Applied research

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Running Head: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

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Abstract

Social media include blogs, microblogs and even electronic social networks. They are generally believed to have transformed the manner in which individuals relate with each other. This applied research assessment which therefore explore on the influence of social media in the public sector. Within the public sector, there are prevalent evidences which justify the impact of the social media in the public sector. There have been numerous cases in which individuals have a norm to communications within the noticeable one-way fashion for several decades. This applied research will explore various aspects on how social media has influenced the public sector. Besides, it will navigate how social media has entirely contributed to the growth of the public sector both in negative and positive effects. This will include the review of the literature of what other researchers have done on the topic. Comment by Tiffany H: This applied research assessment explores the influence of social media in the public sector. Comment by Tiffany H: And will navigate through how social media Comment by Tiffany H: Should this start with besides?

Table of Contents

· Problem or Issue Statement.

· Introduction.

· Review of Literature.

· Research Methodology.

· Findings.

· Analysis.

· Recommendations.

· References.

Problem or Issue Statement

Government agencies have gradually but progressively adopted social technologies to execute their tasks better. Such social technologies can accumulatively reengineer the old model of the public sector. This is due to the fact they facilitate substantial chances to accelerating the transparency as well as prevalence within the government agencies and its departments. It besides can increase the trustworthy in government from its respective citizens. Through social media, there can be creation of new forms of participation of citizens as well as the engagement in public issues. Besides, social media has enhanced both intra-organizational and inter-organizational collaboration. There is therefore an essential need to look into various ways that the social media have really enhanced an achievement of such empirical formalities within the government structure hence developing the citizen-government relationship. Comment by Tiffany H: Accelerate the transparency of what? Comment by Tiffany H: Remove Comment by Tiffany H: has

From a contextual perspective, it is evident to state that the relationship and collaboration between the government and the citizen have been greatly altered, advanced by the use of social media. In addition, this has heightened the participation of the citizens in most of the government projects which have been overseen and controlled by the government offices. The issue statement in this respective research is to oversee and conduct a study that will help explain the role played by the social media within the public sector. This includes the citizen participation in the public sector over the use of social media (Reilly, 2005). This will besides entail conducting a research methodology which will help explore the extent in which social media have occupied the largest part of the public sector and its imperative significance in social media. Comment by Tiffany H: has Comment by Tiffany H: remove Comment by Tiffany H: into Comment by Tiffany H: has

Introduction

In the modern world, individuals have intensively utilized the Information and Communication Technologies for diverse uses. Some of the citizens use the Information and Communication Technology for professional purposes. Other find it useful to utilize it in their social life. This makes it to be subsequently more challenging to cooperate with government using analogous gears. This therefore results to the anticipations of the modern, open as well as effective government sector to increasingly intensify and become more challenging. Besides, the government agencies associated with the public sector encounter austerity measures as well as an intensive scrutiny of their respective budgets (Reilly, 2005). This may result to the government agencies evaluating some of their new forms of innovations for their own services. The government besides have to stabilize economic situations as well as the demand by the citizens of the respective country to reliable, hassle-free as well as seamless interaction with the government agencies. Comment by Tiffany H: others Comment by Tiffany H: Remove Comment by Tiffany H: in Comment by Tiffany H: in Comment by Tiffany H: remove Comment by Tiffany H: has Comment by Tiffany H: Is there a word missing between these two?

Such a zeal of the citizens requires the government agencies to have admirable transparency as well as effective acquisition of information. This automatically results to such government agencies exploring for new tools such as new digital technology as well as web 2.0 applications which may facilitate financial pressure and advance the quality of the public services. This achievement may exhibit the participation of social media in the public sector which gives public satisfaction to the respective citizens (Reilly, 2005). This besides helps us find some of the solutions which may facilitate a development of a better social media interventions towards attaining the interests of the citizens. Besides, it shows an impassive role played by social media within the public sector agencies that are more controlled and apprehended by the citizens of the respective nation. Comment by Tiffany H: STOPPED HERE

Review of Literature

Web 2.0 can be regarded as a platform which span the aggregate connected devices (Reilly, 2005). The article categorizes this web 2.0 as being transparency, honesty, trustful as well as reputation. It can be underpinned by a typical prototype of simple, utilizable, participatory, self-service as well as decentralized model (Zambonini, 2006). The web 2.0 have justified sharing information as well as services that emerges from multiple sources. Such multiple sources comprise of personal operators as well as the information and services that can be updated, utilized and those that an individual can remix together with the others. The establishment as well as the facilitation can be regarded as one of the significant facets of web 2.0 service. This can be integrated by the fact that it has the latent to reciprocally make the most of the joint aptitude of the respective participants. This makes it to play a critical role within the pubic sector as part of the social media.

