence improving their interpersonal relationships. They are able to communicate more often, interact with one another, and compromise ore. This will improve the productivity at the workplace. There are more integrated approaches to training that can help in improving interpersonal relationships and productivity. The other approaches include; reflective supervision, technical assistance, and social learning.

Studies have shown that productivity is likely to improve when people work in teams. Creating a social learning environment at the workplace helps in building teams and thus supports teamwork. This environment encourages interaction and building of relations which are essential for building teams (Vassileva, 2009). Everyone at the organization is given an opportunity to teach and be taught. This makes all the employees feel valuable and important to the organization. This improves interpersonal relations as the members are able to frequently interact with each other. Creating a social learning environment at the workplace also creates relationships at the workplace. The employees are able to connect with each others as they share ideas, knowledge, and skills.

Creating a social learning environment at the workplace is based on the “one size fits all” approach. This means that the approach should cater for the needs of all the employees. This fails to consider the views of others. It is difficult to measure social learning because it is about learning from everyone through observation, listening, and experience. Therefore, the success of the approach may not be guaranteed for the organization. The content has to be monitored to ensure the employees do not go off track. This may prove difficult for the organization.

The creation of a social learning environment as part of the overall training is meant to resolve some of the problems facing the organization. Training and development is done to equip the employee with knowledge and essential skills to help them develop. Traditional forms of training fail to offer the interaction and knowledge sharing that the approach will offer. The approach allows colleagues to find others who have similar problems and experiences on social media and share solutions. The sharing of knowledge is based on experiences the colleagues have had. They are able to teach each other as they both become students and teachers at the same time. This allows for improvements on knowledge sharing and building of relations within the organization.

References

Aaron Hightower. (2018). Why Social Learning May Be Key to Solving Workplace Problems. SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/why-social-learning-may-be-key-to-solving-workplace-problems.aspx

Brandi, Ulrik & Elkjaer, Bente. (2015). Organizational Learning Viewed from a Social Learning Perspective. 10.1002/9781119207245.ch2.

Cilliers, F.. (2013). The Role And Effect Of Social Media In The Workplace. Northern Kentucky law review. 40. 567.

Gomez, Rafael. (2014). Employees Must Practice Caution When Using Social Media. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/02/should-social-media-activity-cost-you-your-job/employees-must-practice-caution-when-using-social-media

Vassileva, Julita. (2009). Toward Social Learning Environments. Learning Technologies, IEEE Transactions on. 1. 199 - 214. 10.1109/TLT.2009.4.