Improving Employee Productivity through LinkedIn Networking: A Study of Banks in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

Social networking is rapidly changing the way employees interact with customers and the organization as a whole; and one form of social networking is LinkedIn networking. This study examined the relationship between LinkedIn networking and employee productivity measured in terms of service quality and employee task accomplishment of banks operating in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A survey design was adopted for the study using questionnaire as the research instrument. The population of this research work was made up of 77 employees of the money deposit banks in focus; all of who were administered copies of the questionnaire. With a response rate of about 84%, the returned and useable copies came from 65 employees. Frequencies and mean scores were used for the presentation of data; and the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to test the relationship between the LinkedIn networking with each of the two measures of employee productivity used in this study and strength of explanation (co-efficient of determination). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Windows version 22 with a criterion significance level of 0.05 was employed. The findings revealed that LinkedIn networking has significant influence on service quality and employee task accomplishment. It was, therefore, recommended that employees of the banks should use LinkedIn as a constructive and effective means for enhancing their productivity in terms of service quality and task accomplishment.