Harvard Extension School

MGMT E-3500 Enterprise Social Media and Organizational Collaboration

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Teaching Staff:
Instructor:
• Dr. Aline Yurik
• Email: ayurik@fas.harvard.edu

Teaching Assistant:

• Andre Johnson
• Email: anj357@g.harvard.edu

Course Description

This course explores a number of enterprise social media and collaboration technologies that
organizations can use to communicate person-to-person and as a group. Organizations in today’s
world are increasingly distributed and include remote members and global locations. The people
in these organizations can no longer communicate using the same techniques as organizations
where all members are located in the same office. Face-to-face meetings are possible but limited,
and informal face-to-face communication and management approaches do not apply to
distributed teams. Time zones and language differences cause additional challenges for teams
with members in different locations throughout the world.

This course will focus on the use of internal/enterprise social media and collaboration tools and
technology available to today’s organizations. These tools provide immediate communication and
exchange of information that replaces or supplements the traditional communication methods
used by people that are located in the same office. We will understand the principles that allow
organizations to engage successfully in e-collaboration. We will review and access tools that
allow team members to communicate with each directly, such as instant messaging, chats, web
meetings, video and phone conferencing. We will also review the tools that allow delayed
communication where the members do not have to be all present at the same time, such as
enterprise social media networks, email, discussion boards, blogs, and team web sites. Effective
tools for broadcasting information, such as social media networks, webcasts, podcasts, and news
feeds, will also be discussed.

Textbooks
• Efraim Turban, Judy Strauss, Linda Lai, Social Commerce, Springer International
Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-17028-2
• Jacob Morgan, The Collaborative Organization – A Strategic Guide to Solving Your Internal
Business Challenges Using Emerging Social and Collaborative Tools, McGraw Hill, 2012,
ISBN 978-0-07-178230-2.
• Optional Case Study Coursepack: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/582192

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Course Objectives

The course is intended to provide students with an understanding of:

• Appropriate use of social media and collaboration tools in organizations based on team
and project needs
• Interpersonal and group communication tools for direct and asynchronous
communications between organizational members
• Social media and Collaboration suites to enable organizational collaboration and
teamwork efforts
• Information exchange between members of an organization using information sharing,
broadcasting, and gathering techniques
• Knowledge resource tools for organizational knowledge bases and knowledge research
• Security provisions for social media, communication and knowledge sharing within an
organization

Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
• Determine the set of social media and collaboration technology tools needed for a particular
organization based on team and project needs.
• Select and use interpersonal and group social media and collaboration technology to provide
direct as well as asynchronous communications between members of an organization.
• Select, and use social media and collaboration suites to enhance and enable organizational
collaboration efforts.
• Apply information sharing, broadcasting, and gathering techniques to provide successful
information exchange between members of an organization.
• Use knowledge resource tools to set up organizational knowledge bases and to perform
knowledge research.
• Understand and apply security provisions for organizational communication and knowledge
sharing.

Assignments and Grading

• Homework 1 (Individual): Case Study on the Use of Enterprise Social Media in an

Organization
• Project 1 (Group): Enterprise Social Media Tools for an Organization – Part 1
• Project 2 (Group): Enterprise Social Media Tools for an Organization – Part 2
• Weekly Discussions: Students will participate in weekly online forum discussions with topics
based on course material for each week
• Final Project (Individual): Research paper covering course topics

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 Grade Assignment
Weight

20% Homework 1
20% Project 1 (Group: 10% team group grade + 10% individual
contribution grade)
20% Project 2 (Group: 10% team group grade + 10% individual
contribution grade)
20% Weekly Discussions
20% Final Project

Week 1: Introduction to Social Commerce.

1/28-2/3/2019
Organizational Knowledge Flow – Documents, Knowledge Flow,
Social Side.

Conceptual Elements of E-Collaboration

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 1

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 1, 2

Week 2: Tools and Platforms for Social Commerce. Social Media in an

2/4-2/10 Organization. E-Collaboration Technology and Virtual Teamwork.
Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 2

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 2, 3
Assignments:

• Homework 1 Assigned: Case Study on the Use of Enterprise

Social Media in an Organization

Week 3: Social Commerce Theories and Concepts. Integration of E-

2/11-2/17 Collaboration Technologies.
Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 3

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 6

Assignments:
• Homework 1 Is Due on 2/17

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 Week 4: Social Media Marketing. Social Media Participant Roles.
2/18-2/24 Collaborative Sensemaking Support.
Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 4

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 5

Assignments:

• Project 1 (Group) Assigned: Enterprise Social Media Tools for an

Organization – Part 1

Week 5: Customer Engagement and Metrics. Successful Social Media

2/25-3/3 Implementation.
The Role of Structured Conflict and Consensus Approaches in
Virtual Team Strategic Decision Making.

