Effects Of Social Media Usage On Employee Productivity In Australian Universities

Research Problem

Discuss about the Social Media And Its Effects On Employee Productivity.

The growth of social media use in the modern society has rapidly increased with most organizations using the various social media platforms to enhance their business operations. The growth of social media has led to the formation of virtual communities where they interact on multiple grounds. Due to such increased interactions and memberships on social media platforms businesses or organizations have taken advantage of the platforms to communicate with their customers as well as the potential customers in a bid to promote the growth of their business brands (Dreher, 2014). It has been found to support various social processes, management of essential organization data, increased knowledge sharing between organization and customers among other benefits. However, different studies have shown a healthy relationship between social media usage and employee productivity. As a result, most organizations have developed social media policy to regulate the usage of social media during working hours (Huang et al., 2015). Employee productivity is a function of many factors and cannot be explained entirely by the usage of social media by employees during working hours. Employee productivity is a broad concept and understanding the factors influencing employee productivity will be involved in organizational human resource functions and employee attitudes compared to the usage of social media (Miles & Mangold, 2014). This study aims at developing a research project proposal on social media and its effects on employee productivity with much focus on Australia University sector.

The development and organization of the research proposal will comprise of different sections. The first section will provide an introduction to the central issues under discussion in the study. The second section will give a detailed statement of our research problem while the third section of the survey will provide an outline of research aim, objectives as well as the project research questions. The fourth section of the study will provide a detailed analysis of the project justification and the potential outcomes from the research while section five will give a comprehensive conceptual framework of the study. Part six of the study will comprise of the research methodology and presentation of secondary data, and lastly, section seven of the proposal will provide a detailed analysis of the organization of the research, the project budget, and schedule.

Social media has become a significant platform for enhancing business and organizational growth strategies. Social media has been used for the development of corporate marketing and brand promotion strategies as well as in engaging different customers by the company or business (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014). Due to its rapid growth as a result of technological advancements leading to increased innovations in the development of various social media platforms, social media has contributed both positively and negatively to the improvement of organizational productivity. Many studies have been to provide the understanding of social media usage and its impact on organizational development, marketing, improving customer relationships, conducting market research and enhancing brand promotion and campaigns (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015). However, there are increasing concerns that social media affects employee productivity in many organizations. There is a literature gap existing in understanding the concept of social media and its effects on employee productivity. Is there any relationship between social media usage and employee productivity? This project proposal aims at investigating and building on the understanding of social media usage and its effects on employee productivity with a particular focus on Australia University Workforce.

Research Aim, Objectives, and Questions

This research aims to investigate social media usage and its effects on employee productivity amongst Australia University sector. It also aims at identifying the various social media platforms used by the employees and their general impact on their productivity.

The development of the research proposal will be guided by various objectives which will enhance our findings. The main aim of the research is to investigate social media usage or practices amongst the University workforce. It is also the objective of the project to identify the relationship between social media usage and employee productivity in the organization (El Ouirdi et al., 2016). With companies seeking to increase their productivity, the research will also try to understand whether the adverse social media effects outweigh the positive impact.

Various research questions have been designed to help in conducting a more in-depth analysis of our project proposal. The research questions will guide the process of data collection and analysis as well as the fact-finding and evaluation process in the company.

RQ1.  What are the various channels of social media used by employees at the university sector workplace?

RQ2.  What are the effects of social media usage on employee productivity at the workplace?

RQ3. Is the relationship between employee use of social media and their productivity positive or negative?

RQ4. Are there any social media regulation policies employed by the management of the universities to regulate the usage of social media in the workplace?

RQ5. Are the policies encouraging the usage of social media for organizational development or are discouraging the usage of social media as a disruption to employee productivity?

Many scholars have engaged in various research studies to investigate the relationship between social media usage and organizational development with findings showing increased organizational development resulting from social media usage (Ventola, 2014). The findings showed that social media has contributed to increased business interactions and communication between organizations, businesses, and companies with their customers. Other results also show a positive relationship between social media usage and improved marketing strategies which have enhanced business growth in many companies. However, the researchers have also shown that employee productivity cannot be explained entirely by social media usage as it is a broad concept that is a function of individual and organizational human resources factors and functions (Men, 2014). Therefore there has been limited research developed towards the understanding of social media usage and its effects on employee productivity. The findings of this research will, therefore, be significant in enhancing the scope and applicability of the knowledge of the impact of social media use on employee productivity in improving organizational management decisions in the Australia Universities.

Project Justification and Potential Outcomes

The findings of the research will be beneficial as different researchers in enhancing literature development will use them. The results will also be relevant to not only the universities management team but also to various policy makers in different organizations in developing effective policies about employee productivity and social media usage (Kasemsap, 2016). The research will help us in understanding how employee continued use of social media impact on employee productivity. The study will also enhance our understanding of the most used social media or social networks amongst the employees in the university sector.

