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SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORKPLACE:

Review of Related Studies and Literature

“We shape our tools, and afterwards, our tools shape us.”
-Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1980

Introduction

In less than nine months, Facebook reached 100 million users, and now, after 6 years,

the social networking site which was “created in the dormitories” in Harvard, already has 500

million users (Wortham, 2010). In fact, if it were a country, it will be the eighth most populous in

the world (Wilson, 2010).

As of 2009, ten million registered users have been ‘tweeting’ in 140 characters or less,

through Twitter, a microblog launched in 2006. LinkedIn, a professional networking site, on the

other hand, already has 36 million users after being founded in 2003 (Wilson, 2010).

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are just 3 of the almost 900 internet applications and

web sites which may be utilized for social networking (Wilson, 2010). Many other Internet

applications allow users to communicate to a large number or people in real time. This magnifies

the inevitability of social media in the people’s lives.

Forrester Research revealed that 60% percent of adults in the US update their profile on

social networking sites, 70 % read blogs, tweets and watch videos online. In terms of posting, one-

third of adults are posting either on their Facebook or Twitter account (Galagan, p. 29, 2010).

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In the UK, it is predicted that by 2013, half of the Internet users will be visiting social

networks at least once a month; In the UK offices, workers are predicted to be spending at least 30

minutes a day at the social networking sites (Wilson, p. 55, 2010).

Millions of people are online – chatting, interacting with new and old friends, sharing

files, updating photo albums, blogging about their bad experiences about a brand, networking,

finding business partners, and perhaps just spending time in the virtual world. Among these

millions of netizens are those who belong to the modern workforce. Galagan (2010) stressed,

“Whether we like it or not, whether we use it or not, social media is changing the way we work” (p.

29).

The 21st Century Workforce

The dynamism in the 21st century workplace can be understood better by analyzing

what makes up the modern workplace – who the members of the workforce are and what kind of

working environment can make them maximize their productivity. Today’s workforce is basically

shaped by the ever-changing technological innovations (Asunda, p. 38, 2010).

A key to understanding the workplace is to acquaint oneself of the traits of the modern

workforce. A generational expert, Alsop, identifies the four generations, in which one of these shall

dominate the US workforce in the near future. The four generations [see figure 1], according to

Alsop, have different views of life and work (2010).

Altes (2009) said that as of 2009, there are already 73.5 Millennials in the United States,

49.1 million Generation Xers, and 76.7 million Baby Boomers (para. 2).

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A knowledge of the traits of the workforce will justify every measure and policy in the

workplace. Based on his research and interviews, Alsop (2010) characterizes the Millennial

generation as being cybercitizens, among others. As cybercitizens, they are impatient and branded

as the master multitaskers who want things “now” with the cell phone and BlackBerry in their

hands, and laptops in front of them. They are the members of the workforce who can do their jobs

well even when they’re “plugged in to iPod,” a trait which most CEOs sometimes do not

understand. Knowing the traits of the Millennial might be a key to having a productive workforce.

After all, it is predicted that at the end of 2011, 60 % of employees shall belong to the Millennial

generation, and by 2014, more than a third of the US workforce will be the Millennials (Alsop

2010).

Figure 1
The Four Generations

The Generation Time Span Traits

Traditionalist 1925-1945 Patriotic, dependable,

respectful of authority,
conservative, solid work
ethic
Baby Boomer 1946-1964 Workaholic, idealistic,
competitive, loyal,
materialistic, personal
fulfillment
Gen Xer 1965-1979 Self-reliant, adaptable,
cynical, distrustful of
authority, entrepreneurial,
technology savvy
Millenials 1980-2001 Cybercitizens, entitled,
optimistic, civic minded,
close parental ties, work-life
balance, impatient, team-
oriented
Source: Alsop. R. (2010) . OMG! How the millennial generation is shaking up the workforce [Ppt. presentation].

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Managing the Millennials, according to Alsop, includes a give-and-take relationship: the

company giving what it takes for the Millennials to work at their best, which includes working with

the social media, and the Millennials giving back to the company by meeting its expectations.

Alsop specifically reiterated that company should not ban cell phone and social media at work

because these are like “extensions” to the Millennials, and not simply a tool (2010).