Social media may be essentially comprehended as the Internet-based application which fetch and transmit consumer-generated content (Blackshaw, 2006). The consumer-generated content incorporates media parodies which may be established by consumers who have been typically informed by the essential encounter. As well, they have retrieved through collective online for reliable entrey by any other susceptible consumer. Social media can be essentially be termed to be in two diverse scopes. This entails the social attendance or media richness as well as self-presentation which is also commonly known as the self-disclosure. In accordance with a typical categorization, social media can as well be classified in two broader groupings on the basis of their respective main purpose (Kotler, Kartajaya & Setiawan, 2010).

Such categories include expressive social media in which the operators express themselves when they share their text, video, picture as well as music and collaborative social media in which operators express themselves through sharing knowledge as well as content. This shows a willingness to work together for a common goal. The government agencies may attempt to merge citizen-centric as well as social media to representing influential tackles hence that will enhance public engagement. In fact, the digital citizens are all over the social media. This therefore implies that the government have to participate if they have the desire to connect with the individuals. In addition, the government agencies ought to come up with their own web-based applications in service eminence framework (Accenture, 2012). This would be a preparation to completely utilize their potentials.

The e-government can be termed to have been designed to facilitate the data from the government to the citizens. This involved a mechanism of mono-directional manner as well as out of any spontaneous response parameters (The World Bank, 2011). The e-government in this case can be described as the utilization of the information technologies by the government agencies. This may have a capability to conduct the effective transformation of the government relationship with the respective citizens, business organization as well as other arms of government. Such type of technologies may essentially serve a wide range of diverse ends, better facilitation of government services to all citizens as well as advanced interactions with business and industry. It besides helps resident authorization via access to data or even more effective management of government agencies. In fact, the adoption of the new technologies in the government agencies have been accompanied by an imperative change of the organizational culture. This results to honesty, transparency, collaboration as well as openness of both the government agencies and citizens in the public sector.

Research Methodology

· I gathered information and the research carried out by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

· I additionally acquired secondary information from the Accenture 2013 in their comparative study.

· I looked into the initiatives and directives explored in the Memorandum of Transparency and Open Government which had been issued by President Obama in 24th January 2009.

· I besides checked on the validation of the Digital Agenda for Europe which had been actioned in European Commission in 2014.

· I also looked into the Action Plan for the Open Government Partnership Initiative.

Findings

As per the 2013 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) e-Government Survey, the substantial part of the Organization for Economic and Development countries acknowledges open government data which is abbreviated as the OGD. They acknowledge the open government information as a majority priority as well as a prominent tool which may be utilized in enhancing the economic growth. This subsequently improves the quality of the public services. It besides promotes the government transparency as well as making the government being accountable (OECD, 2013). In fact, according to their analysis more than 56% of the nations contain a national strategy for facilitating open government information to citizens. 12% shows that there exists a diverse national strategy for individual line ministries. The record additionally indicates that 28% of the nation’s citizens give a specification on the co-existence of these strategies.

Only 4% of the nations are having absence of open government information strategies. The Accenture comparative study indicated that 81% of the citizens find it relevant to acquire a more digital government service. 64% of the citizens had the desire to having interactions with the government through the social media (OECD, 2013). Notably, the citizens in mature markets such as that of United Kingdom as well as United States of America may not be regarded to having highly satisfaction with the quality of public services in comparison with the emerging economies such as United Arab Emirates. This audacity can be lined with the austerity measures which mature economies encounter. However, the topmost priority within digital services composed with the already unshakable digital substructure may land these nations in a higher position for the future than the one they are currently encompassed in.

Analysis

Within the literature review, there are few models which have been industrialized to illustrate the e-government enactment. Each model can be regarded to be based on a diverse perspective. They besides appear to be consistent with each despite the fact that they may have numerous properties in common. This therefore need to formulate a four-stage model based on technical, organizational as well as supervisory viability. They include the catalogue, transaction, vertical integration as well as horizontal integration hence utilizing the whole aspect of the social media (Kutsikos & Kontos, 2011). Such development of e-government implementation may besides help improve the public relations of the government together with its respective citizens as well as the business organizations that may be in either way dependent on the public sector.

The introduction of the open government era tends to fade away the e-government models in that they are not unambiguously premeditated to accomplish the core ideologies of open government which entails the contribution, partnership as well as transparency. This especially include the emerging technologies such as social media and the web 2.0. From the above findings, the higher maturity levels literally imply that there is an increment in public engagement as well as greater public value (Kutsikos & Kontos, 2011). Besides, this respective higher maturity has accelerated the technical or the managerial complexity as well as the greater challenges or risks. Various scholars as per the above literature review assessment can be seen to argue that the e-government models concentrate often on public services. They rarely sufficiently consider the given information which include the accretion of government information, incorporation of the government information, incorporation of the government information with non-government formal information as well as integration of government information with non-government formal information as well as social information.

