Utility of social networks to professionals : a study on the motivations of employees for utilizing social networks within organizations

Abstract

The study intends to examine the key motivations of the professional for utilizing social networks within organizations. The study was conducted with the help of 50 employees working in different business organizations belonging to a diversified nature of industries. The engaged respondents claimed to utilize social networks for job purposes at their respective business organizations. The participants took part in an online questionnaire survey as an experimental sample group. The thesis aims to find the major motivations for utilizing such social networks for job purposes.With a view to detecting the motivations of the respondents, the Uses and Gratification Theory of Denis McQuil was implemented. Although the original theory included four different kinds of motivations for using a particular medium, the motivation,“Entertainment” was eliminated since the usage of social networks in this context is job-related. The remaining motivations, “Information”, “Social Interaction” and “Personal Identity” was evaluated as motivations for utilizing social networks at work. According to previous studies from literature review, actual usage of social networks for job purposes can also be influenced by some personal attributes and controlled variables. Therefore, factor such as, “Age”, “Gender” and “Attitude” were also incorporated in the analysis.The findings of the study reveal that activities related to “Information” happens to be the strongest motivation amongst the three followed by “Social Interaction”. The thesis reveals that professionals who are working in various business organizations are utilizing social networks for information exchange. Therefore, it concludes that social networks hold the potential to be used as an information-sharing tool within organizations.