Thinking Inside The Box

Managers have to look beyond traditional processes and engage with multiple social networks for making better decisions.

- Dr P Mary Jeyanthi

Managerial decisions are crucial for running a business enterprise—which product to be produced, how much and at what price,how should it be advertised, and how much is to be spent on sales promotion. For most of these, thinking inside the social media will provide appropriate solutions.

Social media is constantly upgrading, enabling end users to communicate, and obtain and process information better. It is the medium most often used for new IT applications that create dynamic, interactive information exchanges (cf. Power, 2011). There are disagreements regarding the scope of social media, but its penetration in our day-to-day lives is immense. It majorly impacts decision making at the individual as well as organisational levels. For example, some believe that social media has been integral to the Arab revolutions and revolts of 2011 (cf. Kirkpatrick, 2011). In the US, political recall elections have been facilitated by social media. Akron lawyer Warner Mendenhall, who led a recall, collected more than double the 3,200 signatures needed to put the recall on the ballot, using blogs and robo-calls to spread information. El Nasser (2011) quotes Mendenhall, “Even five years ago we couldn’t have accomplished that,” he says. “We have a wonderful ability to coordinate and to share information… we’re able to do it more rapidly.”

While taking managerial decisions, it is imperative to focus on the following aspects:

• Establishing the objective of the business enterprise

• Identifying the root cause of a problem

• Finding alternative solutions

• Evaluate alternative courses of action