PWC1010

MC102

WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING IN A WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT

Submitted to

Madam Dahlia Syahrani Binti Md Yusof

Prepared by

1102700593 Wan Mohd Abrar Bin Wan Mohd Sharif

1101110571 Nur Shakiah Binti Mohamad Shafi

1101110811 Izyan Syairah Binti Abu Ashim

1101110812 Muhammad Fadhli Bin Mohd Salleh

1091101190 M.Monica Janet

1091103907 Nurul Ain Binti Mohd Ali

1091105967 Shaiful Adnin Bin Adnan

1101110580 Zul Fadzli Bin Selamat

Abstract

This research report is about The Effects of Social Networking in a Workplace Environment. The

main objectives of conducting this research it to examine the impact of usage in the social

networking at workplace and to assess its purpose as an effective business tool. Besides, this

report is also conducted to investigate the frequent usage of social networking as

communication tools between the co-workers. We also conduct this research to find out

whether they are comfortable by using Social Network as their communication tools in their

workplace .Through this research, we also find that allowing the usage of social network while

working hours enables employees to communicate and strengthen work place relations with

their colleagues. As we know, social networking and internet is widely been used by everyone

and it is user friendly. To support our research we conducted questionnaires as our primary

resource of this research.

Acknowledgement

We are heartily thankful to our lecturer Madam Dahlia Syarani Binti Md Yusof who guide and

helped us a lot to thru out this research and improve our workplace communication skills. She

has taken full effort to go through our proposal and questionnaire and made necessary

correction when it is required.

Besides, we also would like to thanks to all our respondent to answer the questionnaire. They

have been cooperate a lot and spend their time to accomplish the questionnaire and the needs

for this research to be done. Without their help, this research won’t be complete. Finally,

sincere thanks to all of our group members for giving their full cooperation to conduct the

survey and for being responsible towards their parts in this research with full of discipline.

CONTENT

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

List of Figure…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

1.1 Background………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

1.2 Terms of Reference……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

1.3 Purpose………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

1.4 Scope…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

1.5 Methodology………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

2.0 Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

3.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14

4.0 Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Social networks as an effective business tool amongst colleagues

Figure 2: Social networks used as a medium of communication between co-workers

Figure 3: How accessible or how easy it is to handle this medium of communication

Figure 4: The percentage on how important social networking is in this era.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

In the past decade, the public use of online social networking and video sharing websites and

blogs has grown rapidly. With the development and expansion of sites like Facebook, MySpace,

YouTube, and Twitter, it revolutionized the way in how people communicate and share

information at local, national and international levels. Social media can help individuals and

organizations gain better understandings by engaging with and responding to people on the

social web. Social networking is a fast moving and constantly evolving environment which

presents both opportunities and challenges for social workers.

This report presents the findings of the frequent usage of social networking as a medium of

communication between co-workers and also presents the analysis of the survey regarding this

matter in detail under the findings section of this report.

Some of the objectives which fall under this category are to investigate the pros and cons - to

create an understanding of how important social networking is in this era. Therefore, allowing

the usage social network while working hours to enables employees to communicate and

strengthen work place relations with their colleague. In general, this report focuses on

analysing the elements related to fulfilment towards usage of social network during the office

hour and presents the findings in simple yet easily understandable way of statistical analysis.

1.2 Terms of Reference

This report is about a research on the effects of social networking in a workplace environment.

This report requested by our lecturer named Madam Dahlia Syahrani binti Md Yusof, Lecturer

of Multimedia University, teaching subject titled Workplace Communication PWC1010. This

report is prepared by a group 8 student named:

Wan Mohd Abrar Bin Wan Mohd Sharif

Nur Shakiah Binti Mohamad Shafi

Izyan Syairah Binti Abu Ashim

Muhammad Fadhli Bin Mohd Salleh

M.Monica Janet

Nurul Ain Binti Mohd Ali

Shaiful Adnin Bin Adnan

Zul Fadzli Bin Selamat

1.3 Purpose

The objective of this report is :

To examine the impact in usage of social networking in the workplace and to assess its

purpose as an effective business tool.

To investigate the frequent usage of social networking as a medium of communication

between co-workers

To find out whether co-workers enjoy/find it easy with this medium of communication

To investigate the pros and cons - to create an understanding of how important social

networking is in this era

To allow the usage social network while working hours to enables employees to

communicate and strengthen work place relations with their colleague.

1.4 Scope

In the study mentioned above (The Effects of Social Networking in a Workplace environment),

the report covered both genders of male and female from Petronas Exploration Team. A

random sample population of 40 office members were selected and surveyed. The survey was

conducted in a time span of one week.

