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University of Plymouth
PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk
04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection
2022
Examining the Impact of Personal Social
Media Use at Work on Workplace
Outcomes
Dodokh, Ardam Mohammad Islam
http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/18767
University of Plymouth
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Copyright Statement
This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation
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author's prior consent.
ii
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA USE AT WORK
ON WORKPLACE OUTCOMES
by
ARDAM MOHAMMAD ISLAM DODOKH
A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Plymouth Business School
February 2022
iii
Acknowledgements
This has been a long, challenging, and enjoyable journey. I owe a debt of gratitude to
many. First and all, thanks to Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate, for assisting
me in the completion of this thesis; without His guidance and grace this research would
not have been completed.
I am also so grateful to all my lovely family members who have been supporting me
unconditionally, especially my amazing mother and father who were there in every
moment and step throughout my PhD and offered far beyond expected support and help,
all of whom have given me their unlimited and unrestricted love, support, and patience.
Special thanks also to my lovely wife and son, you were my spiritual energy and endless
motivation to complete this research.
I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. Yi Wang, Dr. Jonathan Moizer, and Dr.
Mohamed Haddoud for their great efforts and guidance to enable me to complete this
thesis.
Last, but not least, I am delighted to give my special appreciation to all administrative
and academic staff in Plymouth University for their support. I would like also to express
my special thanks to my friends and colleagues for your kindness and endless support.
iv
Dedication
I dedicate this thesis
To my parents and family who offered extraordinary support and sacrifices to help me
fulfil this journey.
To my lovely wife who supported me during my study.
A special dedication to my supervisors, Dr. Yi Wang, Dr. Jonathan Moizer, and Dr.
Mohamed Haddoud.
To my country, Jordan, hoping for a promising future.
v
Author’s declaration
At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author
been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Doctoral
College Quality Sub-Committee.
Work submitted for this research degree at the University of Plymouth has not formed
part of any other degree either at the University of Plymouth or at another establishment.
The following activities were undertaken in connection with the programme of the
study:
• Attended Postgraduate Society Research Showcase, 2018, University of
Plymouth.
• Attended Research Students Skills Development Programmes held at the
University of Plymouth (SPSS, Preparing to submit on PEARL, Introduction to
research impact, Presenting at conferences, Leadership and management:
Exploring Leadership, Presenting to an audience part one, Negotiating and
persuading in business workshop, Introduction to qualitative research methods,
Managing your stress levels, Strategies for busy researchers, The Transfer
process, Research integrity, Open Access Publishing, Preparing for the VIVA,
Identifying Where to Publish and Measuring the Impact of Your Publications,
Researcher toolkit-how to get the most out of your supervisor, What next: staring
a project and maintain momentum, Careers: UK Labour Market for International
Students).
Published papers during the research registration period:
• Dodokh, A., 2020. Impact of human resources management practices on
workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour. International Journal of Knowledge
Management Studies, 11(3), pp.298-324.
https://doi.org/10.1504/IJKMS.2020.109093
• Dodokh, A., 2019. Impact of enterprise social networking systems use on
workplace knowledge hiding behaviour: The moderating role of knowledge
sharing culture. Journal of Resources Development and Management, 54, pp.27-
38. https://doi.org/10.7176/jrdm/54-04
• Dodokh, A. and Al-Maaitah. M. A., 2019. Impact of social media usage on
organizational performance in the Jordanian Dead Sea cosmetic sector. European
Journal of Business and Management, 11(2), pp.75-91.
https://doi.org/10.7176%2Fejbm%2F11-2-09
vi
Working papers:
• Dodokh, A., Wang, Y., Moizer, J., and Haddoud, M., 2020. Using Personal Social
Media at Work and Behavioural Workplace Outcomes (In-Progress).
• Dodokh, A., Wang, Y., Moizer, J., and Haddoud, M., 2020. Impact of Using Personal
Social Media at Work on Job Burnout (In-Progress).
Word count of main body of thesis: 70023
Signed:
Date: 07/02/2022
vii
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA USE AT WORK
ON WORKPLACE OUTCOMES
Ardam Mohammad Islam Dodokh
Abstract
A noticable shift is underway in today’s multi-generational workforce. As younger
employees propel digital workforce transformation and embrace technology adoption in
the workplace, organisations need to show they are forward-thinking in their digital
transformation strategies, and the emergent integration of social media in organisations
is reshaping internal communication strategies, in a bid to improve corporate reputations
and foster employee engagement. However, the impact of personal social media use on
psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes is still debatebale with contrasting
results in the literature identifying both positive and negative effects on workplace
outcomes among organisational employees.