The Social Media as Extension of the Modern Workforce

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian media guru who popularized the dictum “The medium is

the message,” emphasized in his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Men, that media

are “extensions of men” (Rogers, 2000). As extensions of themselves, media can actually enhance

the way people live.

In the modern workplace’s context, the media, as the Millennials know them, are

primarily called the social media. For many workers, these social media platforms are tools to

interact, to connect and to learn new things from different people in the global village. For the

Millennials in the workplace, however, social media are more powerful than how everyone else in

the other generations perceives them to be. More interestingly, a study by the American Society

for Training & Development (ASTD) and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4CP) found out

that workers who use social media in their personal lives are most likely to ‘learn truly useful

things,’ ‘learn more in less time,’ ‘get better work done,’ and ‘get more work done’ with social

media tools (Patel, p. 60, 2010).

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The Place of Web. 2.0 Technologies in the Corporate World

The time has come when “corporate America meets the MySpace world” (Frauenheim,

para. 2, 2007). For some companies, the use of social media may be a blessing; for the critics,

however, it is simply a time-waster. Different studies yield different results on whether or not

social media is a curse or a blessing in the business world. An article on The Economist, for

instance, said that various studies reveal that Twitter and Facebook usage while at work are real

threat to the “corporate wealth” (“Yammering away,” 2010).

Despite these, a number of companies also see the value of the social media in allowing

them to do what seemed to be impossible before the birth of these media platforms.

The Value of Social Media in the Workplace

In the social media world, people create their profiles, and connect themselves with

different people across different parts of the globe. With the features and interfaces available, the

users may share, send or receive files, and communicate in real time.

Experts reveal that social media may be utilized in the workplace in various ways:

To enhance learning and knowledge sharing (Galagan, 2010; “Social media,” 2009).

Employees may share their files, or create webcast which the new hires may utilize to guide them

in carrying out their duties. This also saves time for the Human Resources department. Everything

a new hire needs to learn and be reminded of may be contained in a webcast which the employee

may access at his or her convenient time when necessary. Also, this way, social media tools provide

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more informal learning opportunities which do not intimidate new hires, but make them learn in

their own pace and even in their own time.

To find employees fit for vacant positions (“Yammering away,” 2010; Annya, 2010;

Galagan, 2010; “Social media,” 2009; Salopek, 2010). This is not simply about recruiting, but

finding the best person that fits in the position, which is much more complicated than simply filling

up vacant posts. A 2008 report by an outplacement consulting firm revealed that companies would

no longer rely on newspaper classified advertisements to look for qualified applicants to fill in

vacant positions. Social networking sites, e.g. LinkedIn, which links professionals in one site, may

be used to network and search for talents.

Aside from LinkedIn, Twitter is also now being utilized by more than fifty companies in the US,

according to Job-Hunt, an employment portal, to recruit new employees. Among the companies

using the Twittersphere to recruit are Ernst & Young at @Ernst_and_Young, Hershey Company at

@HersheyCompany, and the US Department of State which is found at @DOScareers (Salopek,

2010).

Social media tools may actually assist in avoiding ‘talent shortages’ because it allows the

employers to search for talents beyond geographic borders. According to an article published by

the American Society for Training & Development, a survey by Manpower revealed that the top 5

positions which employers find hard to fill in with qualified applicants are skilled manual trade,

sales, technician, engineering and executive positions. The said survey included 39, 000 employers

across 33 countries. It was also found out that employers from Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New

Zealand (“Taking inventory of talent,” 2009).

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To communicate in different places, but in real time (Salopek, 2010; Asunda, 2010).

One obvious value of social media is to save time and defy distance. For instance, authors from

different countries but in the same networking site and with the same interests, could collaborate

easily to come up with projects, or to work on a book publication, or research. This can be done

thru Skype which does not only allow real time audio and video communication, but also allows

sharing of screen for better understanding (Salopek, 2010).

To position a brand in the market (“Social media,” 2009; Salopek, 2010). A recruitment

marketing consultant from the Department of State, Rachel Friedland, said that the DOS has been

using Twitter not only for recruitment of new employees but also for branding, or “to build

employer brand awareness” (Salopek, 2010).