The recent developments in technology have enhanced the concept of social media and its impact on employee productivity. Organizations have strived to develop their marketing strategies by focusing on internet marketing as the next strategy to give the company a competitive advantage. Social media development has led to the innovation of various social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and WhatsApp among other social interactive platforms (Khan& Mahapatra, 2017). These social media platforms have led to the development of virtual communities with millions of users interacting every second and with most people spending over 5 hours in a day in various social media platforms. Such rampant increase has led to increasing business and organizational focus on developing their growth strategies towards the use of social media platforms and the internet. Most universities have contributed to increased research development, and therefore social media has committed to the development of various research ideas (Mohamed et al., 2017). Different studies have resulted in the findings that there is a healthy relationship between social media usage and employee productivity or performance.

Employee productivity is a function of other factors and most organizations through their human resource departments have engaged in research to determine the various factors contributing to increased employee productivity (Syrek et al., 2017). It is the function of every human resource manager to develop many employee developments or management strategies to improve their productivity. With the development of social media platforms and increased innovations, most organizations have continued to face challenges towards the threat of social media utilization among employees by creating disruptions.  This has led to the development of social media regulation policies in most companies or organizations to minimize the time spend by employees in various social media platforms and maximum on the available time to enhance organizational development (Aboelmaged, 2018). Social media has been used to increase employee productivity by providing them with an opportunity to interact with a diverse range of customers, respond to various concerns, promote company brands, learn about the current market trends and the strategies employed by different companies to gain competitive advantage.

Conceptual Framework

There is conflicting interest among employees and their managers concerning the balance between social media usage and employee productivity.  Human beings in nature are social beings and rely on various social media platforms to enhance their interactions with different social groups and their families. On another hand, they are required to achieve their daily targets in their places of work which make it a bit challenging to the social media addicts. Social media, therefore, contribute both positively and negatively to employee productivity (Chung et al., 2017). The organizations which have developed social media policies ensure that the usage is directed to the achievement of organizational goals. The employees, in this case, are allowed to interact with different social media platforms to engage with different customers, conduct research and help in developing their business brand. Most organizations have restricted their employees from using their mobile devices, and any other internet platform as such is regarded as a disruption to their productivity. Too much time spent on the internet for social activities outside the confines of job activities during working hours and at workplace contributes to decreased employee productivity (Tulu, 2017). The most organization seeks to maximize every time or the hours they have invested in their employees to get the best out of them. Therefore the time lost during social media interactions activities can be utilized to other more productive activities. Sometimes the content of information accessible by the employees through their social media platforms can impact on their emotions during, for instance, they can see a post that is emotional and end up affecting their moods at the workplace.

Therefore social media can both contribute to the improvement of employee productivity at the workplace as well as reduce their productivity. However, there should be a balance between the time spent on the platforms for organizational development and the time taken by the employees for their social activities (Arora & Tandon, 2017). In most cases companies who have developed social media platforms allow their employees to use social media for their social purposes during the time allocated for breaks and use the platforms for business during the working time.  Such organizations have been found to record increased employee productivity despite challenges of balancing their efforts to control their employees to be responsible for their social media use during working hours.

Hypothesis 1	Ho; social media policies have no impact on employee productivity at workplace Ha; social media policies impacts employee productivity at workplace
Hypothesis 2	Ho; employee productivity is less influenced by social media usage Ha; employee productivity is highly influenced by social media usage at workplace

The development of this research project proposal comprises different research methodologies such as the use qualitative methodology and quantitative methodology. The qualitative methodology techniques used will include exploratory techniques for analyzing qualitative data to understand the effect social media on employee productivity (Robertson & Kee, 2017). The data for the study will be collected from numerous data sources including primary and secondary data. The data will be analyzed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques such as descriptive analysis for the qualitative data. The quantitative techniques will include the use statistical data analysis too.

Research Methodology and Data Presentation

Secondary Data Source(s) & Data

The primary data source in the research process will be social media channels and accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and many others. Most importantly the primary data will be obtained from the various company employees and the management team. The data will be analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques (Bizzi, 2017). The secondary data sources will include the University websites, mobile applications used by the university staff, data from the marketing channels and company annual reports. The data sets will then be analyzed with automated analytical tools.

Data Collection Methods

The reliability of the data will depend on the sources of data and the methods of data collection. The data will be collected through interviews with different employees from different organizations, the management team of the universities selected (Erickson, 2017). The data will also be collected from different social media channels and especially from the company social media networking platforms.  The interviews will be guided by developed questionnaires which have been developed by the research team.

Focused group discussions will also be developed involving different participants selected randomly from some universities to help in gaining more understanding of the controversial topic of the effects of social media on employee productivity. More data will be collected from various journals, research articles and university websites to help in enhancing the development of our research proposal (Varghese et al., 2018).  The population sample will include 100 participants selected randomly through random sampling techniques but comprising of both employees and the university management team across Australia.

