In the present times the over usage of smartphones in the workplaces has resulted into severe unproductivity. Multiple factors can be identified that are affecting the concentration of the employees. Often it has been noticed that the excessive attachment to the smartphones affect the self-control of the employees to a great extent. The employees are seen as unable to ignore even the unimportant notifications (Baker et al. 2014). This is causing severe problem in maintaining quality of production of the organization. Hence, the usage of smartphones, now a days are regarded as the counterproductive to the performance of the employees. Moreover, it has been monitored that the employees find using smart phones provides them the opportunities of smart work and this is in turn making them more efficient (Jamaluddin, Ahmad, Alias and Simun 2015). The aim of the research is to identify the influences of smartphone on the productivity of the employees. Moreover, the study also aims at analyzing the benefits of smartphones while used in the workplaces.
Data Collection Method Chosen and Justification
The research includes both primary and secondary data collection methods. However, more importance is given on the primary data collection method. The secondary collection will be done taking helps of governmental websites, and scholarly publications only (Choy, 2014). Whereas, primary data will be collected surveys of the employees of various organizations.
In order to reach to the research findings, help of surveys will be taken. Survey will also provide scopes of detailed understanding of the topic. To perform the survey, a sample size of 210 people has to be considered. The participants are selected from the telecommunication, banking and hospitality industries. Amongst the participants, there are 100 male and 110 female employees. In order to analyze the qualitative data collected from the survey, the thematic approach will be adopted (Flick, 2015). The information that will be gathered from the surveys will be analyzed in consideration with various themes, which can be directly linked to the research topic.
The qualitative data analysis technique includes a range of processes where the researchers analyzes and interprets the responses of the participants. The method of data analysis that has been selected for the research is thematic approach. Taking up surveys will be helpful in providing detailed insight of the issues (Panneerselvam, 2014). Moreover, the themes will be directly related to the research topic.
All the ethical guidelines will be adhered to throughout the entire process. During the process of collecting primary data, no participants will be forced to provide answers of each and every question. They are free to opt out of the survey sessions whenever they feel uncomfortable. Each participant of the survey has given their consent willingly before asking questions (Smith, 2015). Moreover, no symbol or logo, of any company or organization has been used in the dissertation. The fact that this research is to be done only for academic purpose is also emphasized. Prior to the survey, all necessary permissions and authorization letters have been taken from the university. In addition to this, in order to do secondary research, proper citations and credits will be given. Hence, there is no chance of the paper being plagiarized. All the rules and regulations of performing the research have been adhered to.
It is analyzed from the above graph that out of 100 respondents 38 respondents make 2-5 personal calls on an average in a day. Apart from this, it is also believed by 44 respondents that they make less than 2 personal calls on an average in a day. Besides this, 10 respondents have a view that they make 6-10 personal calls in a day on an average. There are 8 respondents that make more than 10 personal calls in a day on an average. This indicates that majority of the respondents prefer to make less than two personal calls in a day on an average which in turn results in improvement in their performance and productivity at the workplace.
The above graph indicates that approximately 41 respondents spent 5 minutes on personal calls in a day on an average. Along with this, there are 28 respondents that believe that they spent more than 16 minutes on personal calls on an average in a day at the workplace. Besides this, 20 respondents spent on an average 6-10 minutes on personal phone calls in a day. Apart from this, 11 respondents believe that they spent 11-15 minutes on personal phone calls in a day on an average.
It is identified that employees make the use of smart phones at the workplace for multiple purposes. The above graph indicates that 45% of the total respondents make the use of smart phones for the purpose of the checking of the personal e-mails. Apart from this, 4 respondents believe that the smart phone is being used for attaining and conducting online training on an average. It is also found out that 32 respondents out of 100 make the use of smart phone for the purpose of searching information related to the work. Only 19 respondents believe that they make a use of smart phone for the purpose of making the phone calls to contact the clients at the workplace
It is identified from the above graph that 21 respondents who make the use of smart phone at the workplace are pursuing the role of non-customer facing. Apart from this majority of the respondents i.e. 67 respondents out of 100 respondents use smart phones in excessive manner at the workplace that pursues the role that requires facing the customers. In addition to this, 12 respondents include the people related to different job roles such as graphic designers, chef, chef manager, teaching, registered nurse, electrician, managing director, social media coordinator and the people who do not want to share the information.