To serve as “business enablers” (Johnson, 2009; Wilson, 2009; Asunda, 2010). Social

media tools allow people to stay connected and maintain professional relationship with their

business partners.

To do market research by engaging with ‘social media intelligence’ (Wilson, 2009). A

micro-blogging site like Twitter can actually be a source of relevant and useful insights which

may be used by the company to “listen to conversations,” know the trends, and even to find

out the weaknesses of their competitors through the claims of the netizens. By knowing how

customers online feel and think about the brand, the company may pick up actionable insights

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and use them as bases for improvement, and for engaging customers into conversations about

their brand (Wilson, 2009).

To get instantaneous feedback from peers (Galagan, 2010). Social tools can enable a

company to get and give instantaneous feedback from their peers. Gone are the days when

each of the staff needs to wait for the end of the year to find out any feedback from each other.

Galagan (2010) added that this instantaneous feedback may be anonymous but conversational

in nature, so the staff would not really mind getting and giving feedback.

To enhance corporate networking (“Social media,” 2009). Social media makes it easy to

find like-minded people who have the same interests. Through this, sharing of ‘best practices’

may help them enhance their current practices. A study conducted in 2009 by ERC, an

organization dedicated to HR and workplace practices, revealed that LinkedIn is the most

commonly used social media tool by people in the workplace. The survey was participated in

by 52 organizations in the US, and 43% of the respondents said they use LinkedIn for corporate

networking and relationship building. Another survey conducted by AIIM in February 2010 has

given the same result [see figure 2], with LinkedIn as the “king in terms of the preferred social

network for business purposes” (“More using social media,” p. 8, 2010).

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Figure 2:
Use of Social Networking Tools for Business Purposes

Source: More using social media at work (2010). Information Management

To enhance internal communication (“Social media,” 2009, “Yammering away,”

2010). Social media may also “break down internal barriers in the corporate world”

(“Yammering away,” 2010). For instance, an Amazon-owned online retailer, Zappos, does

encourage its employees to utilize Twitter to share information. The use of social media in the

company shall acquaint all employees of each other, especially in large companies, where most

employees don’t get an opportunity to mingle with those from other departments. Also, the

use of Twitter or any other social media platform may enhance the company’s image outside

the workplace. The customers would have a reason to believe that even the staff with key

positions, are humans, too, when they follow what these people have to say.

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To build relationship with customers (Savage, 2010; Altes, 2009; Asunda, 2010). Setting

up a Twitter account, which according to Gillette (2010) is the most “humanizing” platform, and

reaching out to the customers can deliver good results to the company. Savage (2010) said,

“Being accessible on social media sites helps your clients and customers feel connected to your

company” (para. 3). Also, Levine (2010) emphasized in his book titled Broken Windows, Broken

Business that poor customer service is the easiest way to ruin any business. With the aid of

social media, this concern may be addressed on a timely manner. It must also be noted that a

brand is “defined” by how the customers perceive it to be. The lack of direct interaction

between the brand and the customers can actually break a brand. It is necessary for any

company to establish, maintain and build lasting relationships with the customers (Altes, 2009).

Why the CEOs are Skeptic of Social Media in the Workplace

If there is much hype about the benefits of using social media, the “dangers” involved

are also making CEOs skeptic of giving the workers freedom to utilize social media in the

workplace. The fact that employees and employers have different views on how time should be

utilized online (Nancherla, 2009), this would necessarily create a clash that could lead to

different measures regarding the use of social media in the workplace, which may not at all be

favourable for the Millennials or even the Baby Boomers, who are also starting to embrace

social media.

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Nancherla (2010) explained that theoretically, both the employees and employers agree

that social media utilization also poses some dangers to the company; however, in practice, the

employees still want to have freedom in using social media tools as they find pleasing.

In a study conducted by Deloitte titled Social Networking and Reputational Risk at the

Workplace, seventy-four percent of the employees surveyed are aware that social media sites

can easily damage a brand’s reputation. Forty-nine percent of them claim that they would not

alter their usage behavior of social media tools despite company guidelines on using such tools.

