Social Networking as a means of Employee Motivation

Social Networking as a means of Employee Motivation1 IntroductionIn recent geezerhood Social Networking is very pop in eyes of youngsters and teenagers yet is as well as grabbing attention of older age. Social Networking Sites (SNS) consume given a progress to new communication vehicle which facilitates an innovative way of communion information, interacting and collaborating several(predicate) drug users. Today, there ar 204 complaisant invests available in the world as shown in Appendix 1, that out of all the most popular once atomic number 18 Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and Blogs.Within the illumination of the global recession, government activitys are utilise every possible means of equipment to survive the economic downturn companies are implementing cost saving methods this in turn bear increased the work load on the employees. This overload get out give a rise to the occupy of employees satisfaction, productivity and efficiency. One way of encoura ging and motivating the employees can be by accepting genial networking at the study.dynamic changing natures of the profession environment work contributed to knock down the barriers obstructing communicational go downs (Cross, Nohria, Parker, 2002).Implementation of favorable networking at oeuvre allow for provide both formal and everyday interaction and pull up stakes also care in knowledge sweetener and better communication. This go forth give a greater shift in culture of Knowledge congregation to Knowledge contribution. Social networking is ripening as fast as a computer virus, it is agreed that it is used for ain reasons but now-a-days it is used as educational, training and learning tools at the workplace.As every coin have two sides, implementing favorable networking at workplace has its own advantages and disadvantages. Since there is no geographical restriction on sharing information, there are growing tincts for validation for leakage, breach in protec tion and privacy of the information. This rings the bell in everyones mind whether it is appropriate to conflate loving networking at workplace. This argument give be revisited in literary works review percentage (section 3) of this propound.The seeks study source of information pass on be through primary info accumulation much(prenominal) as conducting oppugns, panorama and questionnaires. Secondary source will also be used and the propensity is mentioned in section 4.1. Many general views have been given by different enquiryers on impact of genial networking at workplace but very few enquiry have been conduct in sectors such as technological. This research will be based on international Corporation (MNC) which is an investment banking sector where no prior research has been conducted.The trace consists of 7 sections. The next section will discuss research objective, questions and boundaries in station to evade the uncertainty. This is followed by writings rev iew in section 3 where previous research will be analysed. Research methodology and research limitation will be discussed in section 4 and 5 respectively, followed by the research prison term suck ups in section 6. The last(a) section contains of conclusion.2 Research Objective, Questions and Boundaries2.1 Research ObjectiveThe main decide of this research is to critically examine the impact of tender networking in a multinational corporation investment bank. This will assist the brass section to cognise whether having entrance to the br otherly networking sites at workplace will motivate the round in enhancing their productivity or limiting these websites will demoralise the employees. It will also give a true and fair view of employees and employers intelligence of integrating social sites in working environment.2.2 Research QuestionsThe research will provide answer to the following particular questionsWill the use of social networking sites at workplace enhance the p roductivity?What are the different advantages and disadvantages of fetchment social networking sites at workplace?2.3 Research BoundariesDue to time restrain it is necessary to restrict research only to one multinational attach to and therefore the research will be an action based research. The caller is a worlds largest investment bank which has its presence in 74 countries. The research will be based on the companys head office staff regain in London. The name of the company will not be tell collectable to confidential reasons and will be referred as Company X throughout the research. The research will be based on 3 departments which areHuman ResourcesFinanceInformation TechnologyEach of the preceding(prenominal) mentioned departments will be analysed to identify the impact of social networking on flow of information in the departments and security levels desired for each of the departments.3 literary works Review3.1 GeneralMany researchers have correctly said that th e growing technology has twisted the traditional features of the workplace (Bennett, Owers, Pitt, Tucker, 2010). This is due to integration of social sites and social media in the working environment which has broadened the view of the employees in the organisation. This has facilitated organisation to build up new networks, armed service employees to connect each other in different geographical location and time. It has also been argued that the growing brilliance of networking