It is found out that excessive usage of the mobile phones by the people due to the advancement in the technology has resulted in providing the facility to use the smart phones by the employees at the workplace during breaks such as lunch and dinner breaks as it affects their overall productivity and performance in a significant manner. It has been analyzed from the above graph that 92 employees believe that the employer has provided the permission to them to use smart phones during breaks to make personal phone calls. It is also found out that there are 8 employees who believes that they are not being allowed to make personal phone calls during lunch and dinner breaks.
It is found out that there are several benefits of using internet on the smart phone as it helps in improving the productivity and performance of individuals and helps in saving time and cost to be incurred to carry out the tasks. The above graph indicates that 35 respondents believe that the usage of internet on smart phone helps in offering improved customer service. Along with this, 57 respondents have a view that the internet has been used by them on the smart phone results in increased mobility. 39 respondents out of 100 respondents believes that the major benefit of using the internet on smart phone is increase in their productivity. Half of the respondents believe that the usage of the internet on the smart phone is that it results in increasing their ability to work remotely. Besides this, very little percentage is provided to other benefits gained from the use of internet on smart phone which includes listening to songs, getting in touch with friends and family, fun, efficiency of scheduling and look up for recipes.
It is identified that the employers should not ban the usage of the smart phone in a strict manner at the workplace. The main reason behind it is that there is a heavy dependence on the smart phone for carrying out different tasks. It is identified from the above graph that 32 respondents are disagreed with the statement that employer should strictly ban the usage of smart phones at the workplace. Along with this, 20 employees agreed that employer should strictly ban the usage of the smart phone at the workplace. Only 7 respondents out of 100 respondents are strongly agreed that the employer should strictly banned the usage of the smart phone at the workplace. 32 respondents has a neutral behavior towards the ban on the usage of the smart phone at the workplace in a strict manner. Only 9 respondents out of 100 respondents show strong disagreement towards the ban on the usage of the smartphone in the workplace in a strict manner.
It is found out that there is an increased use of smart phones by the people to carry out different tasks by the use of it. This has taken the form of addiction of the people towards the smart phone. This is the reason that it is identified that usage of smart phone at the workplace excessively would hamper the productivity and performance of the individuals and employees at the workplace. The above graph indicates that 38 respondents out of 100 respondents have a neutral attitude towards the fact that the usage of the smart phone disturbs the employees while working. In addition to this, 31 respondents agreed that the usage of the smart phone create disturbance while working in the workplace. Apart from this, 4 respondents show strong disagreement towards the fact that the usage of smart phone creates disturbances at the workplace while working. 19 respondents are disagreed that the presence of smart phone at the workplace creates disturbances in the work carried out at the workplace. 8 out of 100 respondents strongly agreed that usage of smart phones creates disturbance and hampers the productivity at the workplace while working.
It is also found out that there is a need for the individuals and employees to make a use of smart phones in a productive manner which in turn considering it as beneficial for the organizations. The above graph indicates that 41 respondents out of 100 respondents are agreed towards the fact that usage of the smart phone in a productive manner is beneficial for the organizations. It is also found out that 12 respondents show strong agreement towards the usage of smart phones in a productive manner are considered beneficial for the organization. 3 respondents does not believe in a strong manner that a productive use of a personal smart phone is beneficial for the organizations. It is also found out that 9 respondents are disagreed that productive use of personal smart phone is beneficial for the organization. 35 respondents out of 100 respondents are neutral towards the productive use of personal smart phone is beneficial for the organization.
It is identified that the productivity of the employees is significantly affected by the usage of the personal smart phone for the purpose of making calls, and text messages with friends and family. It is found out from the above graph that 41% of the total respondents agreed that the usage of the personal smart phone affects the productivity of the individual in a significant manner. Apart from this, 36 respondents are neutral to the view that the use of personal smart phone affects their productivity. 13 respondents disagreed that the usage of the personal smart phone affects their productivity at the workplace. Only 2 respondents show strong disagreement towards the usage of the personal smart phone affects their productivity at the workplace. It is also identified that 8 respondents have a strong agreement towards the usage of personal smart phone has a significant impact on their productivity at the workplace.
