The Impact of Social Media Usage During Office Hours on Employee Performance: Evidence from a Sri Lankan Apparel Manufacturing Firm

Abstract

Today, social media usage is an essential tool for communication among individuals and organizations. However, evidence suggests that some industry sectors are striving to understand the relationship between social media usage during office hours and job performance. In the Sri Lankan context, the apparel sector is struggling to understand this relationship. Thus, this study investigated the impact of social media usage on employee performance with special reference to a leading apparel manufacturing company in Sri Lanka. A deductive approach was adopted to conduct the research. Individual social media usage (ISM) and work-related social media usage (WSM) are considered as independent variables and employee job performance is the dependent variable. Findings suggest that ISM and WSM enhance the job performance of apparel industry workers in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, findings indicate that the apparel industry must not discourage social media usage during office hours, instead, must find methods of utilizing social media usage for the betterment of the firm. Practical and theoretical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are mentioned in the Discussion. Concluding remarks are discussed in the Conclusion.