The Implications of Social Media Use by Employees on Organizational Reputation and Productivity

Employee use of social media networks during working hours is an increasing concern for companies. Reports show that billions in lost revenue is due to employees’ cyberslacking (Young, 2010). Previous literature in this field suggests that employee usage of social media during working hours affects their productivity as well as the organization’s reputation (Young, 2010; Aguenza et al., 2012; Molok et al., 2012). Limited research has been conducted on employee use of social media networks during working hours specifically in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Therefore this paper investigates the employee usage of social media and its relation to productivity and organizational reputation within the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi. Interviews were conducted with 15 employees of the Department of Culture and Tourism. The findings suggest that using social media is not necessarily conductive to lower productivity, however low levels of employee satisfaction appear to be, as lower job satisfaction is linked to a higher use of social media. In addition, participants reported a lack of differentiation between personal and professional social media posts, presenting a potentially risky situation in which organisational reputation may be compromised. Based upon these findings, a set of recommendations are presented which include mandatory training for employees and managers to increase awareness of social media policies, the implementation of policies and procedures to protect organisational reputation and, finally, the introduction of regular job satisfaction surveys. Rather than limiting employee access to social media over organisational networks, this paper presents a more balanced approach, acknowledging the potential benefits of social media, but encouraging responsible use of these sites.