The advancement in the technology has resulted in the use of smart phones for the purpose of storing information related to meeting minutes and e-mails during the conduction of the team meetings. This helps in the storage of the required information for long time which can be referred and use in the future period. The above graph indicates that 37 respondents agreed that the use of personal smart phones should be allowed to be used in team meetings for the purpose of e-mails and meeting minutes. Apart from this, 13 respondents are strongly agreed that the organization should allow the use of personal smart phones during meetings for the purpose of recording meeting minutes and e-mails. 5 respondents show a strong disagreement towards the allowing the use of personal smart phone during meetings for the purpose of meeting minutes and e-mails. 17 respondents are disagreed towards the usage of the smart phones for meeting minutes and e-mails during team meetings. 28 respondents are neutral towards the fact that the allowance of the usage of the personal smart phone for the purpose of meeting minutes and e-mails during team meetings.
It is identified that the use of smart phone will result in improving the efficiency of the employees in the organization. The above pie chart indicates that majority of the respondents i.e. 38 respondents believe that the usage of the smart phone would result in improving their efficiency at the workplace. It is also found out that 31 respondents are neutral towards the use of smart phone would improve their efficiency in the organization. 15 respondents out of 100 show their disagreement towards the usage of the smart phone improves their efficiency at the work place. Only 2 respondents show their strong disagreement towards the usage of the smart phone would improve their work efficiency. 14 respondents are strongly agreed that the use of smart phone has helped in improving their work efficiency.
It is identified that majority of the respondents i.e. 35 respondents belong to the age group of 18-24 years. Along with this, 27 respondents belong to the age group of 25-29 years. 16 respondents belong to the age group of 30-34 years. 10 respondents belong to the age group of 35-39 years. 7 respondents are in the range of the age group of 40-44 years. 5 respondents belong to age group of more than 45 years.
It is identified from the above graph that 49 respondents are male and 49 respondents are females and 2 respondents do not have provided the information related to their gender. This indicates that there is a presence of equal number of males and females in the total sample of the research study.
The above graph indicates that 42.4% of the respondents are associated with the accommodation and food service sector. In addition to this, 19.2% of the respondents are associated with the retail industry. Along with this, 14.1% of the respondents are associated with the health care and social assistance. Remaining of the respondents are associated with varied type of industries such as hospitality, finance, education, customer service, professional services, aged care, media, not for profit, graphic designer, construction, higher education, public sector, pharmacy, tourism, marketing and so on.
|
X1 *X2 |
X3 * X4 |
X7 * X5 |
X8 * X9 |
X12 * X15 |
X11 * X6 |
X11 * X10 |
X11 * X13 |
X11 * X14 |
X11 * X15 |
X11 * X16 |
|
|
Correlation Coefficient |
.527 |
.502 |
.423 |
.588 |
.301 |
.736 |
.489 |
.494 |
.312 |
.363 |
.713 |
|
Significance |
.000 |
.437 |
.349 |
.000 |
.274 |
.908 |
.012 |
.009 |
.991 |
.059 |
.215 |
To do the correlation analysis, some random pairs out of questions X1 to X16 have been made and using SPSS, value of correlation and significance of correlation is calculated. This data for 11 such pair analysis has been presented in the above table. Value of correlation coefficient varies from 0.3 to 0.7 while most of these value are around 0.5. Similarly, significance amongst question variables is not reasonably significant except in certain cases like X11*X16 and X11*X14.
For Policymakers
It is recommended that it is essential for the policy makers to identify the different problems that have occurred due to the use of smart phones by the employees for the personal purposes. This can be done by engaging different members of the organization in the form of the attainment of the feedback from them by considering their views and opinions in an effective manner (Derks, van Duin, Tims and Bakker, 2015). This in turn helps in the formation of the policy regarding the usage of the smart phone for the personal purposes that can be easily and effectively implemented in the organization. It is recommended that the policymakers should develop a policy for the back office operations employees to use their smart phones during break time in the office. Along with this on the other hand for sales person, there is no need for limiting the usage of the smart phones as their role is to contact with the customers in order to generate sales and profits of the company. It is also required by the policy makers to motivate the front desk employees and sales people to make greater use of their smart phones as it facilitates in improving their work efficiency (Derks, Bakker, Peters and van Wingerden, 2016).
