Communication Reading Discussion

Please answer two of the three questions based on the pdf, each question 200-300words

In this study, Jiang et. all (2017) set out to find the correlation between social media usage and the jobs of communication practitioners. Social media usage is on the rise, especially as it related to being used in strategic communication plans (Jiang et al., 2017). This study is trying to determine whether or not this has had a positive or negative effect on communication practitioner roles (Jiang et al., 2017). More specifically, they studied if/how social media impacted communication practitioners “strategic communication work, leadership behaviors, and their perceptions of work-life conflict,” (Jiang et al., 2017).

To accomplish this, they looked at 4,700 U.S. based organizations across an array of industries, such as “corporations, nonprofit associations, government and military organizations, professional services companies, educational institutions, among a variety of other organizations,” (Jiang et al., 2017). Next, they combed through those organizations to identify all communication practitioners that held a managerial role; this included anyone with the words president, vice president, manager, etc. in their title, in addition to anyone whose job description placed them in a managerial role (Jiang et al., 2017). Within the organizations they looked at, 3,889 communication practitioners met these standers and had an accessible email (Jiang et al., 2017). These 3,889 people were sent a SurveyMonkey survey via email, which resulted in a total of 458 completed surveys (Jiang et al., 2017).

The average participant was 44 years old with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Females had a slight majority, making up 54.1% of the participants (Jiang et al., 2017). In the survey, participants were asked an array of questions about how they use social media in their role, followed by specific questions regarding their role, their leadership skills, and their work-life conflict (Jiang et al., 2017). The survey was fairly straight forward. Participants were asked to use a scale of 1-11, 1 being never and 11 being always, to rate questions such as “I am engaged in strategic decision-making,” or “My work keeps me from my non-work activities more than I would like,” (Jiang et al., 2017). The questions varied to cover all the topics mentioned above (social media usage, strategic communication, leadership skills, and work-life conflict). The researchers were then able to find correlation between social media use, strategic communication, leadership skills, and work-life conflict (Jiang et al., 2017).

Of the seven hypotheses in this study, 2 were supported, 2 were partially supported, and 3 were rejected. The results did prove the third hypothesis, which said that social media usage would positively affect the leadership skills of communication practitioners (Jiang et al., 2017). Hypotheses 6a and 6b, which said the aggravating impact of social media positively related to time-based and strain-based work-life conflict, were both supported by results (Jiang et al., 2017). Hypotheses 1 and 2 were partially supported. These hypothesized that social media usage and social media usage in strategic communication would have a positive impact on leadership behavior (Jiang et al., 2017), but the results were not strong enough to fully support this. Hypotheses 4, 5a, 5b, 7a, and 7b were all rejected.

As with any study, there were limitations and bias within this study. Jiang et al. identify many areas for further research, but the only limitation they offer is that the results are not generalizable due to the limited pool and size of the study (2017). One weakness I thought the study had was waiting until the concussion to define enhancing and aggravating. In the conclusion, Jiang et al. explain social media as having enhancing and aggravating impact potentials on different areas of a communication practitioners’ role (2017). An example of enhancing impact would be giving communication practitioners more flexibility in their role, whereas an aggravating impact would be social media leading to a more demanding role and pressure to work after hours (Jiang et al., 2017). These terms are used early in the paper but are not expanded on until the conclusion. Explaining this earlier would have been a strong choice, as 5 of the hypotheses revolve around these definitions. To end on a positive note, a strength I thought this paper had was clearly defining why they chose to conduct this study. Communication practitioners perform better under the right circumstances, and to optimize their performance, researchers wanted to explore the conditions in which social media could enhance or aggravate a communications practitioners’ strategic communication, leadership behaviors, and work-life conflict (Jiang et al., 2017).

Using examples from the study, answer the following questions:

1. This study only provided one limitation. Would you agree that this is the only limitation? Why or why not? If you believe there are other limitations, what are they?
2. This study was conducted using communication practitioners from a variety of industries. As mentioned, this included “corporations, nonprofit associations, government and military organizations, professional services companies, educational institutions, among a variety of other organizations,” (Jiang et al., 2017). Do you think having the survey span across all of these industries helped or hurt the results? Was it good to cover that many industries, or would it have been better to concentrate their focus?
3. This paper was written to explore whether social media is enhancing or aggravating different areas of communication practitioner’s roles. The results provide a lot of areas for further research. What do you believe is the most beneficial area to further research next within this topic?