Broadcasting for help: A typology of support-seeking strategies on Facebook

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2566-2588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily M Buehler ◽  
Jenny L Crowley ◽  
Ashley M Peterson ◽  
Andrew C High
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Supportive Communication ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Support Providers ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Support Seeking ◽  
Verbal Strategies

Social network sites are desirable media through which to seek supportive communication, and users can signal a need for assistance to large, diverse pools of potential support providers with a single message. According to social information processing theory, support seekers adapt to the lack of nonverbal cues online by leveraging the verbal elements of messages. This study classifies the variety of verbal strategies that Facebook users employ to seek support to better understand how people publicly initiate supportive exchanges online. A community sample of participants ( N = 291) completed an online questionnaire in which they provided their most recent Facebook post that was intended to garner supportive communication. A thematic analysis revealed seven themes that describe the verbal strategies of support-seeking that social network site users enacted to request support. Implications for initiating supportive exchanges and revealing personal information online are discussed.

scholarly journals “You Shouldn’t Use Facebook for That”: Navigating Norm Violations While Seeking Emotional Support on Facebook

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511773322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily M. Buehler
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Supportive Communication ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Support Providers ◽  
Appropriate Behavior ◽  
Norm Violations ◽  
Support Seeking ◽  
Inductive Thematic Analysis

Facebook users who choose to seek emotional support publicly via Facebook Timeline posts must balance their needs for emotional comfort with norms for appropriate behavior within the Facebook context. Although Facebook promotes access to diverse social contacts who could serve as emotional support providers, the norms of Facebook use often prevent users from explicitly and directly venting their affect and requesting emotional support. A community sample ( N = 185) completed an online questionnaire through which participants provided their most recent public Facebook post that was intended to garner social support. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to identify the strategies individuals enact to navigate the tension between effectively seeking emotional support while avoiding violating implicit Facebook norms associated with oversharing or appearing emotionally needy. Six themes characterizing emotional support-seeking strategies on Facebook emerged from the data. These themes are further subdivided, described, and discussed as they pertain to extant literature on supportive communication and Facebook norms.

Receiving supportive communication from Facebook friends: A model of social ties and supportive communication in social network sites

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. High ◽  
Emily M. Buehler
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Supportive Communication ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Facebook Use ◽  
Supportive Messages

This study distinguishes perceptions of, preferences for, and outcomes related to people’s social ties online. It expands understanding of when and why using social network sites (SNSs) provides people with several types of supportive communication by integrating users’ social capital and preference for weak tie support. Prior research is synthesized and extended to build a heuristic model of social ties and supportive communication in SNSs that considers network-based variables (i.e., social capital, preference for weak ties) as mechanisms that link the use of SNSs to the supportive messages people receive. A community sample ( N = 553) completed an online questionnaire. Results indicated that intensity of Facebook use corresponds with both social capital and received support. Moreover, social capital mediates and preference for weak ties moderates the relationship between using Facebook and receiving support, and results differ according to the types of social capital and support under consideration. Facebook use, for example, only corresponds with receiving informational and esteem support when users exhibit sufficient preferences for weak tie support.

scholarly journals Perceived Intimacy Differences of Daily Online and Offline Interactions in People’s Social Network

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Emmelyn A. J. Croes ◽  
Marjolijn L. Antheunis
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Tie Strength ◽  
Information Processing Theory ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Social Information Processing Theory ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Processing Theory

This study examined which media people use on a day-to-day basis to communicate and whether tie strength influenced this media use. Furthermore, we analyzed whether online and offline interactions differ in perceived intimacy and whether tie strength impacts perceived interaction intimacy: 347 real interactions of 9 participants (3 male, 6 female) were analyzed; 172 online (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS interactions) and 175 offline (recorded phone and face-to-face conversations). The results revealed that the participants communicated most frequently face-to-face or via WhatsApp, especially with strong ties. Furthermore, participants rated their interactions with strong ties as more intimate compared to weak-tie interactions. Our findings have implications for Social Information Processing theory, as our findings show that people are equally able to communicate intimate messages online and offline.

scholarly journals Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy literacy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Bartsch ◽  
Tobias Dienlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Online Privacy ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Privacy Regulation ◽  
Privacy Settings ◽  
Per Se

For an effective and responsible communication on social network sites (SNSs) users must decide between withholding and disclosing personal information. For this so-called privacy regulation, users need to have the respective skills—in other words, they need to have online privacy literacy. In this study, we discuss factors that potentially contribute to and result from online privacy literacy. In an online questionnaire with 630 Facebook users, we found that people who spend more time on Facebook and who have changed their privacy settings more frequently reported to have more online privacy literacy. People with more online privacy literacy, in turn, felt more secure on Facebook and implemented more social privacy settings. A mediation analysis showed that time spend on Facebook and experience with privacy regulation did not per se increase safety and privacy behavior directly, stressing the importance of online privacy literacy as a mediator to a safe and privacy-enhancing online behavior. We conclude that Internet experience leads to more online privacy literacy, which fosters a more cautious privacy behavior on SNSs.