Organization of the study

Chapter one; development of the project proposal scope outlining the overview of the problem statement under analysis

Chapter two; a description of social media channels and usage as well as their effect one on employee productivity at the workplace

Chapter Three; will include the details of research methodology – literature review, data series and surveys the conceptual framework of the study and data analysis techniques.

Chapter Four; Provides a report of Findings and Analysis of the proposed research project.

Chapter Five: provides a summary of the research findings and a discussion on their possible implications on employee productivity and the university management decision making. It also offers possible recommendations on a more balanced approach that will ensure that the needs of both employees, as well as the workers, are met through responsible social media usage.

Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart

Organization of Research, Budget, and Schedule

The development and implementation of this project proposal will require a budget for a smooth process of conducting the proposed research. The study is expected to be carried out at an approximated time frame of three months. Within this period an estimated budget of $ 6000 is required.  The proposed budget will be used for research activities such as the development of literature review, data collection, and data analysis as well as preparation of the final reports and the associated costs for active project development. Below is a summary of the proposed estimated budget.

Proposed research activity	Estimated Budget per activity
Development of project literature review and research methodology	$ 1000
Qualitative and quantitative data collection	$ 3000
Data analysis, presentation and reporting	$ 2000
Total proposed estimated budget	$ 6000

Project activities and milestone schedules, Gantt table

Proposed activity	Starting date	Ending date	Duration taken
Development of research problem statement , literature review, conceptual framework and research methodology	01/09/2018	15/09/2018	2 weeks
Primary data collection and organization	16/09/2018	29/09/2018	2 weeks
Secondary data collection and organization	02/10/2018	14/10/2018	2 weeks
Data evaluation and analysis through fact finding	16/10/2018	15/11/2018	4 weeks
Preparation of final project report and evaluation	17/11/2018	24/11/2018	1 week
Submission of the final project report	25/11/2018	30/11/2018	1 week

 

References

Aboelmaged, M. G. (2018). Knowledge sharing through enterprise social network (ESN) systems: motivational drivers and their impact on employees’ productivity. Journal of Knowledge Management, 22(2), 362-383.

Ali-Hassan, H., Nevo, D., & Wade, M. (2015). Linking dimensions of social media use to job performance: The role of social capital. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(2), 65-89.

Arora, R. G., & Tandon, A. (2017). Social Networking Sites Vs. Employee Performance: An Insight.

Bizzi, L. (2017). Should HR managers allow employees to use social media at work? Behavioral and motivational outcomes of employee blogging. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-28.

Chung, A. Q., Andreev, P., Benyoucef, M., Duane, A., & O’Reilly, P. (2017). Managing an organisation’s social media presence: An empirical stages of growth model. International Journal of Information Management, 37(1), 1405-1417.

Dreher, S. (2014). Social media and the world of work: A strategic approach to employees’ participation in social media. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(4), 344-356.

El Ouirdi, M., El Ouirdi, A., Segers, J., & Pais, I. (2016). Technology adoption in employee recruitment: The case of social media in Central and Eastern Europe. Computers in human behavior, 57, 240-249.

Erickson, B. H. (2017). Good networks and good jobs: The value of social capital to employers and employees. In Social capital (pp. 127-158). Routledge.

Huang, Y., Singh, P. V., & Ghose, A. (2015). A structural model of employee behavioral dynamics in enterprise social media. Management Science, 61(12), 2825-2844.

Kasemsap, K. (2016). The role of social networking in global business environments. In Social media and networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 1635-1653). IGI Global.

Khan, A., & Mahapatra, M. (2017, June). The Impact of Social Media as Technostress Inhibitor on Employee Productivity. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research (pp. 113-116). ACM.

Leftheriotis, I., & Giannakos, M. N. (2014). Using social media for work: Losing your time or improving your work?. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 134-142.

Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264-284.

Miles, S. J., & Mangold, W. G. (2014). Employee voice: Untapped resource or social media time bomb?. Business Horizons, 57(3), 401-411.

Mohamed, S., Sidek, S., Kudus, N., Hassan, M. A., & Izharrudin, S. Z. (2017). THE INSTRUMENT USED IN MEASURING EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY BASED ON SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE: A REVIEW. Journal of Human Capital Development (JHCD), 10(1), 81-100.

Robertson, B. W., & Kee, K. F. (2017). Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction, employment status, and Facebook use with co-workers. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 191-196.

Syrek, C. J., Kühnel, J., Vahle-Hinz, T., & De Bloom, J. (2017). Share, like, twitter, and connect: Ecological momentary assessment to examine the relationship between non-work social media use at work and work engagement. Work & Stress, 1-19.

Tulu, D. T. (2017). Should online social Medias (OSMs) be banned at work? The impact of social Medias on employee productivity in Ambo University, a case study. Research in International Business and Finance, 42, 1096-1102.

Varghese, S., & Kumari, K. T. (2018). Effect of Social Media on Employee Productivity in Education Sector. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR), 8(1), 146-149.

Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491.