This study seeks to examine this debate through the lens of social capital theory and study
personal social media use at work using distinct variables of social use, cognitive use,
and hedonic use. A quantitative analysis of data from 419 organisational employees in
Jordan using SEM-PLS reveals that personal social media use at work is a double-edged
sword as its impact differs by usage types. First, the social use of personal social media
at work reduces job burnout, turnover intention, presenteeism, and absenteeism; it also
increases job involvement and organisational citizen behaviour. Second, the cognitive use
of personal social media at work increases job involvement, organisational citizen
behaviour, employee adaptability, and decreases presenteeism and absenteeism; it also
increases job burnout and turnover intention. Finally, the hedonic use of personal social
viii
media at work carries only negative effects by increasing job burnout and turnover
intention.
This study contributes to managerial understanding by showing the impact of different
types of personal social media usage and recommends that organisations not limit
employee access to personal social media within work time, but rather focus on raising
awareness of the negative effects of excessive usage on employee well-being and
encourage low to moderate use of personal social media at work and other personal and
work-related online interaction associated with positive workplace outcomes. It also
clarifies the need for further research in regions such as the Middle East with distinct
cultural and socio-economic contexts.
ix
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................iii
Didication.........................................................................................................................iv
Author’s Declaration.........................................................................................................v
Abstract...........................................................................................................................vii
List of Contents.................................................................................................................ix
List of Tables..................................................................................................................xiv
List of Figures.................................................................................................................xvi
List of Abbreviations....................................................................................................xviii
Chapter One: Introduction.............................................................................................1
1.1. Research Background.................................................................................................1
1.2. Research Context........................................................................................................9
1.3. Research Aim and Objectives...................................................................................18
1.4. Research Questions...................................................................................................19
1.5. Thesis Structure........................................................................................................19
1.6. Chapter Summary.....................................................................................................21
Chapter Two: Literature Review.................................................................................22
2.1. Systematic Litreature Review...................................................................................23
2.2. Research Gap and Contribution.................................................................................29
2.3. Social Media.............................................................................................................43
2.4. Social Media Classifications.....................................................................................46
2.5. Personal Social Media Use at Work..........................................................................49
2.5.1. Disadvantages of Personal Social Media Use at Work...............................54
2.5.2. Advantages of Personal Social Media Use at Work....................................56
x
2.6. Dimensions of Personal Social Media Use................................................................58
2.6.1. Social Use of Personal Social Media..........................................................58
2.6.2. Cognitive Use of Personal Social Media....................................................59
2.6.3. Hedonic Use of Personal Social Media......................................................59
2.7. Social Capital Theory................................................................................................60
2.7.1. Bridging Social Capital..............................................................................61
2.7.2. Bonding Social Capital..............................................................................62
2.8. Uses and Gratification (U&G) Theory......................................................................65
2.9. Psychological Workplace Outcomes.........................................................................71
2.9.1. Job Burnout................................................................................................71
2.9.2. Job Involvement.........................................................................................75
2.10. Behavioural Workplace Outcomes..........................................................................77
2.10.1. Organisational Citizen Behaviour............................................................77
2.10.2. Turnover Intentions..................................................................................79
2.10.3. Presenteesim............................................................................................81
2.10.4. Absenteeism.............................................................................................83
2.10.5. Employee Adaptability............................................................................85
2.10.6. Innovative Behaviour...............................................................................87
2.11. Chapter Summary...................................................................................................89
Chapter Three: Research Model and Hypothesis........................................................91
3.1. Model Development and Research Hypotheses........................................................91
3.2. Research Model and Hypotheses.............................................................................113
3.3. Summary of Research Hypotheses..........................................................................114
3.4. Chapter Summary...................................................................................................115
xi
Chapter Four: Research Methodology and Design...................................................116
4.1. Research Paradigm..................................................................................................118
4.2. Research Methodology...........................................................................................121
4.3. Research Approach.................................................................................................123
4.4. Research Design......................................................................................................124
4.5. Sampling Method....................................................................................................128
4.5.1. Survey Population....................................................................................132
4.5.2. Sampling Frame.......................................................................................132
4.5.3. Sample Size..............................................................................................135
4.5.4. Sampling Technique................................................................................137
4.6. Measurement Scales................................................................................................139
4.7. Pilot Study...............................................................................................................150
4.8. Method of Data Analysis.........................................................................................152
