Title: Does social media use at work lower productivity?

Authors: Joseph Vithayathil; Majid Dadgar; J. Kalu Osiri

Addresses: Computer Management and Information Systems, School of Business, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Campus Box 1106, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA ' Department of Business Analytics and Information Systems, Malloy Hall 205 School of Management, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA ' Department of Management, College of Business, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 730 N. 14th Street, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA

Abstract: We conducted an empirical study that analysed the relationship between the use of social media at work and project success at work. This study adds to the emerging literature on the impact of social media use on organisational outcomes. We found that only one of the four popular social media platforms studied adds value to the workplace. Specifically, we found the use of Facebook at work, whether controlling for age, gender and education or not, to be negatively associated with project success. The use of LinkedIn (with the controls) and the use of other social media (without the controls) were both found to be positively associated with work project success. Other social media was used to capture all other social media platforms, including firm-specific or work-specific social media platforms. We explained our results using social network analysis (SNA), the strength of weak ties and information diffusion theories. Our findings have implications for practice, policy and future research.

Keywords: social media usage; project success; social network analysis; SNA; strength of weak ties.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2020.104504

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2020 Vol.19 No.1, pp.47 - 67

Received: 25 Jan 2017
Accepted: 24 Oct 2017
Published online: 16 Jan 2020 *

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