Social Networks and Their Effects on Productivity: Insights of Selected Employees in the Kingdom Of Bahrain

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the perception of employee respondents on how they can utilize social networking sites in the proper manner and thereby it serves awareness on how these tools affect their level of work productivity. Respondents were the selected employees in the different companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain during the 3rd Trimester, SY 2016-2017. This study made use of the descriptive research method to determine the effects of social networks on employee productivity. The gathered data from this study were subjected to descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviation; one way ANOVA, t-test and Person Product Moment Correlation were also used for the inferential statistics.  The result of the study showed that: general perception of employees regardless of age, sex, position in the company, number of years employed and type of work are in agreement on the usefulness of the social networks to their respective world of works; In terms of  the level of productivity of the respondents the age group 18-30 yielded high significance of the importance of social networks in their job performance; employee respondents rejected the null hypothesis hence, the alternative hypothesis of significant difference on the level of their employee productivity was accepted. Moreover correlation is highly statistically significant between their perception on the use of social networks and their productivity at work. There should be suitable and useful ways of supervising employee social network involvement.  Further training on effective use of social networks should be initiated by the organization. Employees should take advantage on the vast information in terms of the usefulness they can get from their exposure to social networks. Human Resource department should conduct training or seminar on the effective use of social networks in the workplace.