CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

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Productivity is measured as how much and how well employee produces from given resources .   If extra or improved good/service is produced from the same  resource,  it  is  referred to as increase in productivity. The factors that affects productivity in relation to use of social media in workplace includes addiction, distractions   in   work,   decline   in   interpersonal   skills,   sharpening   concentration, knowledge and learning, improved Communication, sharing of information and morale booster. 

 

Addiction

Addiction refers to excessive usage of social media by employees which may results in wastage of time. According to Chen et al (2008), employee that excessively uses social media sites and are addicted to them exhibits disorders like depression, sexual disorders and loneliness that negatively affects their productivity besides impeding the reputation of the company.

 

Study conducted by Accountemps in 2010 reported that 59% of 1,400 interviewed CFOs recognized the waste of time as the main concern of use of social media in workplace. Statistics also indicate that per month an average internet user normally spends 6 hours on Facebook, which increases manager’s worries that those 6 hours may be spent in the workplace .  Some  employees  spends  around  2  hours  per  day  on Facebook in the workplace .

 

Distraction

 

Distraction refers to diversion of attention away from work that disrupts employee’s concentration.  For  example,  employee  receive  personal  Facebook  alerts,  new  feeds, sports news alerts and a range of other personal information that may divert them. 

 

Decline in interpersonal skills

 

Decline in interpersonal skills refers to the likelihood of employees preferring email, Facebook chats, Viber etc. as communication means instead of direct conversations. As per,  Diercksen  et  al,  2007,  a  major  concern  of  use  of  social  media  is  a  decline  in

 

interpersonal skills. The impact is already noticeable in the younger group of employees,

who prefer emailing or texting co‐workers instead of direct conversations.

 

Sharpening Concentration

 

Sharpening concentration refers to the assumption that brain will be relaxed and refreshed by taking short pauses/ breaks for social media uses and that results in sharpening employee’s concentration. Fahmy (2009) found that seventy percent of the employees who used social media sites for personal reasons resulted in sharpening their concentration. 

 

Knowledge and Learning

 

 

Ashraf and Javed states that banks must develop right attitude in its staffs for using  social  media.  It  must  be  viewed as  progressive  and  proper medium  of  social communication and must be used as a constructive means for learning new things, ideas and creating social contacts. 

Another   study   found   that   companies   gains   competitive   advantage   if   their   top

 

Improved Communication

 

Fahmy (2009), found that employees who uses social media sites are nine percent more productive because employees connected to others via social media are more social by nature and are skilled at working together with others along with solving the problems. Bennett et al (2010) defines the use of social media sites in workplace as an essential means  for  knowledge  transfer  and  communication  among  internal  and  external stakeholders of an organization. Email, blogs, messaging, chatting, file sharing, discussion groups etc. are the means of communication social media sites can offer to the users.  As majority of businesses relies on team works, those means help workforces to access new resources,  data,  information, contacts and develop professional networking. Various industries including tourism, entertainment, advertising etc. have adopted the social media sites in workplace and took its advantage .

 

Sharing of Information

 

Social media sites can also assist in forming a strong association among employees by providing them with the ability to better understand those with whom they are working. This   social   connection   could   then   help   develop   the   working   relationship.   The

 

improvement could include gaining a better understanding of what motivates the people

 

Morale Booster

 

Study conducted by Moqbel, Nevo, & Kock (2013) identifies the use of social media in workplace as a main source of social support for employees and  states that they should involve themselves in social media use to enhance work performance. It is because, forming a social network with people from various backgrounds would ultimately help employees to become happier at work, become more innovative and dedicated to the company, and perform better.

 

Conceptual Framework

 

The primary objective of this study is to test a research model to explain the expected association between use of social media site and impact on productivity. The diagram (figure 1) below provides a conceptual framework to understand this relationship.

 

(Positive)
					Sharpening Concentration Knowledge and Learning Improved Communication
					Sharing of Information

 

    Independent Variable                    

 

     Mora le boos  ter

 

                                                Dependent Variable

 

Use of Social Media

in Workplace

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addiction   Distractions in work   Decline in Interpersonal   Skills

(Negative) 

 

Productivity of Employee

 

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

 

This conceptual framework summarizes the possible impact of use of social media (independent  variable)  on  productivity  of  employees  (dependent  variable)  through variable   such   as   addition,   distraction,   decline   in   interpersonal   skills,   sharpening

 

concentration, knowledge & learning, improved communication, information sharing and

 

morale booster.

 

Hypothesis

 

Based  on  the  problem  statement  and  the  objective  of  the  research,  following  research

 

hypothesis can be proposed that would be tested in this study:

 

Hypothesis 1: 

 

H0:  Null  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  doesn’t  positively  and

significantly affects Concentration of employees.

