U8RARV ' UaiVtBStTV o: '.OHATUWA. SRI WM.< MOKATUWA EFFECTS OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING ON EMPLOYEES IN SRI LANKAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY M.S.M. Nisaf Department of Management of Technology University of Moratuwa December 2010
EFFECTS OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING ON EMPLOYEES IN SRI LANKAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS UH1V HSITY OF MORATUWA. SRI WtU By M.S.M. Nisaf Supervised by Dr.Vathsala Wickramasinghe The Dissertation was submitted to the Department of Management of Technology of the University of Moratuwa in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration. Department of Management of Technology University of Moratuwa December 2010 University of Moratuwa IIIIIIIINIillllili 100803 100803
DECLARATION I hereby certify that this dissertation does not incorporate any material without acknowledgement and material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university to the best of my knowledge and believe it does not contain any material previously published, written or orally communicated by another person except where due reference is made in the text. Date: Z,/i2.)2t>lO M.S.M. Nisaf (MBA/MOT/09/9028) This is to certify that that this thesis submitted by M.S.M. Nisaf is a record of the candidate own work carried out by him under my supervision. The matter embodied in this thesis is original and has not been submitted for the award of any other degree. Date: 9-$ \ ) >-) Research Supervisor o Dr. Vathsala Wickramasinghe Senior Lecturer, Department of Management of Technology, University of Moratuwa. i P a g e
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who in one way or another contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study. Firstly 1 would like to make a special acknowledgment to my research supervisor Dr. Vathsala Wickramasinghe (Senior Lecturer Department of Management of Technology). Thank you for all encouragement and understanding me in very difficult situations, showing the correct path and guided me until the end. My heartiest gratitude extends to her. And I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to Mr. Dinesh Samarasinghe (Lecturer Department of Management of Technology), Engineer Mr. Kithsiri Samarasinghe (former Head of Department of Electronics), Prof. Ananda Jayawardhane (former Dean Faculty of Engineering) and Mr. Duminda Kuruppuarachchi (Senior Lecturer, University of Sri Jayewardenepura) for their timely guidance, invaluable advice and support given throughout the research. I am obliged to many of my colleagues who supported me in this endeavor. Especially I would like to thank Supun Samarasinghe, Captain H.C.K. Ranasinghe and G. Sridharan for their encouragements and support. And I am truly indebted and thankful to all the colleagues and management of all the companies which have involved into this research by giving their valuable responses. Last but not the least, my family and the one above all of us, the omnipresent God, for helping me in difficult situations to achieve this endeavor. ii P a g e
ABSTRACT Social networking is a new trend which is emerging in Sri Lanka with the collaborative internet technologies. While this is on the rise as a habit amongst the Sri Lankans, the research conducted to understand the key implications of this rising habits on the performance of the employees within their work environment is not appropriately researched. The study has been conducted as an exploratory study due to the fact that similar caliber of researches hasn't been conducted yet in Sri Lankan context. Therefore the study caters as an entry point for the domain of social networking in Sri Lanka with regard to employee performance. Further, the study aimed to identify whether there is a significant relationship between the social networking usage and the employee performance in the Sri Lankan IT organizations. The study has indicate that there are no direct statistically significant relationships between the social networking usage attributes and employee performance, thus does not show that the social networking has any direct impact on the employee performance. This further indicates that by controlling the usage of the social networking, there is no guarantee of improved performance or decreased levels of performance. However, the study indicates that there are a number of areas such as personal usage of social networking, types of social networking, advantages and disadvantages associated with social networking etc. which the organizations will have to consider on the social networking areas. The study identifies that majority of the employees would use social networking for personal purposes than office or knowledge sharing purposes. Further, they would use sites which are highly resources consuming and this will lead to a number of negative implications on the office networks. It is also evident that the offices would allow free usage of the internet without mostly restricting the social networking sites. This would create unnecessary implications which would lead the companies to harmful impacts on the social networking fronts. Thus, even though the study did not prove any connection between the social networking and the performance, the study has formulated a number of hints on detail usage patterns which is useful in effectively establishing the concept and using this to benefit the organizations in concern.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgement Abstract 1 n»' Table of Contents <v List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations v ' vii v u Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the study 1 1.1.1 Platforms of social networking 1 1.1.2 Reasons for social networking 3 1.1.3 Social networking trends in Sri Lanka 4 1.2 Identification of the problem 6 1.3 The objectives of the study 7 1.4 Scope of the study 8 1.5 Significance of the study 9 1.6 Chapter outline 10 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 Defining social networks 11 2.3 Nature of social networking usage 13 2.4 Individual performance 15 2.5 Advantages of social networking 24 2.6 Disadvantages of social networking 27 2.7 Future outlook and social networking 33 2.8 Internet and social networking 37 2.9 Other alternatives to social networking 39 2.10 Chapter summary 43 Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 45 3.1 Introduction 45 3.2 Conceptualizing of variables 45 iv P a g e
