Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study
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Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study
This short article talks about a study that the University of Melbourne did stating that the use of online social interaction sites like Facebook increased productivity at about 9%.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090402/lf_nm_life/us_work_internet
Article is quoted below for those using mobile devices:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090402/lf_nm_life/us_work_internet
Article is quoted below for those using mobile devices:
MELBOURNE (Reuters Life!) – Caught Twittering or on Facebook at work? It'll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.
The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.
Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB, helped to sharpened workers' concentration.
"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker said on the university's website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)
"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he said.
According to the study of 300 workers, 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.
Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.
"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity," said Coker. "That's not always the case."
However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.
"Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he said.
(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Valerie Lee)
Eric Chang- Posts : 35
Join date : 2009-04-01
Is this relationship a correlation or causation?
Is it possible that the people who engage in "WILB" are simply more productive because they have to be? If worker A spends more time than worker B surfing the internet during a given day, and both workers have to get a certain amount of work done during their day, worker A will have to be more productive during the time that they are not online. Put another way, the student writing a paper that starts the night before it is due will write at a much faster rate than the student who starts a week before it is due. In that sense, the procrastinating student is more productive with the time that they spend working on the paper.
Kyle Richardson- Posts : 9
Join date : 2009-03-31
Re: Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study
While you make a valid point Kyle, I don't think that explains the situation entirely. People are going to procrastinate at work, whether its going to youtube or just staring at your computer screen and zoning out. Allowing for WILB gives the employees a chance to entertain themselves but does not necessarily serve as a big distraction. Perhaps allowing the employees to do what they like with any spare time creates a more positive work environment and thus more productivity.
conormac- Posts : 7
Join date : 2009-04-01
Re: Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study
This study discovered a correlation between WILB in moderation and work productivity. From a statistical standpoint, no causal relationship can be deduced from a study, one must conduct an experiment. The article mentions that the sample taken for the study was from workers who engaged in WILB in moderation. In order to get tangible answers to this apparent correlation there needs to be a random sample of workers that use WILB in little to moderate to extreme time. That way, I think we will see the true effects of WILB in a work environment.
JackHeintz- Posts : 5
Join date : 2009-04-01
Actually, Twitter might directly increase productivity in the following ways:
* Make existing professional relationships stronger and more intimate.
* Get questions answered fast.
* Expand your professional network.
So, it could help fill in some of the gaps in an existing social network, creating more edges between nodes that need to be connected but currently aren't.
http://lifehacker.com/software/twitter/twitter-for-work-244991.php
* Make existing professional relationships stronger and more intimate.
* Get questions answered fast.
* Expand your professional network.
So, it could help fill in some of the gaps in an existing social network, creating more edges between nodes that need to be connected but currently aren't.
http://lifehacker.com/software/twitter/twitter-for-work-244991.php
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