and socialising in modern days is becoming more flexible and dynamic day-by-day (Cross, Parker, Prusak, Borgatti, 2001).Boyd and Ellison have defined Social Networking Site as web-based improvement that allows individuals to (Boyd Ellison, 2008)(1) Construct a public or semi-public profile inside a bounded system,(2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and(3) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.It is a technology which is used to support social networking. At workplace the social networking can be referred in two ways orthogonal and internal social networking. The use of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and so on at the workplace is known as outside(a) social networking. On the other touch, there are just about organisations that have veritable tools such as Beehive at IBM, Watercooler at HP which provided social networking within the organisation which is referred as internal social networking. Company X uses Reuters and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 as the internal social networking tool and Facebook as the external social networking at the workplace. This research will only focus on impact of external social networking.3.2 tinge of Social Networking on oil-bearingnessFrom past 5 years, social networking has sneaked into the production line organisations due to the increased popularity and availableness of social networking amongst office workers. (Shirky, 2008) (Tapscott Williams, 2006). This has lead to informal connection in the organisation and has transformed the ways of the knowledge sharing within the companies.The research through with(p) in 2008 by Skeels and Grudin has shown that around 37% of employees were utilize Facebook occasionally and almost 17% were use it day-by-day at workplace. Also around 50% of employees had their account on LinkedIn but only 4% were using it daily (Skeels Grudin, 2009).There is a significant increase in the number of user in Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking site and employees are using these sites at workplace to a greater extent due to vast harvest-festival and demand in social networking. According to the ClearSwift publications in January 2011, the exposure to social networking invites many threats to the companies. The research foregrounds that 42% of U.K. office workers admitted discussing work-related issues via social networking applications and 83% of the office workers were using office resources to access social networking websites (ClearSwift, 2011).The research conducted in companies such as Microsoft and IBM by different researchers has highlighted some of the benefits of using these social sites at workplace which are listed under (Skeels Grudin, 2009) (DiMicco Millen DR, 2007)LinkedIn being a professional social networking site patrons to maintain professional network.LinkedIn and Facebook are often referred by employers for recruiting employees by reviewing peoples CV and other expand such as profile pictures, details and grade or comments.Facebook was helpful for building and strengthening knot in the midst of colleagues and also maintain contacts with the ex-colleagues.But the research has also shown some concern and worries about using these social sites at workplace which are listed downstairs (Skeels Grudin, 2009) (DiMicco Millen DR, 2007) lag wasting time during working hours.Security concern.Disclosing confidential selective information.Staff integrating professional and personal life.Some senior managers felt that employees were crossing the status and power borders of the organisation.Most of the company in UK have hostile the use of social networking at workplace and have banned these sites. However, Alan Calder have argued that blocking or restricting access to social networking site at workplace will demoralise the employees and yield them less(prenominal) effective and fur-bearing (Calder, 2010).Some research have shown that social networking sites have reduced productivity and have cost companies lose of about 1.38 billion annually (Manpower UK, 2010). Therefore, some companies are looking forward to strength the controls in the organisation. But companies command to be very careful in placing the controls. Since social networking has become an definitive part of every ones life and this has also been encouraged by the Smartphones such as Blackberries, I-Phones and many more. If t he social networking sites are completely banned at the workplace, employees tend to use gadgets such as Smartphones to access social networking sites devoting less time to work eventually affecting their productivity. Therefore, employers need to weight the strengths and opportunities with weaknesses and threats to make a meaningful decision.Similar views have been shared by Jason and David (Fried Hansson, 2010) that the organisation will not be able to achieve anything by limiting or banning the social network sites at workplace because the time which they are devoting to the social networking sites will not get convert to productive work but and employees will find some alternative sources to overlook this time. