How Social Networking Is Affecting the Work Place

1300 Words6 Pages
Introduction Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn have affected the performance and productivity of employees both negatively and positively. Some of these social networks are purely chatting sites where employees waste valuable working time while on them. On the other hand, these sites are also a source of information where employees can acquire information from and hence gain more knowledge. Let us look at both sides of the coin before concluding anything i.e. both the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to have access to the social networking sites during working hours. Information resource and Fast communication medium It is believed that most of the very successful businesses have the best and fast communication mediums. These forms of communication devices allow employees to surf the internet a high speeds allowing them access to information that in one way or another assists them in solving some of their work problems. Also their access to some social networks e.g. LinkedIn may help them meet new professionals form different fields who can assist them in solving some problems. This is most commonly done by posting questions of any kind and the people involved in those fields respond to them at no cost. One can also view previously answered questions (Reinhild 16). This would be cheaper than contacting a specialist for some advice. Social networks help in improving communication between employees, suppliers, and customers. Communicating through the social networks helps in reducing the workload of some employees; for instance if customers and the employees communicate through them, the overload on emails would be greatly reduced and the employees would be able to filter the information by their relevance. In other words, it is easier to retrieve only the information that is relevant if you are
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