Abstract:
Social phenomenon has swept through popular culture in the past few years as millions of people
joined online communities and started using social platforms. This has enabled communities to
grow to more than 1.5 billion members globally. In the light of current applications of
information and communication technologies, the popularity of social media cannot be denied or
ignored since its effects are far reaching and are affecting every industry. This study sought to
establish the relationship of social media use and employee performance in public universities in
Kenya. The specific objectives were to: find out the effects of Facebook use on employee
performance in Rongo University; determine the effect of LinkedIn use on employee
performance in Rongo University; establish the effect of Twitter use on employee performance
in Rongo University; and lastly to examine the effect of WhatsApp use on employee
performance in Rongo University. The study was conducted in Rongo University. Descriptive
design was used in the study. The target population was 497 employees of Rongo University in
Kenya and sample of 136 respondents from the target population was selected and administered
with questionnaires. Analysis of data was done using standard statistical tools such as; averages,
standard deviation, and regression. Descriptive statistics were computed for main characteristics
of the study variables. Data processing was done using the statistical software SPSS and
presented using frequency tables, charts and figures. The findings revealed that apart from
Facebook usage, all other three (Twitter, LinkedIn and WhatsApp) were statistically significant
in determining employee performance in Rongo University. The study concluded that, the higher
like hood of employee performance associated with LinkedIn was due to the attributes related
with knowledge and information sharing, career improvements and collaborations and the
inverse relationship exhibited by other social media platforms may be related to the aspect of
increased use of these media and not necessary the attribute to actual assigned duties in the
University. The study recommended implementation of clear and comprehensive acceptable
policies to address social media usage issues such as personal usage, business, relevance, and site
restrictions and information confidentiality without restricting employees to benefit personal as
well as professionally, and relocation of more funds by the Government to train personnel on
social media usage in public institutions