4.9. Reseach Ethics........................................................................................................155
4.10. Conducting the Survey..........................................................................................158
4.11. Chapter Summary.................................................................................................158
Chapter Five: Data Analysis and Findings................................................................160
5.1. Descriptive Statistics...............................................................................................160
5.2. Analysing the Sample Size......................................................................................165
5.3. Data Distribution.....................................................................................................166
5.4. Testing for Non-Response Bias...............................................................................167
5.5. Missing Data and Outliers.......................................................................................168
5.6. Common Method Bias............................................................................................169
5.7. Model Assessment..................................................................................................170
xii
5.7.1 The PLS-SEM Analysis............................................................................171
5.7.2. Measurement Model Analysis..................................................................172
5.7.3. Structural Model Analysis........................................................................176
5.8. Summary of the Results...........................................................................................186
5.9. Chapter Summary...................................................................................................187
Chapter Six: Discussion...............................................................................................189
6.1. Research Gaps and Questions.................................................................................189
6.2. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Job Involvement.......................................193
6.3. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Job Burnout..............................................195
6.4. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Organisational Citizen Behaviour…........198
6.5. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Turnover Intention...................................200
6.6. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Presenteeism............................................203
6.7. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Absenteeism............................................205
6.8. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Innovative Behaviour...............................207
6.9. Personal Social Media Use at Work and Employee Adaptability............................211
6.10. Extent of Personal Social Media Use at Work and Workplace Outcomes.............213
6.11. Personal Social Media Use at Work: A Collectivist Culture Overview.................216
6.11.1. Job Involvement.....................................................................................224
6.11.2. Organisational Citizen Behaviour..........................................................225
6.11.3. Job Bunout.............................................................................................228
6.11.4. Turnover Intention.................................................................................229
6.11.5. Presenteeism and Absenteeism..............................................................230
6.11.6. Innovative Behaviour.............................................................................232
6.11.7. Employee Adaptability..........................................................................234
xiii
6.12. Chapter Summary.................................................................................................237
Chapter Seven: Conclusion.........................................................................................240
7.1. Theoretical Implications.........................................................................................244
7.2. Methodological Contribution..................................................................................246
7.3. Practical Implications..............................................................................................247
7.4. Limitations and Future Research.............................................................................251
7.5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................253
References....................................................................................................................255
Appendices...................................................................................................................328
Appendix A: Companies Listed in Amman Stock Exchange.........................................328
Appendix B: Questionnaire............................................................................................331
Appendix C: Ethical Approval.......................................................................................338
Appendix D: Support Letter...........................................................................................339
Appendix E: Table for Non-response Bias Test.............................................................340
Appendix F: Common Methods Bias Test.....................................................................342
Appendix G: Indicator Loadings and Cross-Loadings...................................................344
xiv
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Research Objectives.........................................................................................19
Table 1.2 Research Questions..........................................................................................19
Table 2.1 Psychological Workplace Outcomes................................................................24
Table 2.2 Behavioural Workplace Outcomes...................................................................25
Table 2.3 Summary of Included Papers............................................................................28
Table 2.4 Summary of Overall Evidence of Direction of Effect.......................................41
Table 2.5 Categorization of Social Media Tools..............................................................47
Table 2.6 Categorisation of Social Media Tools..............................................................48
Table 2.7 Summary of Previous Research Negative Findings..........................................54
Table 2.8 Summary of Previous Research Positive Findings...........................................56
Table 3.1 Summary of Research Hypotheses.................................................................115
Table 4.1 Private Sector in Jordan from Different Establishments Sizes........................133
Table 4.2 Large and Huge Private Sector Establishments by Economic Activity...........134
Table 4.3 ASE Listed Companies per Industry..............................................................135
Table 4.4 Random Selection of Companies Listed in ASE Market................................139
Table 4.5 Personal Social Media Use at Work Measurement Scale Items......................144
Table 4.6 Job Involvement Measurement Scale Items...................................................144
Table 4.7 Job Burnout Measurement Scale Items..........................................................146
Table 4.8 OCBI Measurement Scale Items....................................................................147
Table 4.9 Turnover Intentions Measurement Scale Items..............................................148
Table 4.10 Innovative Behaviour Measurement Scale Items.........................................149
Table 4.11 Employee Adaptability Measurement Scale Items.......................................150
Table 4.12 Scales Sources..............................................................................................151
xv
Table 4.13 Constructs Validity and Reliability..............................................................152
Table 5.1 Employees’ Gender .......................................................................................162
