Orientation: The advent of social media has taken new dimensions becoming one of the most significant methods of how people communicate all over the world. In particular, the usage of social media and networking sites is a phenomenon that has brought great negative and positive impact to organisations and employees nowadays. Research purpose: The primary aim of the study sought to determine the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector with particular reference to government departments in Harare. Motivation for the study: There have been rising concerns about the use of social media sites in the workplace because of loss of labour productivity through time wasted at work. Research approach/design and method: The study adopted a positivist research approach because it had ontological assumptions of representationalism and objectivism. Because of the nature of the research objectives, a descriptive research design was found to be necessary. A sample size of 278 management and employees from five selected government departments was targeted. Structured questionnaires were used for the collection of relevant primary data. Main findings: The study revealed that social media usage in the workplace resulted in significant drop in employees’ productivity because of time spent online keeping in touch with friends, sharing pictures and communicating with colleagues. Practical/managerial implications: As social media cannot be completely eradicated during working hours, the human resources departments need to monitor deadlines and job deliverables with the need to ensure that jobs are performed efficiently. Contribution/value-add: The study sought to fill the existing research gaps with regard to the use of social media at workplace and employee productivity.

中文翻译：

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工作场所社交媒体使用率与公共部门员工生产率之间的关系：以哈拉雷政府部门为例

定位：社交媒体的出现已采用了新的方式，成为人们在世界各地进行交流的最重要方法之一。特别是，社交媒体和网站的使用是一种现今给组织和员工带来巨大消极和积极影响的现象。研究目的：该研究的主要目的是确定在工作场所使用社交媒体与公共部门员工生产率之间的关系，尤其要参考哈拉雷的政府部门。研究动机：由于在工作中浪费时间导致劳动生产率下降，因此人们越来越关注在工作场所使用社交媒体网站。研究方法/设计与方法：该研究采用实证主义研究方法，因为它具有代表主义和客观主义的本体论假设。由于研究目标的性质，描述性的研究设计被认为是必要的。目标是从五个选定的政府部门中抽取278名管理层和员工作为样本。结构化的问卷用于收集相关的主要数据。主要发现：该研究表明，由于在网上与朋友保持联系，共享图片和与同事交流所花费的时间，在工作场所使用社交媒体导致员工的生产力显着下降。实际/管理意义：由于无法在工作时间内彻底消除社交媒体，人力资源部门需要监控截止日期和可交付成果，并确保有效执行工作。贡献/增值：该研究试图填补在工作场所使用社交媒体和员工生产力方面的现有研究空白。