الملخص الإنجليزي
Today, social media platforms represent the biggest part of the new Web 2.0 internet, which enables interactivity, content sharing, and publishing. Social media enables anyone from around the world to share and publish his ideas, opinions, and comments. Today millions of users around the globe are daily interacting with each other through social media platforms, which have made it a fertile place for public communication. Consequently, public sector organizations have realized the importance of social media and thus are increasingly using it.
In Oman, the Directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, for government organizations to open additional communications channels with citizens, have boosted the adoption of social media. Currently, most of Omani public sector organizations, have adopted social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Despite this, little has been done in terms of investigating the adoption of social media by these organizations and the factors that have an impact on its adoption. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the adoption of social media by Omani public sector organizations and the factors that have an impact on its adoption. The investigation can help public sector organizations to better understand their current stage of social media adoption, and could be used as a benchmark for comparison with the requirements of the current stage and the higher stages of adoption. In addition, identifying the factors that have an impact on the adoption stage can draw the organization's focus towards these factors, which can help in establishing organizational and technological capabilities in a systematic way.
This study can contribute to the body of knowledge theoretically in terms of identifying the stages of social media adoption as well as the factors influencing the stages of social media adoption by Omani public sector organizations. Based on the findings, it will propose a revised model of adoption. Furthermore, this study will also determine the current stage of social media adoption by Omani public sector organizations and provide a comparison between the high-performing organizations and the low-performing ones. This can help organizations determine what needs to be done in order to improve their performance. The study will also provide practical recommendations that are clear, attainable and based on empirical testing.