Table 5.2 Employees’ Age (years).................................................................................162
Table 5.3 Marital Status.................................................................................................162
Table 5.4 Employees' Education level...........................................................................163
Table 5.5 Employment Status........................................................................................163
Table 5.6 Job Level........................................................................................................163
Table 5.7 Work Experience............................................................................................164
Table 5.8 Variables Coding............................................................................................172
Table 5.9 Evaluation Thresholds for Measurement Model............................................173
Table 5.10 Measurement Reliability..............................................................................175
Table 5.11 Discriminant Validity...................................................................................176
Table 5.12 Full Collinearity VIF....................................................................................177
Table 5.13 Path Coefficients β and P Values..................................................................180
Table 5.14 R² of the Endogenous Latent Variables........................................................181
Table 5.15 Range of Previous Research Intention Models R²........................................182
Table 5.16 The Effect Size (f²).......................................................................................183
Table 5.17 Predictive Relevance of Endogenous Constructs (Q²)..................................184
Table 6.1 Cultural Dimensions: Arab Region vs. Western Region.................................222
Table 6.2 Previous Supported Research Findings..........................................................236
xvi
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Chapter One Overview......................................................................................1
Figure 1.2 Number of Social Media Users Worldwide 2017–2025....................................2
Figure 1.3 Daily Time Spent Using Social Media..............................................................3
Figure 1.4 Social Media Use at Work Reasons...................................................................5
Figure 1.5 Internet Penetration in the Middle East...........................................................11
Figure 1.6 Essential Headlines for Mobile, Internet, and Social Media Use in Jordan......12
Figure 1.7 Mobile Connectivity in Emerging Economies................................................13
Figure 1.8 Phone Types in Emerging Economies.............................................................14
Figure 1.9 Smartphone Users Age Groups in Emerging Economies................................15
Figure 1.10 Mobile Social Media Use in Jordan...............................................................16
Figure 1.11 Social Media Platforms Usage in Emerging Economies...............................17
Figure 2.1 Chapter Two Overview...................................................................................23
Figure 2.2 Social Media Usage Classification..................................................................48
Figure 3.1 Chapter Three Overview.................................................................................91
Figure 3.2 Research Model and Hypotheses..................................................................114
Figure 4.1 Chapter Four Overview.................................................................................117
Figure 4.2 Research Methodology Overview.................................................................118
Figure 4.3 Research Design of the Research Process.....................................................126
Figure 5.1 Chapter Five Overview.................................................................................160
Figure 5.2 Social Media Type........................................................................................164
Figure 5.3 Extent of Social Media Usage.......................................................................165
Figure 5.4 Social Media Policy......................................................................................165
Figure 5.5 Structural Model...........................................................................................178
xvii
Figure 5.6 R² Variables..................................................................................................181
Figure 5.7 f² Variables....................................................................................................183
Figure 5.8 Q² Variables…..............................................................................................185
Figure 6.1 Chapter Six Overview...................................................................................189
Figure 6.2 Personal Social Media Use and Job Involvement..........................................193
Figure 6.3 Personal Social Media Use and Job Burnout.................................................196
Figure 6.4 Personal Social Media Use and Organisational Citizen Behaviour...............198
Figure 6.5 Personal Social Media Use and Turnover Intention......................................200
Figure 6.6 Personal Social Media Use and Presenteeism...............................................203
Figure 6.7 Personal Social Media Use and Absenteesim................................................206
Figure 6.8 Personal Social Media Use and Innovative Behaviour..................................207
Figure 6.9 Personal Social Media Use and Employee Adaptability...............................211
Figure 7.1 Chapter Seven Overview..............................................................................240
xviii
List of Abbreviations
Abbreviations
Full Term
CU
Cognitive Use
EE
Emotional Exhaustion
EA
Employee Adaptability
FA
Fatigue
HU
Hedonic Use
IB
Innovative Behaviour
JI
Job Involvement
OCB
Organisational Citizen Behaviour
SU
Social Use
TI
Tunover Intention
PRE
Pesenteeism
ABS
Absenteesim
ASE
Amman Stock Exchange
ILO
International Labour Organisation
JDOS
Jordanian Department of Statistics
U.S
United States
USA
United States of America
1
Chapter One: Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the study, investigating the personal use of social
media at work and its impact on workplace outcomes in the context of organisational
employees in Jordan. This chapter, therefore, is organised as follows: An explanation of
the research background is given in section 1.1. Section 1.2 presents the research context.
The aim and objectives of the study are found in section 1.3. The study questions are
provided in section 1.4. The structure of the whole thesis is presented in section 1.5.
Lastly, the chapter summary in section 1.6 as shown in Figure (1.1).
Figure (1.1) Chapter One Overview
1.1 Research Background
Over the past decade, the rise of social media has transformed the business environment
and significantly affected human resource management practices and policies (Louati &
Hadoussa, 2021). Social media has proven to be an important tool in providing interactive
1. Introduction 1.1 Research
Background 1.2 Research Context
1.3 Research Aim and
Objectives 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 Thesis Structure
1.6 Chapter Summary
2
communication platforms, collaborations and the promotion of information exchange
(Sarra et al., 2020), and therefore forming and supporting working communities in today’s
digital transformation (Jarrahi, 2018).
Social media is now an essential part of the personal and professional lives of most
people, dramatically altering their interaction with other humans and with media content
(Chen et al., 2020). Significantly, the use of personal social media at work is now the
norm, a powerful communication tool both inside and outside the physical workplace
(Holland et al., 2016; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Luqman et al., 2020; Oksa et al., 2021;
Pekkala & van Zoonen, 2021; Yang et al., 2021). Figure (1.2), below, shows the number
of social media users worldwide since 2017, along with estimated users up to 2025:
Figure (1.2) Number of Social Media Users Worldwide 2017–2025 (Statista, 2021,
p.1).