Moreover, they claim that how they behave online would not really change, despite the fact

that their bosses might be monitoring their profiles (Nancherla, 2010). In fact, 37% of

employees surveyed claim that they rarely or never consider what their boss would think

before they post on their social networking sites.

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Figure 3:

Employees Consideration before Posting to Social Networking Sites

Source: Nacherla, A (2009). Social networking net worth. American Society for Training & Development.

For instance, a co-owner of Beartooth Mapping, Inc., provider of mapping products that

operates under the name MyTopo, discovered the “bad behavior” of her staff when she

‘stumbled’ upon the staff’s MySpace profile. In one post, the staff said that she’s having lunch for

two hours since her boss was not in the office. Seeing this made Paige Darden, the co-owner, to

realize there must be a problem in the office since “bad employee behavior is no longer confined

to cubicle walls” (Needleman, para. 4, 2010).

Incidents like this imply that a strict measure might be necessary to avoid more ‘bad

behaviour’ extended to the social media.

However, experts also suggest that a strict measure on the utilization of social media at

the workplace may not be the solution to the different views between employers and employees

regarding how employees should be spent online.

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Despite these, a study by UberCEO.com indicated that CEOs from top US companies are

skeptic of social media use in the workplace. UberCEO.com’s study found out that only most of

the 2009 Fortune Top CEOs do not have any profile in social media platforms, like Facebook,

LinkedIn or Twitter. In fact, only two CEOs from the list in Fortune have Facebook account (“CEOs

cautious,” 2010).

The reasons most of these CEOs are skeptic are also explained by Information Technology

experts. A plethora of survey and studies and articles about social media utilization in the

workplace reveals that a number of “dangers” await a company that totally embraces social

media use. These minuses include the following:

Danger of leaks in confidential information (Silnicki, 2007). Employees who tweet about

company information, or employees who openly discuss in forums information related to the

company may take away its company’s credibility through revelation of confidential information.

If employees think that there is privacy in the cyberspace, then they must think again. Privacy in

the social web is almost zero (Notess, 2009). Google knows what people search. Google knows

almost all activities netizens engage in. Notess (2009) listed down all the possible activities that

Google may track:

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Figure 4:

Activities/Information that Google Knows about the User

Google can track the following activities

1. All pages visited, if one uses the Google toolbar and have enabled PageRank
2. All email sent and received through Gmail
3. One’s schedule, Google calendar is being used
4. The YouTube Videos watched
5. Financial details for those who use Google Finance, Google Checkout, Google Adsense
and Google AdWords
6. Medical records if entered into Google Health
7. Files on one’s computer, using Google Desktop
8. Personal interests from iGoogle, Google Alerts, and Google Reader
9. Books looked at on Google Books
10. One’s address from Google Phonebook
11. What one’s home looks like from Google Maps Streetview
12. One’s current location, for those using Google Latitude
Source: Notess, G (2009). Privacy in the age of social web. Online. Jul/Aug2009, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p41-43, 3p

For individuals who do not wish to be tracked may opt not to use Google tool bar, or not

use Google service at all; however, data which they would get could be very limited.

The company’s computer system is at risk of infection because of malware propagated

by social networks (Notess, 2009; Leggatt, 2010). A survey by Panda Security revealed that

“small businesses that allow employees to use social networks at work are putting themselves

at risk of infecting their systems and, worse still, financial loss” (Leggatt, para. 1, 2010). Panda

Security discloses that 71% of small and medium-based companies suffered from malware

infections coming from Facebook; 41% was infected also with Malware virus through the use of

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YouTube; and 51% of them admitted to have data compromised through Twitter (Leggatt,

2010).

Less productivity among the employees (“Yammering away,” 2010; Silnicki, 2007). Many

HR experts argue that a social media utilization in the cubicle leads to productivity losses. For

example, an IT company, Morse, released a research result saying that the “personal use of social

networks during the working day was costing the British economy almost £1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) a year

in lost productivity” (“Yammering away,” para. 1, 2010). The same article also said the Nucleus Research,

an American company, disclosed that banning Facebook at work could lead to 1.5% improvement in the

employees’ productivity (“Yammering away,” 2010).