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) claims that handling carefully and allowing internet access for staff during breaks can be valuable for employees and can help them discipline I.T. skills (TUC, 2007). Company X allows their employees to have access to Facebook and Linked In during working hours. The main report will throw lights on the benefits achieved by the employees with the use of these social sites in banking sector during working hours.Apart from deteriorating and enhancing the productivity social networking sites are contend a major role for recruiting employees. Employers use various sites to check the reason of the candidate by making a judgment on their post and photos uploaded on the sites. According to study conducted by Deloitte in 2009, 23% of companies were using social networking sites for hiring employees (Allen, Deloitte LLP 2009 morals Workplace Survey results Social networking and reputational risk in the workplace, 2009). Now-a-days, LinkedIn is popularly used for recommending friends or co-workers for jobs and recruiting staff. May be in snuggle future it will be incorporate as an official site for recruiting in the organisation. But till now no evidence have been found that it is a reliable source for hiring people.On t he other hand there has been evidence that people are fired due to social networking site (write about wat jitu said as an example here). The other major concern of social networking is that it puts trust at workplace on stake. The examine conducted in Deloitte in 2010, highlights that only 34% of employees agree and 49% of employees disaccord that social networking helps to build up the trust at workplace (Allen, Deloitte LLP 2010 Ethics Workplace Survey Trust in the workplace, 2010 ).The other drawback of social networking in working environment is the security of the sensitive data3.3 Other Impact of Social networking sites in the organisation4 Research MethodologyThe research will follow the inductive approach as it will highlight on developing a new theory after the data has been collect (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2009). The research will explore a new symmetry of using social networking in a Multinational Company (MNC) for their business development in short term and l ong term and develop a good analysis based on the data line of battle as discussed below.4.1 Data collectingIn order to achieve the research objective and question (mentioned in section 2) the subsequent data collection methods will be followedSecondary Data CollectionThe secondary data will be collected from press release and academic literature such as journals, white paper and publication from ClearSwift and ZDNet. The data collection will be qualitative data. Also the research conducted by other researcher in Microsoft and IBM, technological companies will act as a base for this research.Primary Data CollectionThe forms of primary data which will be collect are as belowFace-to-face Interviews decennary non-standardised face to face interview will be conducted split amid Vice President (VP) and managers of three departments in company X. This will help to analysis the role of social networking in the organisation for different departments talent different viewpoints and a bet ter insight of the matter. The interviews will also help to generate qualitative data which will be transcribed but will not be recoded due to ethics of the company. The time line for conducting interview is specified in research timelines section (section 6).Online Survey Online mess will be conducted with the help of the website named Survey Monkey which will help to give a holistic view of the organisation as the stare will be filled in by VP, managers and subordinates. The layout of the questionnaires which will be formed for online survey will fulfil all the main attributes of questionnaires as recommended by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009). This will provide quantitative data for analysis.In order to improve the answer rate of online survey, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews the recommendation from Bryman and Bell (2003) will be followed.4.2 Analysis of DataThe quantitative data which will be collected through online survey will be analysed by using computer b ased software named Minitab 15. The quantitative data will be divided in to two separate groups categorical data and quantitative data (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2009). The survey and interview results will help to produce a comparison between three departments within the MNC under the research study. (Add more details of what kind of information can be achieved from this analysis)5 authority Problem and PitfallWhile undertaking the research following are the limitation and potential problem which are anticipatedPoor response to interview Face to face interview or telephonic interview will be conducted, which will not be recorded due to confidentiality. The respondents might be bias answering in socially sexually attractive way.Poor response to online questioner Respond rate might be lower as online questioner because they are perceived to be spam. It would be difficult to determine whether respondents have understood the question correctly and have replied honestly.Inadequate Sample Since only one organisation will be examined and so there will be limited sample to be examined. However, the research will be useful because practical evidence will be provided.6 Research Time linesThe research will flummox from 6th June 2011 and will commence till 12th September 2011. It will be conducted for 15 weeks as shown in Table 1 belowTable 1 Research time lines7 Conclusion8 References9 Appendices