Social media is an integral part of daily internet usage. The typical user now spends 2
hours and 25 minutes on social media each day, equating to roughly one full waking day
of their life each week, which is an increase of more than half an hour since 2015 (Statista,
3
2021) as Figure (1.3) shows. Similarly, research conducted by Croner (2019) found that,
on average, employees spend thirteen hours a week on social media during working hours.
The multidimensional functions of social media drives the professional and personal
engagement of employees (Rooksby et al., 2009), where 43% of internet users use social
media for work purposes (Hootsuite, 2021). More specifically, large numbers of
organisations including Google, Microsoft and IBM have invested considerable resources
on constructing internal social media tools to enhance collaboration and communication
among employees with the expectation of improving their job performance (Lu et al.,
2015; Song et al., 2019).
Figure (1.3) Daily Time Spent Using Social Media (Hootsuite, 2021, P.92).
Furthermore, the arrival of the first digital era generation to the workplace is driving a
more tech-savvy environment. The emergent integration of social media in work is
reshaping internal communication strategies, as organisations pursue improved corporate
reputation and employee engagement (Madsen, 2017). Yet, many still struggle to take
4
advantage of the full potential of the new and varied technology platforms (Ewing et al.,
2019).
The term ‘social media’ (Kühnel et al., 2020; Sonnentag & Pundt, 2017) can be defined
as “a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated
content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Social media may be divided into four
principal types; social networking such as Facebook, multimedia sharing like YouTube,
wikis such as Wikipedia, and blogs, with these types blurring or integrating as social
media evolves (Bertot et al., 2010; Kietzmann et al., 2011; Koukaras et al., 2020).
Social media tools have progressively entered workplaces, and companies have attempted
to coopt them, strategically introducing such tools to support employees and improve
business activities (Chen et al., 2020; Oksa et al., 2021; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021;
Pekkala & van Zoonen, 2021; Yang et al., 2021; Yen et al., 2020). For example,
companies use popular social media platforms, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to
encourage employee engagement, knowledge sharing, innovation, customer service,
marketing, and talent recruitment (Dong & Wu, 2015; Rueda et al., 2017). This trend of
the use of emergent social software platforms by companies in the workplace is seen as
beneficial to both employees and to enhanced firm performance (Benitez et al., 2018;
Chui et al., 2012; Kumar et al., 2016; McAfee, 2006).
The use of online communication at work is linked to the well-being of workers as well
as other important workplace outcomes, such as organisational citizen behaviour and the
standing of the company in the business community (Fonner & Roloff, 2012; Helm, 2011;
Van Zoonen et al., 2016). Employee well-being is altered by personal social media use at
work like Facebook and Twitter, as their use supports horizontal communication between
employees and encourages mutual support to each other and their workplace (Farivar,
5
2015). Employee use of social media will also, for better or worse, have an impact on the
reputation of an organisation (Dreher, 2014; Sigala & Chalkiti, 2015; Stawnicza, 2014)
by communicating reliable and authentic information. Conversely, employees could send
social media messages that harm an organisation’s image and reputation (Dreher, 2014;
Helm, 2011). Pew Research Center (2014) conducted a survey to examine the main
reasons for workers using social media at work, and results show that taking a mental
break from work is one of the most common as Figure (1.4) shows.
Figure (1.4) Social Media Use at Work Reasons (Pew Research Center, 2014, P.2).
The use of social media tools is widespread in the current and future workforces and it
therefore seems likely that organisations generally underestimate the numbers of
employees who are skilled and knowledgeable regarding such tools (Alghamdi, 2018;
Koukaras et al., 2020). Leslie and Landon (2007), suggested that organisations should
capitalise on this irresisteble trend. If employees already use social media at home and
6
for personal reasons at work, the organisation can capitalise on these skills to facilitate
knowledge sharing, learning in the workplace, and generally improving workplace
outcomes (Chu, 2020; Kühnel et al., 2020; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Oksa et al., 2021;
Pekkala & van Zoonen, 2021; Yang et al., 2021).
Nevertheless, many organisations developed ways to limit personal social media use in
the workplace (Case & Young, 2002; Henle et al., 2009; Lara et al., 2006; Young & Case,
2004). Whether an organisation seeks to promote or discourage, advocate or ban their use
at work will be dependent on whether it helps or hinders the organisation (Chauhan,
2017).
In contrast, Bucher (2013) argued that the principal reason people dedicate their time and
effort to create and share ‘content’ on their personal social media is the human desire for
social interaction, approval and belonging. Furthermore, new technologies such as
smartphones and social networking applications connect employees with their friends and
colleagues and consequently, enable employees to engage in personal communications
whilst at work (Olson-Buchanan et al., 2016).