1.5 Methodology

The main idea of the report was based on the effects of Social Networking in a Workplace

environment. Therefore the survey was conducted in Petronas Twin Tower, Tower 2, level 35

and the correspondents were co-workers from Petronas Exploration Team comprising from all

the departments and from both gender. A sample space of 40 co-workers was selected for the

survey.

The survey was carried out in forms of questionnaires. The respondents were required to

answer a series of 21 questions which were divided into two parts :

1) General information 2) Specific questions

(The questionnaires were distributed to each member of the group where each member would

get approximately 3 to 4 survey questionnaire and they were given one week time to hand out

the questionnaire to random MMU students and to compile them back within the time limit

given.)

Primary data obtained through the questionnaires were then analyzed using statistical analysis

such as frequency and reliability. The outcomes are clearly displayed in terms of graphs, tables

and charts for clear indication. This also aids readability of this report. The findings are then

summarized in the conclusion section of this report. The five answered survey has been

attached in the Appendix section of this report for reference.

2.0 FINDINGS

An effective business tool amongst colleagues

1%

4%

43%53%

Strongly DisagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly Agree

Figure 1 : Looking at social networks as an effective business tool amongst colleagues

Analysis

Figure 1 above is the pie chart showing the percentages of employees from the

Exploration department of Petronas giving their opinions on how effective is social network

usage as a business tool in their department. According to the pie chart above, we have

categorized the result of percentages to the strongly disagrees, disagrees, neutrals, agrees, and

strongly agrees. Evidently shown in the results above, the most percentage falls to the agree

category by 53%. The second highest by 42% are the group that are considered neutrals. Only

4% disagreed and another 1% strongly disagreed.

A medium of communication between co-workers

31%

26%

41%

2%

Strongly DisagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly Agree

Figure 2: Social networks used as a medium of communication between co-workers

Analysis

The pie chart in figure to above shows the percentages in categories of co-workers

agreeing whether Social networks are effective used as a medium to communicate between

them in their department.

2% of the co-workers in the department strongly agreed and another 41% simply agreed

on the subject matter. Co-workers that didn’t really felt any difference of may find social

networking as just an extra source of communication rated their opinions to neutral (26%).

Another 31% disagreed and might think that social networking isn’t a substantial way of

communicating.

Do co-workers find this medium of communication easy?

4%

22%

46%

24%

3%

Strongly DisagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly Agree

Figure 3 : How accessible or how easy it is to handle this medium of communication

Analysis

The pie chart above indicates how co-workers find the level of difficulty easy by using

social networks to communicate. Getting a result of 4% for the strongly disagree category and

23% for disagree, shows that there are still co-workers that are still struggling with this medium

of communication. Meanwhile 24% of agrees and 3% of strongly agrees were obtain from the

survey. Another 46% acted neutral in this conduct survey.

How important social networking is in this era.

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

0.63%

18.33%

40.83%

36.67%

3.33%

Figure 4 : The percentage on how important social networking is in this era.

Analysis

The graph above illustrates how employees in the Exploration department of Petronas

access their internet and how they feel about the usage of social networks being used in their

work place environment.

Figure 4 indicates that 40.83% are still not that sure about social networking being that

important in this era which on the other hand means that they haven’t really felt any drastic

improvements being negative nor positive towards this medium. Although 36.7% agree and

3.3% strongly agree there are still another 18.33% that disagree and 0.6% that strongly

disagree.

3.0 CONCLUSION

4.0 RECOMMENDATION

The survey has been conducted at the Exploration department of Petronas. The survey results

show that most of the respondent feels comfortable and useful using social networking as a

medium of communication between co-workers during the working hour. By this way they, can

communicate with their colleagues easier and faster, as we know internet is one of the fastest

communication tool today.

According to the survey, they also find that social networking during working hour is an

effective business tool amongst colleagues. Therefore, the employer of the company should

allowed the usage of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google + and others

during the working hour. This also will strengthen their workplace connection. The employer of

the company should allow their worker to have their meeting between the co-workers through

social network and also allowing them to update recent news and updates about the company

through social network too.

Besides, majority of the respondents of the Exploration department of Petronas feels that social

networking in this era is important. Allowing the usage of social network also can lessen their

stress during the working hour. They don’t have to rush and take a longer time to communicate

with one another. They also agree that social network is a good way to communicate in a group

during the working hour.

Finally, majority of the respondent find that allowing the usage of social networking in a

workplace environment is convenient with their daily routine and schedule as a worker in

Exploration department of Petronas.

Reference & Appendix