How spiritual leadership contributes to followers' helping behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Lin Wang ◽  
Hua-Qiang Wang ◽  
Yi-Ping Sun
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Organizational Identification ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Significant Positive Effect ◽  
Social Information Processing Theory ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Broaden And Build Theory ◽  
Positive Effect

We integrated social information processing theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive affect to investigate how spiritual leadership affects employees' helping behavior, thus incorporating both cognitive and affective perspectives. Data were collected from 342 employees of companies operating in three cities in China, who completed scales measuring spiritual leadership, positive affect, and organizational identification, and the 71 immediate supervisors of these employees, who assessed their followers' helping behavior. The results indicate that spiritual leadership had a significant positive effect on employees' helping behavior, and that both positive affect and organizational identification mediated this relationship. Our results can be used by managers seeking to promote the effectiveness of spiritual leadership and employees' helping behavior.

Is the bottom line reached? An exploration of supervisor bottom-line mentality, team performance avoidance goal orientation and team performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 001872672110029
Author(s):  
Yuying Lin ◽  
Mengxi Yang ◽  
Matthew J Quade ◽  
Wansi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Goal Orientation ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Exclusive Focus ◽  
Avoidance Goal

How do supervisors who treat the bottom line as more important than anything else influence team success? Drawing from social information processing theory, we explore how and when supervisor bottom-line mentality (i.e. an exclusive focus on bottom-line outcomes at the expense of other priorities) exerts influence on the bottom-line itself, in the form of team performance. We argue that a supervisor’s bottom-line mentality provides significant social cues for the team that securing bottom-line objectives is of sole importance, which stimulates team performance avoidance goal orientation, and thus decreases team performance. Further, we argue performing tension (i.e. tension between contradictory needs, demands, and goals), serving as team members’ mutual perception of the confusing environment, will strengthen the indirect negative relationship between supervisor bottom-line mentality and team performance through team performance avoidance goal orientation. We conduct a path analysis using data from 258 teams in a Chinese food-chain company, which provides support for our hypotheses. Overall, our findings suggest that supervisor’s exclusive focus on the bottom-line can serve to impede team performance. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Heroes or Villains? The Dark Side of Charismatic Leadership and Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5546
Author(s):  
Xue Zhang ◽  
Liang Liang ◽  
Guyang Tian ◽  
Yezhuang Tian
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Psychological Safety ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Workplace Behavior ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Time Lagged

Although prior research has emphasized the disproportional contributions to organizations of charismatic leadership, an emerging line of research has started to examine the potentially negative consequences. In this paper, a theoretical framework was proposed for a study of unethical pro-organization behavior through psychological safety based on social information processing theory, which reveals the detrimental effect that charismatic leadership can have on workplace behavior. To explore this negative possibility, a time-lagged research design was applied for the hypotheses to be verified using 214 pieces of data collected from a service company in China. According to the results, unethical pro-organizational behavior was indirectly influenced by charismatic leadership through psychological safety. Moreover, when employees experienced high performance pressure, charismatic leadership was positively associated with unethical pro-organizational behavior through psychological safety. The implications of these findings were analyzed from the perspectives of charismatic leadership theory and organizational ethical activities to alter the unethical pro-organizational behavior.

Enhancing the impact of transformational leadership and team-building on project success: the moderating role of empowerment climate

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shazia Nauman ◽  
Ata Ul Musawir ◽  
Hina Munir ◽  
Imran Rasheed
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Project Success ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Information Processing Theory ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Empowerment Climate

PurposeThis study examines the mechanisms and conditions that influence how transformational leadership affects project success through the lens of social information processing theory.Design/methodology/approachA dual-stage moderated mediation model was proposed wherein the effect of transformational leadership on project success is mediated by team building, and empowering climate moderates the direct and indirect effects at both the first and second stages. The model was tested based on 370 survey responses of project management practitioners from Pakistan's IT industry. The measurement model was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Moderated mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes' PROCESS macro.FindingsThe findings suggest that team-building partially mediates the effect of transformational leadership on project success. Furthermore, the conditional indirect effect of transformational leadership on project success via team-building is strengthened at both the first and second stages at higher levels of empowerment climate.Practical implicationsIt is recommended that project managers and project-intensive organizations should strive to cultivate an empowerment climate to fully realize the beneficial effects of transformational leadership behaviors in enhancing positive team outcomes and, consequently, overall project performance.Originality/valueThis study broadly contributes to the literature on the influence of project managers' leadership styles on project outcomes. Specifically, we elucidate the role of empowerment climate as an important boundary condition that enhances the beneficial effects of transformational leadership. Furthermore, we extend the application of social information processing theory to the context of projects.

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