The advantages and disadvantages for workers and organisations as a result of personal
social media use at work continues to be highly debated for professionals in business and
in academia (Chen et al., 2020; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Yang et al., 2021; Zouitina &
Hachicha, 2021). As social media is now an integral part of the personal, social and
business world, it is important to understand and investigate how it can be integrated into
the working life of employees for the benefit of individuals and organisations, as well as
ways in which it might be limited (Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Luqman et al., 2020; Sakka
& Ahammad, 2020; Yang et al., 2021; Yen et al., 2020; Zouitina & Hachicha, 2021).
With over one billion active users globally, social media is now a permanent feature of
life and business acknowledges the value in understanding the consequences of this usage
7
on employees behaviour and job outcomes (Oksa et al., 2021; Pekkala & van Zoonen,
2021; Yang et al., 2021; Yen et al., 2020). It is crucial to understand the different ways in
which personal social media use at work improves or worsens workplace outcomes for
organisational employees. Accordingly, the huge advances in social media makes its
consequences an increasingly prevalent subject for research (Chen et al., 2020; Kühnel et
al., 2020; Luqman et al., 2020; Oksa et al., 2021; Sakka & Ahammad, 2020; Pekkala &
van Zoonen, 2021; Yang et al., 2021; Yen et al., 2020; Zouitina & Hachicha, 2021).
The current research explores the debate surrounding these new technology driven
behaviours through the social capital and uses and gratification theory and adds to current
research using three use types - social, cognitive, and hedonic. Specifically, the study
considers how using personal social media at work can augment employee workplace
outcomes, by acting as a social resource (Moqbel & Bartelt, 2018; Moqbel et al., 2013;
Yang et al., 2009). It has been seen that social media offers social capital to people in the
form of interactions and that personal social media can increase quality of life by
touching, not only, cognitive and interactive social needs of users, but also, their
emotional and personal integrative needs (Hsu et al., 2015; Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2004).
In spite of the numerous empirical studies on the topic, there are only a few limited
quantitative studies regarding the relationship between personal social media use and
employee outcomes (Chu, 2020), therefore, there is an urgent need to produce more
comprehensive studies focused not only on observing the impact of personal social media
use at work on workplace outcomes, but also, to understand the extent to which its use
can be positively implemented by organisations in the workplace (Chen & Wei, 2020;
Oksa et al., 2021; Olfat et al., 2019; Sakka & Ahammad, 2020; Yen et al., 2020; Zouitina
& Hachicha, 2021). As identified in many studies the impact of personal social media use
on employees’ workplace outcomes continues to be debated (Cai et al., 2020; Chen et al.,
8
2020; Chu, 2020; Kühnel et al., 2020; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Luqman et al., 2020;
Oksa et al., 2021; Sakka & Ahammad, 2020; Yang et al., 2021; Zouitina & Hachicha,
2021).
Supported by the theories on social capital and uses and gratification, this study will
suggest several recommendations to help managers and human resources professionals
obtain a clear understanding of how personal social media use at work influences
workplace outcomes. This research may allow such professionals to identify the
motivations behind such usage for their organisations to encourage or discourage
workplace use. Importantly, this study suggests that banning employees from using
personal social media during working hours is not an appropriate management response
to the damaging consequences of its use and we seek to offer specific proposals to assist
managers to develop new strategies to manage both the positives and negatives of
personal social media use at work.
Personal social media at work remains a confusing topic, hence there is a continued need
to pay attention to the most important social media used the workplace. The usage of
personal social media at work is increasing, therefore, it is important to invistigate and
understand employees attitudes towards such usage in different countries as well as to
assess the effect of various cultural differences (Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Zouitina &
Hachicha, 2021). Accordingly, a study by Askool (2013) found that Saudi respondents
were better acquainted with these tools and used them for social and leisure purposes
rather than business activities. It has also been found that men use a greater number of
communication tools and features more frequently than women. This indicates that
cultural limitations may have a greater impact on behavioural intention than other
constructs (Louati & Hadoussa, 2021).
9
The impact on workplace outcomes of the use of personal social media in Western,
educated, industrialised, rich, and developed countries may be quite distinct from the
impact the same technology has across the rest of the world, especially those most
different from the West (Erfani et al., 2016; Shujaat et al., 2019). As a result, there have
been calls for more research to understand the psychological and behavioural workplace
outcomes in countries such as Jordan, which are currently developing a competitive and
robust market economy (e.g., AbuBaker & Bagley, 2016; Ahmad, 2013; Al Momani,
2017; Al Omoush et al., 2012; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Shujaat et al., 2019; Zouitina
& Hachicha, 2021).
