Question

Suppose firms in the UK are losing productivity because of Facebook. Office staff are spending too long on the social networking site. According to The British Chambers of Commerce employees use Instagram, Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedin for "romancing" and other purposes. On average, employees spend an hour a day on social media. This reduces productivity by 13%. Nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time. Some 82% saw nothing wrong in surfing at work during office hours. In October 2010 Bournemouth City Council in the UK banned staff from accessing Facebook on its computers when it was discovered that they spent, on average, 390 hours on the site every month.

Analyze and answer the following questions:

1. What is meant by productivity?
2. Analyze the impact on a fall in productivity on costs.
3. Analyze the possible consequences for businesses in India of banning access to
4. Facebook and other social networking sites.
5. Do you think access should be denied?

Answer 1

Productivity is the measurement of efficiency of production inputs, such as labour and capital. It can also be defined as a ratio between the output volume and the volume of inputs.

With the fall in productivity the costs will obviously increase as more inputs will be use to produce the same output than before.

The possible consequences for businesses in India of banning access to Facebook and other social networking sites are: This may increase the productivity to an effective extent but can have negative impact of stress and depression on employees at free time.

No the access shouldn't be denied because every technology can be used in both ways; positive as well as negative. Business can take benefits from social networking. The more percentages are on this side of the idea.