Such an assessment will involve an effective proposal of open government model which will act as an amalgamation of the two models which were analyzed in the open maturity model. This will therefore tend to establish a common frame of reference for practitioners in the government area (Agostino, 2013). The proposed model attempts to vividly locate the level of information complexity at each stage of the government maturity. The five key stages of the open government model would interactively help see to it the effectiveness of this prospective model. This includes the vertical as well as horizontal integration within the government that is highlighted in the second stage.

Such a vertical and horizontal integration may be regarded as a necessity for the government data integration. This will therefore involve social data through social media which is highlighted in the fourth stage of the open government model. The first stage involves a mechanism where the government agencies will have to collect, aggregate as well as publish the information in a one-way communication channel (Agostino, 2013). The second stage involves horizontal as well as vertical integration within the government agencies. Here, the government agencies will facilitate the unified information which have been denoted from the diverse government sources. The third stage will focus on the facilitation of the open participation as the government agencies are open to the public ideas as well as their knowledge. The fourth stage will entire focus on the open collaborations as government agencies, the public as well as the cloistered part become co-creator of public data. The fifth stage facilitates attaining of the high level of maturity by participation, collaboration as well as transparency.

Recommendations

The above applied research exposes an extensive summary of the influence of social media as well as ICT in the public sector. The acquisition of the social media applications in various government agencies is typically at an early stage. This literally implies that the major government initiatives will concentrate often on the participation as well as transparency and less partnership. However, the ingenuities international may be perceived as the best exercise which serves the principles of the open government as well as being utilized in the springboards for additional research and expansion.

The social media platforms can also be regarded as very crucial in the responsibilities they account for numerous citizens in their daily lives as friends and consumers. As seen in this research study, it is even challenging to access some of the commercial internet services facilitated by the government agencies without utilizing social media. The verge of social media is being integrated across all forms of government practices. These include state, regional, county or even municipal governments of any given nation. As seen in the assessment, most of such operations involves communications, directions as well as coordination of service delivery by the government agencies within various public sectors (Linders, 2012).

It is the critical role of the government agencies to ensure that the citizens as public are always informed as well as affirming that they have the ability to utilize the public sector organizations and comprehend their responsibilities. This is vitally essential especially in gaining of assistance as well as engagement from the society. There is therefore a need for development and implementation of strategic plan and policies which will accelerate the utilization of public sector programs and services through the public sector hence its influence. This include a combination of support as well as engagement in building the public trust.

As per the review and interpretation of the literature as well as findings in this research study, recommendations for further research ought to be suggested for the implementation of the research study to be appropriate and effective (Mergel, 2013). There is need to increase the accessibility of public information, awareness as well as the ultimate comprehension of goods and services facilitated by the public sector. This will effectively initiate public engagement as well as creating trust and a positive reputation. As per the above observations, there is an essential need to implement the following recommendations into the e-government model.

One of the appropriate recommendations include developing and implementing a digital agency as well as government strategies that will ensure widespread diffusion of social media. Besides, there is an essential need of addressing existing digital divides as well as evading the emergence of new forms of digital exclusion. The nation’s government ought also to initiate encouragement of the engagement and participation of public and society shareholders in various public service design as well as delivery of public services. In addition, there is need for the government agencies to initiate creation of information (Mergel, 2013). The created information will help drive forward the cultural affiliations and beliefs within the respective government agencies as well as within the public sector. This will essentially improve the relationship between the government agencies and the citizens thus creating a cohesive and mutual understanding of the public sector. The government agencies will also improve its public services delivery through social media by acquiring the feedback from the satisfied customers or rather the citizens.

References

Accenture (2012), How Social Media is Reinventing Government, http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Digital-Citizen-Social-Media.pdf [accessed 28/6/2014].

Agostino, D. (2013). Using social media to engage citizens: A study of Italian municipalities. Public Relations Review, 39, 232-234.

Blackshaw, P. (2006). The consumer-generated surveillance culture, http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3576076 [accessed 28/6/2014].

Kutsikos, K., & Kontos, G. (2011). A Systems-based Complexity Management Framework for Collaborative e-Government Services. International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies, 4(1-2), 1-16.

Linders, D. (2012). From e-government to we-government: Defining a typology for citizen coproduction in the age of social media. Government Information Quarterly, 29, 446-454.

Mergel, I. (2013). Social Media in the Public Sector. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What Is Web 2.0 Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software, http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=1 [accessed 28/6/2014].

OECD (2013). Government at a Glance 2013, OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/gov_glance-2013-en [accessed 28/6/2014].

The World Bank (2011). Definition of E-Government, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICAEXTINFORMATIONANDCO/EXTEGOVERNMENT/0,,contentMDK: 20507153∼menuPK: 702592∼ppageP: 148956∼piPK: 216618∼theSitePK: 702586, 00.html [accessed 28/6/2014].

Zambonini, D. (2006). Why you should let Web 2.0 into your hearts, http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/08/why_you_should_let_web_20_into.html [accessed 8/4/2014].