There is ample evidence to support the development of a study focusing on how
organisational employees using personal social media at work effects workplace
outcomes in the context of Jordan. Correspondingly, this study aims to fill some of the
gaps in our understanding which are identified in a systematic literature review on social
media use at work, to produce an overview of the current literature, its limitations, quality
and potential future contributions.
1.2 Research Context
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a Middle Eastern country, bordered by Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Syria and the West Bank. It has a population of nearly 11 million and the capital
city is Amman. According to the World Population Review (2019), Jordan is the 11th
most populous Arab country with a 10.55 million population. The official religion of the
country is Islam with around 97.2 per cent of Jordan population identifying as Muslim
(CIA World Fact Book, 2015). Although the national spoken language in Jordan is
Arabic, English is also commonly used and spoken in schools, universities, medicine,
government, and commerce, and both languages are compulsory as the language of
instruction in schools and private and public universities.
10
Gender equality is an important topic in Jordan and has been reached at almost all levels
of education along with higher education. The number of females is exceeding the number
of males in Jordanian universities by 51% to 49% (JDOS, 2013). The country, despite its
limited resources, is more modernised than other Arab countries such as Yemen and
Sudan (Alwraikat & Simadi, 2001). However, despite the impressive level of women
education, when it comes to female economic activities, Jordan still ranks below other
lower-middle-income countries (World Bank, 2005). Female participation at work
remains low at 23 per cent compared to that of men at 77 per cent (JDOS, 2012). In fact,
it is argued that the female participation rate at work is actually declining once adjusted
for educational attainment, suggesting that opportunities for educated females may even
be becoming more limited (Assaad, 2014). Wage discrimination is also affecting the
inequality of the Jordanian workforce. Males working in the Jordanian private sector earn
on average 41 per cent more than females while in the public sector males earn around
28 per cent more. In addition, the pay gap in the manufacturing sector is 41.3 per cent;
27.9 per cent in health and social work, and 24.5 per cent in education (ILO, 2013).
Jordan is considered a patriarchal society where females face notable disadvantages
especially in private sector, typically working for lower wages with limited advancement
opportunities (World Bank, 2004). The private sector has a greater preference for male
employees mainly due to social standards, as well as labour regulations that increase the
cost of female workers (World Bank, 2005). Although the sector offers better
employment opportunities for females (Peebles et al., 2007; Syed et al., 2014), the relative
lack of government rules and regulations also makes it a place where females face the
most discrimination (Banihani & Syed, 2020).
1.2.1 Internet Penetration
11
Figure (1.5) Internet Penetration in the Middle East (Statista, 2020, p.1)
Figure (1.5) shows that internet penetration in the Middle East is ahead of global averages
with 67.2 per cent penetration rate compared to 56.5 per cent global average. Jordan is
ahead of the rest of the Middle East. Since 2003, the Jordanian government, on the order
of King, has pursued policies to increase internet penetration, pushing the
telecommunications industry to deliver greater broadband access at reducing costs
(Gelvanovska et al., 2014; Ghazal, 2014a). It is one of the first Middle Eastern states to
achieve widespread use of information technology (IT) within its business and industry,
supported by E-government initiatives (Ministry of Information & Communication
Technology, 2013).
Figure (1.6) shows that there are 6.84 million internet users in Jordan representing 66.8
per cent of the Jordanian population with 6.30 million active social media users
representing 61.5 per cent.
12
Figure (1.6) Essential Headlines for Mobile, Internet, and Social Media Use in
Jordan (Hootsuite, 2021, p.17)
Smart phone use in Jordan has greatly increased internet usage. Smart phones are owned
by 38 per cent of the population. This compares to only 23 per cent in Egypt and 17 per
cent in Turkey (Alshuaibi et al., 2015; Ghazal, 2014b). Similarly, the
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (2015) further reported substantial growth
in the number of active mobile users from 11 million at the end of March 2015 to 12
million at the end of June 2015, with an increase in penetration from 147 per cent to 152
per cent, respectively. In addition, Pew Research Center (2019) conducted a survey within
11 emerging and developing countries where Jordan ranked number two after Vietnam
with 94 percent of its population owning a mobile phone as Figure (1.7) show below.
13
Figure (1.7) Mobile Connectivity in Emerging Economies (Pew Research Center,
2019, p.16).
Also, the survey stated that Jordan ranked second to Lebanon with 85 per cent own
smartphones and 11 percent own basic phones as shown in Figure (1.8) below.
14
Figure (1.8) Phone Types in Emerging Economies (Pew Research Center, 2019,
p.20).
The survey shows in Figure (1.9) below, that both Jordan and Lebanon (where
smartphones are prevalent) are the only countries where most adults aged 50 and over
also report using smartphones. Younger adults are much more likely to use a smartphone
than their older counterparts, similarly, people with high levels of education are also more
likely to use smartphones.
