THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON GEN-Y EMPLOYEES’ WORK PERFORMANCE IN A TELCO, MALAYSIA

Generation-Y (Gen-Y) is the largest generational cohort in the global workforce, surpassing 50 percent in 2020, making them the most influential group to impact work performance. Highly competitive telecommunication companies continuously look for ways to improve employees' work performance. This research focuses on how social media improves the work performance of Gen-Y employees of a telco in Malaysia through social media use, shared vision, network ties, trust, and knowledge transfer. This research discovered an insignificant relationship between social media use at the workplace and work performance. This is because social media is currently not an official workplace tool, and its usage is limited among Gen-Y employees in the telco. It was also uncovered that using social media to act as a tool to gain trust did not influence work performance, even though the telco's primary official communication tool is email and a mobile app for communication and collaboration purposes. Nevertheless, this research uncovered that shared vision, network ties, and knowledge transfer is significant for the telco's Gen-Y employees to enhance their work performance. In conclusion, the telco's management can leverage social media to improve the work performance of Gen-Y employees by developing a social media strategy to provide a suitable framework with proper guidelines, policies, and procedures.  Article visualizations: