What motivates employees to use social media at work? A perspective of self-determination theory

PurposeThe authors develop a conceptual model to examine how three basic psychological needs (i.e. needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness) affect employee social media use (i.e. work- and social-related use). The authors propose that the need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and social-related use.Design/methodology/approachTo test the proposed model, 332 internal and 271 external social media users in the workplace were recruited.FindingsThe results indicate that needs for competence and autonomy and needs for relatedness and autonomy positively affect the work- and social-related use, respectively, of internal and external social media. Need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use of internal social media, and it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and the social-related use of internal social media. Need for autonomy has no moderating effect on the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates the relationship between need for relatedness and the social-related use of external social media.Originality/valueFirst, the authors’ findings offer significant empirical support for the different social media uses, namely work and social related. Second, this study highlights the importance of psychological needs of employees in determining the form of social media use. Third, this study empirically demonstrates the differences in psychological needs and social media use between two different social media contexts.

Employee engagement and best practices of internal public relations to harvest job performance in organizations

Internal public relations are used to control the relationship between the organization and its employees. The paper explored whether and how internal public relations stimulate employees’ life satisfaction and job performance. The conceptual framework was built to link internal social media, perceived organizational transparency (POT), organizational identification, employee engagement, life satisfaction, and job performance. Using the hierarchical component model with employee engagement measured by job engagement and organizational engagement is a nascent point from this study. A mass survey was distributed to employees working in the aviation industry in southern Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze primary data from 193 valid respondents. It reveals that POT, internal social media, and organizational identification significantly positively impact employee engagement. It shows that employee engagement has significantly positive impacts on life satisfaction and job performance. It indicates that both organizational identification and POT are partial mediators intervening in the strong relationship between employee engagement and internal social media. It also indicates that life satisfaction is a partial mediator intervening the positive linkage between employee engagement and job performance. Practical implications and theoretical contributions were suggested for using internal public relations to enhance employees’ life satisfaction, and job performance. AcknowledgmentThis study is funded by Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCMC) under grant number B2020-28-02.

Internal or external social media? The effects of work-related and social-related use of social media on improving employee performance

PurposeThis study investigates how employees' work- and social-related use of social media can individually and interactively render different impacts on employees' performance in the context of internal or external social media.Design/methodology/approachTo test the research model in these two different contexts, the authors collected data from 392 internal social media users and 302 external social media users in the workplace.FindingsThe data suggest that the respondents' job performance can be enhanced when using internal social media for work-related purposes and using external social media for social-related purposes. Meanwhile, the interaction of work- and social-related use is positive for external social media but negative for internal social media on job performance. These findings highlight the significant distinction of social media use in the workplace.Originality/valueFirst, this study contributes to the literature on the business value of IT by providing theoretical arguments on how companies can capitalize efforts to consider work-related use in combination with social-related use to create business value. Second, this research theorizes two distinct yet interacting views of social media use. The authors offer a more granular insight of the paths from work- and social-related use to employee performance instead of encapsulating social media use in a unitary concept and linking it simply and broadly to employee performance. Third, this research considers the interdependent effects of work- and social-related use on employee performance, and thus goes beyond the independent roles of these two types of social media use. Fourth, the authors find that the links from employees' work- and social-related use of social media to job performance vary in different contexts.

Six ways to leave a lover: how sensemaking of the purpose of internal social media changes over time in a public sector organization

PurposeInternal social media (ISM) make it possible for all employees to participate in knowledge sharing and decision-making and to voice their opinions. However, several studies have found that organizations are far from unlocking the full potential of ISM. This paper seeks to explore and explain this gap further by adopting a sensemaking lens to managers' understanding of a social intranet in a public sector organization.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal case study of the process of introducing ISM was conducted in a Danish municipality. Before, during and after the launch of the intranet, interviews with department heads and communication managers in the six different municipal departments were carried out to explore how they made sense of the purpose of ISM.FindingsFindings indicate that during the process of introducing and implementing ISM, department heads' and managers' narratives about the purpose of the intranet changed from being a matter of involving, engaging and hearing the voices of the employees to being an effective administrative tool and a channel for management to reach all employees.Originality/valueRather than the traditional focus on whether ISM fail or succeed, the paper offers new understandings of how managers' sensemaking of ISM changes over time, leading to changes in the actual usage of and communication on ISM.

The Evolution of Internal Employer Branding and Employee Engagement: The Temporal Role of Internal Social Media Usage

In recent times, Indian IT companies have been facing high attrition rates, especially with young employees having three to seven years of experience. Therefore, this study develops and tests a dynamic model of brand-endorsed employee engagement (EE) and employee retention (ER). Particularly, the carryover and temporal effects of the relationships and constructs are studied to understand how employee behaviour evolves over time. Using two waves of longitudinal data gathered from young employees ([Formula: see text]) of Indian IT companies, the proposed conceptual model is investigated to test the temporal differences in the relationships between internal employer branding (IEB), organisational commitment, EE and ER. Additionally, the impact of employer internal social media usage on the relationships is also examined as an effective human resources (HR) intervention in the evolution process. The findings show that excluding the organisational commitment to EE relationship, the other two relationships between IEB to organisational commitment and EE to ER become stronger over time. Interestingly, while internal social media usage does not exhibit direct effect on organisational commitment or ER, it is instrumental in influencing IEB perception and EE during subsequent periods. Overall, this study offers directions to HR managers in the services sector on how to effectively use social media to engender engagement in employees and ultimately, enhance their intention to stay.

Police in social media: To protect and share?

This article explores how senior police officers perceive the presence of the police on social media. While interviewees argued that the police have a “duty of presence” on social media, they also reported that it should focus on information-provision and image-enhancement on the police’s home turf, avoiding confrontations in “external” social media arenas. In addition to its contribution to understanding perceptions of social media in public organizations by collecting data from “elite interviewees,” this paper also makes a theoretical contribution by introducing internal and external social media arenas as significant variables that assist in understanding public organization social media usage. Building on Mergel’s (2013) model of modes of operation of public organizations in social media (representation, engagement, and networking), this study demonstrates that representation prevails in internal social media arenas, while networking is more characteristic of external social media arenas.