Organization Decision Makers
It is recommended to the decision makers in the organization that they should communicate the rules, regulations and policies to the employees framed by the policy makers in a simplified manner in order to provide them clarity regarding it which in turn helps in improving their productivity and performance in an effective manner. It is also essential for the decision makers such as superiors and senior managers to monitor the activities carried out by the employees in order to find the reasons behind the excessive use of the smart phones and impose penalty on them if they are found out to use smart phone for personal purposes other than during breaks (Lee, Chang, Lin and Cheng, 2014).
Individuals
It is also suggested that the managers should provide flexibility to the employees and allow them to use their smart phones during working hours. This in turn helps them to make a balance between their work and life. Along with this, it can also be suggested that the provision of flexibility and engagement of the employees in the decision making process helps in the occurrence of the self motivation among them regarding improvement in their performance and productivity. The provision of the flexibility to the employees results in the decline in the usage of the smart phones by them as they are intrinsically motivated to not to use or reduce the usage of the smart phones during the work timings (Haug, Castro, Kwon, Filler, Kowatsch and Schaub, 2015).
It is also recommended that the management of the organization should also create a separate place where the employees can place their smart phones in a safe manner so that their productivity cannot be hampered and the company can utilize its core competencies in an effective manner. However, it is also suggested that the company should prohibit or restrict the access to the sites which has been observed as the platforms mainly use by the employees for their personal purposes in order to improve the concentration power of the employees in an effective manner (Anshari and Alas, 2015).
Limitations
This research study is limited to the usage of the smart phone by the individuals at the workplace and does not include the impact of the excessive usage of the smart phone in other places on their lifestyle and health. Apart from this, there is a use of survey through questionnaire method which is considered as time consuming and may face a limitation of the reluctance of the respondents to provide their views and opinions related to the different aspects of the research topic due to the fear of sharing of the personal information with other people.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the usage of smartphones, now a days are regarded as the counterproductive to the performance of the employees. Moreover, it has been monitored that the employees find using smart phones provides them the opportunities of smart work and this is in turn making them more efficient. The usage of smart phones might better for personal needs but not for the growth of firms as a whole. It can be summarized that excessive use of the smart phones by the employees in the organization for personal purposes hampers their productivity which is mainly influenced by the type of job and industry they associated with.
References
Anshari, M. and Alas, Y. (2015) Smartphones habits, necessities, and big data challenges. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 26(2), pp.177-185.
Baker, S, Warburton, J, Hodgkin, S and Pascal, J 2014, ‘Reimagining the Relationship between Social Work and Information Communication Technology in the Network Society’, Australian Social Work, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 1-12.
Choy, L.T., 2014. The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), pp.99-104.
Derks, D., Bakker, A.B., Peters, P. and van Wingerden, P. (2016) Work-related smartphone use, work–family conflict and family role performance: The role of segmentation preference. Human Relations, 69(5), pp.1045-1068.
Derks, D., van Duin, D., Tims, M. and Bakker, A.B. (2015) Smartphone use and work–home interference: The moderating role of social norms and employee work engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 88(1), pp.155-177.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project.Sage.
Haug, S., Castro, R.P., Kwon, M., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T. and Schaub, M.P. (2015) Smartphone use and smartphone addiction among young people in Switzerland. Journal of behavioral addictions, 4(4), pp.299-307.
Jamaluddin, H, Ahmad, Z, Alias, M and Simun, M 2015, ‘Personal Internet Use: The Use of Personal Mobile Devices at the Workplace’, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 172, no. C, pp. 495-502.
Lee, Y.K., Chang, C.T., Lin, Y. and Cheng, Z.H. (2014) The dark side of smartphone usage: Psychological traits, compulsive behavior and technostress. Computers in human behavior, 31, pp.373-383.
Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt.Ltd..
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
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