Communication as a basic element of organizations: Contributions and perspectives from digital social networks

From the overview of the communication as a requirement to support the organizational activity, related aspects of the digital mediated communication are proposed. Mediations supported in the new technologies appear as the most common way in which communication processes take place in the organizations of advanced societies. The organization cannot exist without the dynamic and complexity that communication provides. It is a fundamental cohesion factor.

Digital social networks introduce new concerns and problems to the mediated communication, particularly since its participatory and collaborative possibilities. In a wide sense, this requires a deepening approach from theory and practice. However, the real contributions of social networks to the organization at the internal level are not clear enough because it is consider that the commercial issues tend to prevail. From here, there are some questions to solve: Is this a merely external communication issue? Is there a meaningful contribution that the comprehension of social networks brings to the organization?

In the other hand, far from the importance of implementing social media as a resource in the internal communication it is also important to point out on the challenges that a “brand new” type of communication demands to the organizations. Introducing new technologies could be adopted very fast but the social comprehension of subtle changes, like those in communication, requires extra analysis.