The Use of Social Media for Internal Communication within South African Local Government

Abstract

Contemporary organisations have embraced a wide variety of social media platforms. Social media provide companies, institutions and government departments with the quickest way to communicate with employees. The platforms allow for instantaneous, two-way and cost-effective communication. This paper uses Grunig’s two-way symmetrical as a lens to understand the challenges associated with the use of social media for internal communication within local government in South Africa. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires, while qualitative data was gathered using interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Four categories of challenges emerged from the data analysed: lack of social media policies, compliance and adherence with the policy, and lack of organisational support. The absence of social media policy proved to be a significant factor that leads to the ineffective use of social media for internal communication. Municipalities with social media policies had few employees who knew about the policy, whereas the remainder failed to adhere to the policy. Lack of organisational support emerged as a challenge that hampers the use of social media for internal communication in local government. This paper contends that while the use of social media has increased significantly in municipalities, significant challenges associated with the management of social media need to be addressed if the Government Communication Policy is to be implemented effectively.

Received: 02 March 2023 / Accepted: 14 May 2023 / Published: 5 July 2023