KUALA LUMPUR: Will social networking and instant messages replace the standard business phone call, the client lunch and the handshake?

A recent survey in the United States by Directions Research Inc, commissioned by Adobe Systems Inc, points toward an evolution in office workplace culture.

White-collar workers are expected to change the way they interact with each other and co-ordinate their tasks; business will also be conducted differently in the social-media-rich environment of the 21st century.

According to the survey, the leap in new technology options and shifting demographics of the workforce mean that the traditional way of doing business is rapidly being enhanced by new ways of working.

More business will be conducted using emerging communications technologies and social networking platforms such as Facebook and microblogging service Twitter.

Technologies that people prefer to use in their private lives will become the technologies people want to use at work, the survey found.

The younger generation, it reported, prefers to use multiple channels of communication, and often choose social networks, text messaging or instant messaging instead of e-mail and in-person meetings.

This shift could lead to increased support for work technologies that offer these capabilities.

Other findings

While e-mail is still the leading technology tool of choice, usage of text messaging, instant messaging, social networking and online productivity tools are on the rise with white-collar workers under 35 years of age.

Nearly one in three such employees report that they use these technologies at work daily, the survey found.

In the next five years, white-collar workers plan to increase their time working remotely by 50%, resulting in white-collar workers spending 30% of their time on average working outside the office.

The survey was conducted via the Internet in late February.

Roughly 90% of the respondents were white-collar workers. College students accounted for 10% of the survey. Responses were divided equally between men and women.

Respondents were divided into four key categories:

Leaders – Young professionals who use a variety of emerging technologies both at work and in their personal lives;

Actives – Largely over-35-year-old professionals who have adapted to emerging technologies to meet the changing demands of the workplace;

Followers – The less technically-inclined who rely on e-mail at the exclusion of other technologies; and

Resistors – Generally older workers who are reluctant to adjust to shifts in the workplace and office technologies