International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 135 – No.3, February 2016 18 Impact of Online Social Networking on Employees Productivity at Work Place in University of Gondar - A Case Study Tilahun Yeshambel Department of Information Technology, College of Natural and Computational Science, University of Gondar, Ethiopia Mengistu Belete Department of Information Technology, College of Natural and Computational Science, University of Gondar, Ethiopia Yelkal Mulualem Department of Information Technology, College of Natural and Computational Science, University of Gondar, Ethiopia ABSTRACT Employees are considered as one of the most important assets of any institution. University of Gondar is one of the known universities in Ethiopia and has large number employees. Success of this University depends on the productivity of its employees. Social media, which has become very popular, has infiltrated the workplace and most employees are utilizing social media in the workplace without any access restriction. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of social media participation by employees and its effect on their productivity. A sample was stratified randomly selected from a population that has internet connectivity in the workplace. Primary data was collected by using a questionnaire and interview. The research found both negative and positive relationship between social media participation and employee productivity. The negative relationship was however found to be stronger as 68.4 % employees spend most of their time on social media enhancing personal networks and 86 % of employees use office hours to visit online social networks. Positive relationship exists in employee, who use of social media for seeking and viewing work related information. The study concluded that employees participate in social media in the workplace for both work and non-work related activity. Social media has the potential to allow employees to form collaborations and communities for knowledge creation and sharing, better channels of communication, which enhance employee productivity. However, it can draw employees in to an addiction that distracts performance as well as straining the University resources. Keywords Online Social Networking, Employee productivity and University of Gondar. 1. INTRODUCTION For some years employers have had to deal with issues concerning employees' Internet use via organizational information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures. Thus, it has quickly become an accepted practice for employees to use social media internally and externally to achieve organizational outcomes. The current popularity of online social networking is undeniable and companies have started to take notice of this fact, although skepticism regarding productivity and technological risks do widely exist [1]. In the organizational context the problems associated with online social networking (OSN) technology as well as the nature of the content on such sites present employers with a dilemma. Many organizations effectively employed acceptable use policies combined with other defense technologies to manage Internet access and use. On the other hand, the opportunities that OSN can present to organizations should be investigated in order to make informed decisions before simply discarding this type of communication and collaboration technology. Similar to other organizations, tertiary education institutions apply and benefit from various communication and collaboration technologies. The findings of Quan-Haase, et al. [3] suggest that the Internet provides a sphere for social interaction; it encourages people to interact with others that have similar interests and creates social unity. This sense of camaraderie that can be obtained through social networking may assist in creating a loyal organizational culture, increasing morale and the general sense of unity among employees. 1.1 Productivity and Social Networking in the Modern Economy Productivity defined as 'how much and how well we produce from resources used. If we produce more or better goods from the same resources, we increase productivity. Or if we produce the same goods from lesser resources, we also increase productivity'[6]. In this research, 'productivity' refers to the time spent by an employee actively executing the job he or she was hired to do, in order to produce the desired outcomes expected from the employees' job description. Recent studies, for example, [6], [7][8] agreed that social networks are typical characterizations of human behavior to fulfill the need to communicate and connect with people they know, meet new people who share a common interest, collaborate, participate and share information and knowledge as well as gain new knowledge. Generally, these are also the reasons why individuals engage in social behavior via the Internet. To many, the Internet provides effective social networking opportunities and their online behavior includes building individual relationships, expanding their personal network of friends, finding people who have had similar experiences, discussing common topics of interest, dating and finding potential life partners, staying connected to old friends or distant family and virtually meeting peers, including work colleagues, to discuss current issues or topics of interest.