What We’re Reading, “If Harvard Says So…” Edition

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If you are still blocking your employees from using social media because you fear it will halt productivity, you’ve been reading the wrong research.

In an article published Nov. 11 in the Harvard Business Review, writers Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd make the case for the “uber-connected” organization of 2010. First, they assert, access to social media improves productivity. They point to the results of a study conducted by the University of Melbourne in Australia, which found that those who browse the internet for non-work-rsocial mediaelated purposes — within reason of course — are 9 percent more productive than their counterparts who don’t. (We wrote about this study when it was published in April. Read it here.)

Meister and Willyerd point to two other reasons companies should champion the use of social media: they maintain that the new workforce will seek out jobs that encourage the use of it, and add that companies that provide access to IM, Facebook, wikis, Twitter, etc. have more engaged workers.

If anything, keep this in mind: Those millennials… they “are prepared to bypass corporate IT departments if these tools are blocked.”

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About Jenny Sweeney

Jenny Sweeney is a freelance writer living in the Philly suburbs. Currently, she writes for PC Helps about trends affecting corporate help desks, including cloud computing and the consumerization of IT. Earlier in her career, she wrote about health care, lifestyle trends, and more for the Philadelphia City Paper; and edited city and travel guides for America Online.

Comments

  1. Michael Rogers says:

    Just because research comes out of Harvard it doesn’t make it bible truth. After all, the Harvard business model is screwed up to begin with.

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