The impact of Social Media on Employee Productivity at the Workplace

Abstract

Social media has become a familiar reality in many institutions and organizations, as it is considered one of the most important means of personal and organizational communication. Despite this, there are many challenges that organizations face when using social media among employees, for example: disrupting their productivity. This study aimed to identify the types of social media that are used by employees during their work and to know the extent of their impact on their productivity. A systematic literature review approach was followed. By reviewing and analyzing 37 articles and studies, the study concluded that social media, which can be categorized into social network, messages, email, forums, blogs, Wikis and many more, has become a common communication method for employees to exchange knowledge and collaborate among colleagues in the organization. By presenting and analyzing the previous literature related to the subject of the study, most of the primary studies demonstrated that the use of social media is beneficial to organizational and personal productivity. However, some studies have shown negative effects of social media use in the workplace. Most studies are not able to explain the actual causality of the employment factor that actually affects employee productivity in the workplace because they present their findings based on cross-sectional data. Therefore, this review can contribute to enriching the literature and serve as a basis for future studies concerned with determining the causality of the use of social media on employee productivity. Accordingly, this review proposed the intervention model for Internet addiction as a tool through which the causality of the use factor that contributes to the adverse effects of the organization's productivity and intervention can be addressed.