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 5

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 9, 11

Assignments:
• Project 1 Continued

Week 6: Social Shopping Models. Social Media Organizational Adoption,

3/4-3/10 Ongoing Concerns and Barriers.

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 6

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 8, 10

Assignments:
• Project 1 Continued

Week 7: Social Customer Service and CRM. Technology – Social or

3/11-3/16, 3/24 Supporting Social, Internal Facebook, Simplicity,
(Spring Break: Multidimensional Navigation, Groups or Communities,
3/17-3/23) Notification Management.

Innovation and E-Collaboration – The Effects of Social Proximity

on Social Information Processing.

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 Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 7

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 6, 7 (Note: Chapter 6 is
for reference purposes in this week as it was covered in Week 4
readings).

Assignments:
• Project 1 Due on 3/24

Week 8: The Social Enterprise. Social Media Analytics – Value of

3/25-3/31 Analysis, Social Network Analysis vs. Reporting, Determining the
KPIs.
Internet-Based Customer Collaboration: Dyadic and Community-
Based Models of Co-Production.

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 8

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 12
Assignments:

• Project 2 (Group) Assigned: Enterprise Social Media Tools for an

Organization – Part 2

Week 9: Innovative Social Commerce. Sustaining and Making Social

4/1-4/7 Media Network Work Over Time.
Electronic Brainstorming: The Effects of Synergy, Social Loafing,
and Time on Group Idea Generation.

Group Size Effects in Electronic Brainstorming: More Heads are

Better than One.

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 9

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 13, 14

Assignments:
• Project 2 continued

Week 10: Strategy and Performance Management in Social Commerce.

4/8-4/14 Next Steps in Social Media Networks and Collaboration
Technologies.

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 Deceptive Communication in E-Collaboration.

Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 10

• Morgan, The Collaborative Organization: Ch. 15

Assignments:
• Project 2 Continued

Week 11: Implementing Social Commerce Systems.

4/15-4/21
Readings:

• Turban et al., Social Commerce: Ch. 11

Assignments:

• Project 2 Continued

Week 12: Building a Strong Organizational Collaboration, Establishing Trust

4/22-4/28
Readings:
• Course Handout – Week 12
• Optional Case Study: Moroz, Parker, Gamble, Growing tentree: Social
Enterprise, Social Media, and Environmental Sustainability, 2014, Ivey
Publishing

Assignments:

• Project 2 Is Due on 4/28

Week 13: Effective Multi-Cultural Communication, Building a Collaborative

4/29-5/5 Culture

Readings:
• Course Handout – Week 13
• Optional Case Study: Avery, The Tate’s Digital Transformation, 2017,
Harvard Business School

Assignments:
• Final Project Assigned

Week 14: Managing a Collaborative Team. Organizational Collaboration

5/6-5/12 Tools and Assessments

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 Readings:
• Course Handout – Week 14
• Optional Case Study: Lee, Using Groupon for Health and Wellness
Businesses, 2016, Elsevier

Assignments:
• Final Project Continued
Week 15: Knowledge and Information Sharing, Shared Understanding in
5/13-5/18 Collaborative Organizations. Tools and Technology for
Organizational Collaboration.

Readings:
• Course Handout – Week 15
• Optional Case Study: Leonardi, Neeley, Managing Organizations:
What Managers Need to Know about Social Tools, 2017, Harvard
Business Review

Assignments:
• Final Project is Due on 5/18

Course Policies

Learning Disabilities

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Disability
Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities.
Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for
more information.

Academic Integrity

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity
(www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use
sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting
"the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no
excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules,
please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism
(www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to
the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of
academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Assignment Late Policy

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All course assignments are expected to be submitted by the assignment deadline. Any extenuating
circumstances that prevent a student from submitting an assignment on time need to be discussed with
the instructor.