The Pros And Cons Of Social Media In The Workplace

Many individuals have resorted to social media to connect with friends or strangers alike. Social media has also encouraged people to display private conduct to the public. Many colleges and businesses have resorted to viewing an applicant’s social media for work force readiness. I believe this is a good strategy, because it can eliminate competition in the work place.

Social networks have been making a splash in the internet world over the past couple of years. In some studies into the monitoring of social media activity by employees has

This literature review will be focusing on the interactions of social media and employment. It will discuss the scientific findings of how communications processes in the workplace are affected by social media. In this paper, we will show: (a) There is a negative correlation between organizations that allow their employees social media access and how those employees view their employer; (b) Use of social media in the workplace environment increases employee productivity and performance, and (c) social support can increase the amount workers access social media at work. It will also discuss how social media affects the interactions between workers at organizations, how they feel about their jobs, and how communication processes are affected by social media.

A growing hot topic, and cause for concern is the increasing use of social media in the workplace. The landscape for communication has changed, and the line between personal and professional communications has been blurred. How will your employer manage the risks associated with the use of social media and at the same time, gain the benefits that this media form provides? While many employers were initially concerned that employees would use company time and equipment for socializing with friends, they are quickly learning that many social networks can also be used directly for work purposes.

According to a survey report done by the Kelly services with 170,000 people from 30 different countries, 55% of all the participants believe that the use of social media for both the personal and professional posts can cause problems in the workplace (Bennett, 2012). According to a study done by the proof point, many US companies that have hired the employees more than 1000 in number face a real problem with their employees to use social media (Ostrow 2009). Almost 17% of these companies had faced serious disrepute due to the offensive comments on the social media websites (Ostrow 2009). Almost 13% of the US companies have investigated the use of personal text messages that have been found to infringe the company’s law (Ostrow 2009).

When I was a manager at a company, I had to administer many policies as they related to my employees. On of these policies was called the Social Media Policy. This policy was meant to protect the company from malicious posts regardless of the intent. To summarize this policy stated that if you in anyway identified yourself as an employee. So if an employee wanted to they could rant about the company or other employees as long as they did not identify the company, list the company as an employer or list the names of employees that are know to work for the company. This policy was created solely because of individually that lacked a filter or the common sense to think about what they were posting.

The purpose of this literary review is to enlighten my viewers of the importance of the ethical idea of companies crossing the lines of business with your personal life, when involving social media accounts. Most of my research has operated from the ATU library using the find it tool. Furthermost, the researched information use was from peer-reviewed research journal. I will discuss includes social media cons in the work environment, if it is ethical to get fired over a post, and laws that protect both parties. Social media includes an assortment of electronic communications—most commonly networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Pinterest, Instagram, and the likes thereof. Social media also covers all forms of blogs, including Twitter (a micro-blog), wikis, online journals, diaries, personal newsletters, and World of Warfare and YouTube also are included under the umbrella term of social media (Lieber 2011).

According to industry research reports, the role of social media within business organisations can encourage collaboration, strategic agility and potentially improve worker productivity, thus requiring business to consider and define approaches to social media use within their organisations.

1. One of the reasons, employers choose to block social media access employees have at work is to limit distraction (Ferrell, Hirt, Ferrell, 2009, p. 417). Social media can be addicting and time-consuming. Employees can easily consume hours of unproductive time on social media websites. There is possible to allow social media at work with boundaries that satisfy both the employee and employer.

Employees can learn more through social media. As employees can learn more by watching YouTube videos and other sources, if there is any issue, employees can become self-sufficient in getting knowledge on basic questions. Employees can post answers to customer queries through social media. If there is any negative comment on our product, we have a chance to correct that product. Social media is a great direct source between customers and employees. Employees can also be in touch with more contacts who they might not meet directly can communicate through online by using social media.

Skype, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook are a few popular social media sites that are used today. As a society, people no longer have to meet up face to face for a social gathering. This era of social interaction online. Not every one person shares the same common sense. However, employers should not control the lives of employees on the internet because this epoch of online communication and not everyone believes in same moral judgment.

Identifying the major that pose a deterrent as to why companies do not embrace social media is comprehensive. In our case study, three distinct issues are raised. Those include low adoption rates by employees, cumbersome features that employees never use, and difficulty to measure the impact that social media has to productivity.

Social media is becoming an increasingly common feature of
the world of work and this trend looks set to continue. This application of communication technology or computer mediated tools have developed rapidly in our lives. Survey such as that conducted by CIPD (2013) have shown that while only a quarter of UK employees use it in their professional lives, this increases to 42% among employees aged 18–24. The innovative operation mode of social media has not only successfully drawn the attention of industry and academia, but has also boosted user growth, especially in the younger generation.

Social media has increasingly been on the rise for over the past 10 years, so has the concern on the effect of it being in the workplace. People are spending more and more time on social media and other communication technology (Walder). Because of this, researchers have begun to wonder what the effect will be in the workplace. The argument of social media in the workplace is on the rise, and will continue to grow as the Internet continues to transform the way people are spending their time (Carlson).

Social Media is a platform for people to create and exchange information. It is the collective communication channels dedicated to community –based input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration. It is the latest technology in which many people and businesses use to communicate. Social networking sites will continue to grow in the coming years. Because they have become an integral part of society, they will eventually become a fundamental part of the workplace (Craig, 2010). Through this paper I will express the negative and positive impacts of social media in the workplace through hiring, supervising, risks, and benefits. I have gathered information from different sources to support my research, such as online lectures, articles, textbook and recent social media incidents.