I cannot say if productivity was a watchword 10 years ago, when salaries were fat and perks were plenty. It’s definitely on everyone’s minds these days though, when many companies have smaller staff and employees have fatter workloads.

Throw social networking and other electronic communications like e-mail and instant messaging into the mix, and productivity becomes a greater challenge for employees.

In particular, the study found that those who IMed frequently with their bosses were more productive than those who didn’t.

Well, that’s what conventional wisdom says.

MIT and IBM present a different case. In a study published in April, researchers at the two institutions found that instant messaging and other forms of constant communication actually increase employees’ productivity levels. Another win for Chatty Cathy. (For Win 1, see the post “Facebook Addicts + YouTubers = Sharper Employees?“)

According to an article by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the researchers analyzed the e-mail traffic, buddy lists and social networking friends of 2,600 IBM consultants over 12 months. They compared the consultants’ communication patterns against their performance in billable hours. Those who maintained constant communications averaged an increase in revenue of $588 per month over the average, while those who did not produced $98 per month less than the average. [Read more...]