1. The exploitation of innovation within an organisation through a commercially developed SOCIAL NETWORK service
The individual assignment requires an analysis of the exploitation of innovation within an organisation through a commercially developed SOCIAL NETWORK service. This involves producing an INDIVIDUAL formal report (max 2500 words excluding references). The assignment requires an analysis of a recent IBM initiative relating to ‘Social Business’ ibm.com/socialbusiness/uk
You are required to specifically identify how ANY organisation may ‘learn’ the nature of a SOCIAL MEDIA system which may be adopted to exploit the extent of the organisations ‘knowledge’ leading to enhanced ‘innovation’. For clarity your report should therefore form FOUR elements, ie organisational learning approach, social media development, knowledge management features and the extent of subsequent innovation.
It is expected that an in-depth investigation and analysis is undertaken to determine the extent of the theoretical and practical issues involved in how the Social Media service was achieved through knowledge and innovation frameworks. Examples should be drawn from other research into well formulated networks currently available, ie; Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google, Linkedin, NING, Writeboard, Storybird, etc.
You should include how your case analysis enabled successful knowledge and innovation within the organization. This should also involve a consideration of developments in the field by providing insightful explanations of current and future potential social media exploitation.
The report should provide an academic analysis by recalling the theories and approaches that are relevant to the topic. You may structure your report to include any relevant tables or diagrams with a suggested format as: features of organisational learning, nature of knowledge and how it may be managed, a contextual description of social networks and issues relating to the exploitation of organisational innovation through the Social Media systems.
The following learning outcomes are assessed through this assignment.
1 To critically discuss the nature and process of knowledge creation and transfer within organisations.
2 To critically evaluate how organisational and social dynamics combine to engender innovation.
3 To analyze the application of concepts and theories related to new ‘social network’ technologies
4 To be able to present theoretical and empirical evidence to address complex problems and practical situations in relation to knowledge
management and innovation development
The individual report should reflect:
• Ability to identify diverse and high quality sources of information (a minimum of 40 references are required from different sources). These should include: academic journals/ books/ trade publications, government and industry data, websites, etc.
• Demonstration of clear understanding and synthesise of the available information in order to gain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the topic(s).
• Ability to discuss complex information clearly and concisely, and to construct coherent and logical arguments.
• Ability to present your findings in a professional and well structured report format, including effective use of figures, tables, appendices
and referencing (Harvard Style is required).
It is essential that your research should include novel, thoughtful analysis and the impact of social networks on innovation through referencing and incorporation of ideas from multiple sources.
In addition, the opportunity will be taken to enhance ‘employability’ criteria through attention to ‘presentation skills, ‘clarity of analysis’, ‘team support’, ‘entrepreneurship’, etc