EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE ON JOB PERFORMANCE AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Several studies on effects of social media use on job performance among employees mainly focused on private organizations with little or no studies on public institutions such as the civil service. Undoubtedly, social media has transformed the way employees in government ministries interact, communicate and discharge their duties and therefore its effect on job performance need to be investigated. Since the structure and goals of the civil service differ from that of private organizations, conclusions based on the latter may be inadequate to make projections for the former. It therefore becomes pertinent that a study is carried out to investigate this and provide evidence based answers to the effect of social media use on job performance. Relying on Manuel Castell’s Network Society theoretical thrust, and adopting mixed methods research approach, quantitative data was collected from 612 civil servants selected through the lottery method of the simple random sampling. The qualitative sessions comprised of interview sessions conducted among 15 civil servants purposively selected and Focus Group Discussion sessions for junior and senior civil servants. The quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution tables and percentages. On the other hand, transcripts derived from the Indepth interviews and focused group discussion were thoroughly read, coded, and manually analyzed thematically. Findings reveal that majority (57.0%) of the respondents believe that social media use affect job performance negatively. The study therefore recommends moderate and regulated use of social media among civil servants.