3.3 Operationalizing of variables 47 3.4 Hypothesis of the study 47 3.5 Sample of the study 52 3.6 Data collection instruments 53 3.7 Methods of data analysis 54 3.8 Chapter summary 54 Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 55 4.1 Introduction 55 4.2 Characteristics of the sample 55 4.2.1 Gender and marital status 55 4.2.2 Age 56 4.2.3 Work Experience 57 4.2.4 Designation 58 4.2.5 Education 59 4.3 Usage habits of the Internet 60 4.4 Social networking usage 62 4.5 Integrity of the variables 68 4.6 Discussion of the variables 69 4.6.1 Nature of social networking usage 69 4.6.2 Places of accessing social networking sites 71 4.6.3 Allowing the usage of social networking sites 72 4.6.4 Internet policy 74 4.6.5 Advantages of social networking 75 4.6.6 Disadvantages of social networking 77 4.6.7 Employee performance 79 4.6.8 Suggestions for better usage of social networking 81 4.7 Online social networking usage and employee performance 83 4.8 Chapter summary 84 Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH 86 5.1 Conclusions and implications 86 5.2 Recomendations 94 5.3 Research limitations 96 5.4 Future research 97 REFERENCES 99 APPENDIX 1 Survey Questionnaire 103 v P a g e
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Search for Facebook in Sri Lanka 4 Figure 2: Utilization of online social networking sites 13 Figure 3: Individual performance and organizational performance 16 Figure 4: Factors impacting the individual performance with the organizations 17 Figure 5: Information and decision making 18 Figure 6: IT usage and social networking 19 Figure 7: Justifications for social networking within organizations 26 Figure 8: Information overload and the negative results 28 Figure 9: Unwanted applications getting into the system 29 Figure 10: Knowledge dissemination through social networking 30 Figure 11: Disparity between the organizational command structure and social networks 31 Figure 12: All employees represent the organization through social networks 32 Figure 13: Summary of negative impact of social networking 33 Figure 14: Growth of Facebook search 35 Figure 15: Search volume index for Facebook January - May 2010 35 Figure 16: Social networking and internet abuse 37 Figure 17: Factors which will control internet abuses within an organization 39 Figure 18: Collaboration techniques for organizations 42 Figure 19: Sample distribution by gender 55 Figure 20: Sample distribution by marital status 56 Figure 21: Age distribution of the sample 56 Figure 22: Work experience in the current working place in years 57 Figure 23: Work experience in IT industry in years 58 Figure 24: Sample distribution by designation 59 Figure 25: Sample distribution by education 59 Figure 26: Places of Internet usage 60 Figure 27: Website usage percentage 61 Figure 28: Usage of social networking sites 64 Figure 29: Social networking sites usage purposes 65 Figure 30: Social networking sites usage purposes vs. Internet usage hours 66 Figure 31: Social networking sites usage frequency 67 Figure 32: Social networking sites usage time in percent 67 Figure 33: Social networking sites usage experience 67 Figure 34: Graphical summary of variable Nature of social networking usage 71 Figure 35: Graphical summary of variable Places of accessing social networking sites 72 Figure 36: Graphical summary of variable Allowing usage of social networking sites. 73 Figure 37: Graphical summary of variable Internet policy 75 Figure 38: Graphical summary of variable Advantages of social networking 76 Figure 39: Graphical summary of variable Disadvantages of social networking 78 vi P a g e
Figure 40: Graphical summary of variable Employee performance 80 Figure 41: Graphical summary of variable Suggestions for improvements 82 Figure 42: The impact of the above findings on the office work 90 Figure 43: Social networking could lead to negative impacts 92 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Social networking functionality 13 Table 2: Key performance criteria 21 Table 4: Hypotheses table 47 Table 3: Operational izing of variables 48 Table 5: Sample selection for the study 52 Table 6: Questions to capture usage habits of the Internet 60 Table 7: Average time spent on websites 62 Table 8: Questions to capture social network usage 63 Table 9: Social networking site types 63 Table 10: Social networking sites usage purposes vs. Internet usage hours 65 Table 11: Variable integrity levels 68 Table 12: Summary of variable Nature of social networking usage 69 Table 13: Summary of variable Places of accessing social networking sites 72 Table 14: Summary of variable Allowing usage of social networking sites 73 Table 15: Summary of variable Internet policy 74 Table 16: Summary of variable Advantages of social networking 75 Table 17: Summary of variable Disadvantages of social networking 77 Table 18: Summary of variable Employee performance 79 Table 19: Summary of variable Suggestions for improvements 81 Table 20: Social network usage 83 Table 21: Correlation coefficient matrix for Social network usage 83 Table 22: Hypothesis acceptance table 84 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS OSN SNS IT ICT PC WIP BOI BPO - Online Social Networking - Social Networking Sites - Information Technology - Information and Communication Technology - Personal Computer - Work in Progress - Board of Investment - Business Process Outsourcing vii P a g e