Profiles at times present the employee in unprofessional manner (Frauenheim, 2007).

Some employers want to maintain business-like image of the employees. This, however, may not

be true all the time for social networking sites. Some sites have been reported to contain

unprofessional content. For example, some profiles in MySpace and Facebook appear

unprofessional in terms of content and photos, sometimes even showing the person drinking

alcohol or enjoying ‘unprofessional’ activities (Frauenheim, 2007). This is among the reasons

employers ban access to social networking sites in the workplace.

Access to non-work related and inappropriate materials online (Silnicki, 2010). In the

city of Edmonton, reports said that a few workers have been under investigation for “accessing

materials such as porn, gambling, extreme violence and hate websites from their office

computers” (Silnicki, para. 1, 2010). Visiting unrelated sites is not new in the city. In fact, reports

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revealed that 164 city workers spend at least 17 hours at work visiting non-job related sites (para.

1).

What Employers Can Do

Alsop (2010) reiterates that attracting and retaining the Millenials who are attracted to

work in a tech-savvy environment is a wise strategy since they will represent 36% of the US labor

force in less than five years (para. 4). In order to do so, a balance between the positive and

negative impact of social media must be in order.

Wilson (2009) gave some tips on how to draft corporate policy on social media usage in

the workplace. These include: (a) Banning sites or functionality if needed, to avoid information

leakage and improper usage; (b) Educating the employees or the users, particularly on why

business and personal passwords must be different; (c) Keeping information up-to-date, and

deleting unnecessary information; (d) Opening up but keeping control, especially in social

networks like Facebook, where one’s profile could just be ‘cut-down’ to whichever is necessary.

This also entails avoiding ‘befriending’ anyone in the cyberspace; (e) Protecting one’s identity by

responsible setting up of ‘privacy setting’ to avoid compromising business or work-related details;

and (f) Staying informed of the details employees post on their sites which might affect the

company’s reputation(p. 56).

To do all of these, an additional IT staff may be necessary, only to monitor the social

media activities of the employees. This entails extra cost for the company, but in the end, could

yield more positive results than having no ‘protection’ against possible negative impact of social

media utilization in the workplace.

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Why Total Ban on Social Media Usage is not Advisable

A new research published by the University of Ontario in Canada revealed that social

media fulfill certain needs of the users. These needs include pastime, affection, fashion, sharing

of problems, sociability and social information. The study uses factor analysis of gratifications

which were all obtained from Facebook, a social networking site. The method used was survey

and interviews with the respondents (Quan-Haase & Young, 2010).

Alsop also emphasized that the Millenials are the kind of workers who are not afraid to

hop from one job to another, if their needs are not fulfilled, since they see life as a balance

between work and socialization (Alsop, 2010).

Conclusion

The use of social media has positive and negative implications. Not a single company

may have an absolute stand on whether it should be allowed or be banned in the workplace.

What is necessary, based on the research findings, is to strike a balance between protecting the

company’s image and providing the ‘socialization’ needs of the employees.

These social media tools are primarily created by man, by men in America, and now, it is

the American companies which find difficulty deciding whether or not access to social media

platforms must be in the corporate policy. Apparently, the social media created by men have

started to shape the community, not sparing the workplace.

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Understanding that social media are more like ‘extensions’ of the employees, may give

corporate bosses an idea that total ban may not be the answer. After all, Graham Cluley said,

“Denying staff access to social networking sites will only drive them to find a way round the

ban” (qtd. in Wilson, 2009). Ban may not be the answer; individual responsibility and corporate

education may be. Social networking does have advantages which no one can deny. Excessive

and irresponsible use is the only culprit. The measures must address irresponsibility and not

usage of social media tools.

The studies and literature reviewed reveal that most studies on the use of social media

in the workplace were undertaken using mainly survey and interviews. The surveys, however,

revealed a pattern on the social media usage of the employees, and how employers perceive

social networking as a personally driven activity.

This proposed research shall be different from the literature and studies reviewed

because this is aimed at looking at the differences in the points of view between military and

non-military respondents. Most studies provided no data on how military men perceive social

networking in the workplace, and this is what this proposed study will reveal to contribute to

the body of knowledge already published in various journals.

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