Title: Challenges and opportunities of adaptability of social media practices in government organisations in India

Authors: Nibedita Sahu; Biswajit Das

Addresses: KIIT School of Management, Flat No.1/26, Gangotri VIP Enclave, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar 751023, Odisha, India ' School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar - 751024, Odisha, India

Abstract: In 21st century, organisations need to have a social story to leverage emotional and persuasive elements through various Social Media platforms that make service offerings lucrative. This sweeping development in communication media offers opportunity to government as well to provide, prospective platforms for (1) Voice to All, (2) immediate outreach, (3) 24x7 engagement, (4) information availability, (5) citizen-centric policy, 6) create community-based programmes, (7) information sharing, (8) interoperability, and (9) connect to citizen touch-points, to create a consistent government experience. The article discusses Social Media evolution and its application in government organisation. The research issue discussed is the extent of Social Media adoption by governments of Asian countries as against of developed countries, focusing on challenges like organisational complexity, hierarchical structure, willingness quotient of government workforce, ambiguity in delegation of authority, chances of information mismatch etc. including the barriers to formulating a sound social media policy by government.

Keywords: social media; government organisations; public policy; public service; Web 2.0; adaptability; India; public sector; organisational complexity; hierarchical structure; willingness quotient; government workforce; delegation of authority; information mismatch.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIM.2014.067926

International Journal of Intercultural Information Management, 2014 Vol.4 No.4, pp.186 - 196

Received: 22 Mar 2014
Accepted: 13 Oct 2014
Published online: 09 May 2015 *

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