 

  

H1:   Alternative   Hypothesis:   Use   of   social   media   sites   in   workplace   positively   and

significantly affects concentration of employees.

 

 

Hypothesis 2: 

 

H0:  Null  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  doesn’t  positively  and

significantly affects Knowledge and Learning of employees.

 

H1:   Alternative   Hypothesis:   Use   of   social   media   sites   in   workplace   positively   and

significantly affects Knowledge and Learning of employees.

 

Hypothesis 3: 

 

H0:  Null  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  doesn’t  positively  and

significantly affects Communication of employees.

 

H1:   Alternative   Hypothesis:   Use   of   social   media   sites   in   workplace   positively   and

significantly affects Communication of employees.

 

Hypothesis 4: 

 

H0:  Null  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  doesn’t  positively  and

significantly affects Information Sharing of employees.

 

H1:   Alternative   Hypothesis:   Use   of   social   media   sites   in   workplace   positively   and

significantly affects Information Sharing of employees.

 

Hypothesis 5: 

 

H0:  Null  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  doesn’t  positively  and

significantly affects Morale of employees.

 

H1:   Alternative   Hypothesis:   Use   of   social   media   sites   in   workplace   positively   and

significantly affects Morale of employees.

 

Hypothesis 6: 

 

H0: Null Hypothesis: Use of social media sites in workplace doesn’t significantly result in

addiction and wastage of time of employees.

 

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Use of social media sites in workplace does result in addiction

and wastage of time of employees.

 

Hypothesis 7: 

 

H0: Null Hypothesis: Use of social media sites in workplace doesn’t significantly distract

employees from work.

 

H1:  Alternative  Hypothesis:  Use  of  social  media  sites  in  workplace  does  significantly

distract employees from work.

 

Hypothesis 8: 

 

H0: Null Hypothesis: Use of social media sites in workplace doesn’t significantly affect the

interpersonal skills of employees.

 

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Use of social media sites in workplace does significantly affect

the interpersonal skills of employees.

 

METHODOLOGY 

 

In  order  to  effectively  analyse  the  aim  and  objectives  of  the  research  proposal,  below

 

mentioned methodologies will be undertaken in detail:

 

    Literature Review: 

 

For the secondary data, various literatures will be reviewed in regard of this study. Therefore, Information and data available from various sources including Google scholar, CQU library online search, published journal articles, peer reviewed articles and various books will be studied and analysed in detail.

 

    Population:

 

The target population of the study consists all the employees of top four banks in Australia that uses social media sites for the period under studies. The top four Banks are, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac), National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). All the target population have access to the social media sites in their banks/offices including access from mobile devices.

 

As there is various level of employees in the bank, stratified probability sampling method will be applied to include all levels. The prospective employees who will take part in this study will be classified as “Executive Level”, “Managerial Level”, “Offer Level”, “Supervisor Level” and “Assistant Level/ ordinary employees”. This classification is made to ensure adequate representation of all the levels of employees in Banks.

 

    Participants/ Sample:

 

All the employees of above mentioned banks who has access to the social media sites in

 

their workplace including access from mobile devices are the participants for this study.

 

25 employees from each level (segment) as classified above from each banks will be selected based on random sampling technique.  As participants has been classified in to five different segments, 125 employees from each four banks will be selected. Hence, respondents of the study will consists of 500 participants.

 

    Data collection method:

 

For data collection, observations, questionnaires and interviews techniques will be used.  Majority  of  the  questions  will  be  close‐ended  to  enhance  validity  of  the  response.  The

 

selected respondents from “Executive” and “Managerial” levels will be interviewed whereas questionnaires will be given to “Offer Level”, “Supervisor Level” and “Assistant Level/ ordinary employees”. Casual observations of the behaviour of the participants will also be carried out when they use social media sites on a computer or a smartphone. To identify the  position  of  the  employees  within  bank,  list  of  employees  from  each  bank’s  HR department along with their position/level will be obtained.

 

    Data Analysis:

 

The data and information collected from Literature reviews, observations, questionnaire and interviews will be scrutinized thoroughly using mixed methods i.e. qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. 

-   Quantitative Data:

 

Quantitative or Numerical data will be obtained from questionnaire to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviours of the employees etc. Descriptive data analysis technique will be used to analyse quantitative data.  A series of examinations and interpretations on the collected data will be carried out thoroughly to determine the average time an employee spends in accessing social sites per day, the motivations  for  the  use  and  to  explore  impacts  of  these  social  sites  on productivities factors.

-   Qualitative Data:

 

Qualitative or non‐numerical data will be obtained by observations, interviews and literature reviews to gain the understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. Predictive data analysis techniques such as Analysis of variance (ANOVA), frequency, chi‐square and Pearson’s correlation will be undertaken to ascertain the degree of relationship between the variables.