EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE ON THE CAPABILITY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS TO MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: A CASE OF SELECTED STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES IN WINDHOEK, NAMIBI
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Date
2021-10
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Publisher
NAMIBIA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Abstract
Social media has had a significant impact on the practice of public relations since the emergence of
digital media. Organisations around the world have had to embrace social media platforms to
support or facilitate communication. However, the use of social media has varied from one
organisation to another. Experiences of using these platforms for public relations activities have also
varied among Public Relations Practitioners (PRPs). This has been attributed to various factors,
including, among others, PRPs ability to operate or use these platforms. Structure, defined as rules
and resources, can influence how employees’ function in any organisation. Structure thus assumes
that a set of rules and resources available to PRPs to manage social media platforms is at the core of
an organisation’s operations. Thus, using a qualitative approach and Anthony Giddens’s
structuration theory, this study examined the effect of organisational structure on the capabilities of
PRPs to manage various social media platforms with a specific focus on commercial State-owned
Enterprises (SOEs) in Namibia. The study found that structure does impact how PRPs in State-owned
Enterprises manage social media platforms. Findings showed how rules and resources in
organisations could influence PRPs use of social media platforms. Based on these findings, the study
argues that there is a need to understand the influence of ‘structure’ as a starting point towards
effectively enabling PRPs to use social media platforms for communication purposes in
organisations.
Description
Keywords
Public relations, Public Relations Practitioners, Social Media, Structure, State-owned Enterprises
Citation
Mufaro, N. (2021). Examining the effect of organisational structure on the capability of public relations practitioners to manage social media platforms: A case of selected state owned enterprises in Windhoek, Namibia [Master’s thesis, Namibia University of Science and Technology].