15
Figure (1.9) Smartphone Users Age Groups in Emerging Economies (Pew
Research Center, 2019, p.21).
1.2.2 Social Networking Sites in Jordan
Using the Internet and social media for personal reasons is recognised as a growing issue
in workplace across the world, in the West, like the USA, as well as in diverse regions
such as Asia. Research on using social media at work and Internet addiction has been
little researched in Jordan, perhaps because there is lack of awareness on the topic (Al
Omoush et al., 2012; Alshuaibi et al., 2015). The main reason Jordanians connect to the
Internet each day is to use social media, with WhatsApp and Facebook being some of the
most popular (Al Omoush et al., 2012). In Jordan, the number one reason to access social
media is to interact with friends and family, with other reasons including sharing opinions
and information about music and movies, religion, or politics, all given by more than half
16
of people. Figure (1.10) below shows there is a 10.5 per cent yearly increase in the number
of social media users in Jordan, in addition, 6.27 million users access their social media
accounts using mobile phones which represents 99.5 per cent.
Figure (1.10) Mobile Social Media Use in Jordan (Hootsuite, 2021, p.30)
Pew Research Center (2019) compared the rates of social media platform and messaging
application usage in 11 countries around the world where WhatsApp ranked first as the
most popular social networking platform in Jordan with 78 per cent followed by Facebook
with 71 per cent as shown in Figure (1.11) below.
17
Figure (1.11) Social Media Platforms Usage in Emerging Economies (Pew
Research Center, 2019, p.24).
The dramatic rise in internet and social media use is now a global issue and there is
frequent concern regarding negative impacts such as overuse or addiction. However, there
is not enough awareness and information is hard to find, for example, there is no data
available for Jordan on internet or social media addiction (Alshuaibi et al., 2015; Al
Omoush et al., 2012; Ghazal, 2014a; Yaseen et al., 2016). Furthermore, Ghazal (2011)
stated that 36 per cent of a large Jordan-based sample said they relate to friends and family
through social media. Around one third of Jordanians has a facebook account and the time
connected was anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours a day (Ghazal, 2012b). Several
studies in Jordan have identified significant levels of internet “misuse” at work e.g.,
online shopping, games, and personal blogging (Alshuaibi et al., 2015; Ghazal, 2011;
Yaseen et al., 2016). Jordanian government figures revealed that 73 per cent of Jordanian
social media users access social media at work for personal purposes while 17 per cent
use it for work-related purposes (Alshuaibi et al., 2015).
18
As a result of the growth of such misuse, some Jordanian organisations began using
software which bans specified websites argued to divert workers from their duties
(Ghazal, 2011). Reportedly, such actions significantly solved the problem, however, they
were generally strongly resisted by employees who claim an employer has no right to
block their internet access and such bans could suppress original thinking and
productivity (Ghazal, 2012a). Now, with the onset of smartphone ownership, the problem
of using personal social media at work is only likely to grow and strategies such as
blocking websites at work become less relevant (Al-Frwaty, 2008; Alshuaibi et al., 2015).
For example, the Department of Statistics of Jordan figures indicates that 73 per cent of
Jordanians use their social media at work for personal purposes while 17 per cent use it
for work-related purposes (Alshuaibi et al., 2015).
If the findings of the previous studies are true for many different Jordanian organisations,
then organisations should develop new techniques to direct this behaviour by
implementing reasonable and legal policies at work. This issue is of even more
importance given the Jordanian government’s aim to become a Middle East centre for
telecommunications and instruction (Alshuaibi et al., 2015, Al-Jaghoub & Westrup,
2008). Consequently, this study aims to understand the relationship between the use of
personal social media at work and workplace outcomes within organisational employees
in Jordan, to shape strong and reliable recommendations for HR professionals and
managers on how to manage and control such behaviours whilst encouraging a work
culture that is respectful, trusting, and open.
1.3 Research Aim and Objectives
The overall aim of the research is to determine the relationship between the social,
cognitive, and hedonic use of personal social media at work and workplace outcomes
19
among organisational employees in Jordan. This is underpinned by the following
objectives presented here in Table (1.1).
Table (1.1) Research Objectives
Number
Research Objectives
RO1
To identify how the social use of personal social media at work impacts
workplace outcomes among organisational employees in Jordan.
RO2
To identify how the cognitive use of personal social media at work
impacts workplace outcomes among organisational employees in Jordan.
RO3
To identify how the hedonic use of personal social media at work impacts
workplace outcomes among organisational employees in Jordan.
RO4
To identify how the extent of use of personal social media at work
impacts workplace outcomes among organisational employees in Jordan.
1.4 Research Questions
Based on the research objectives, the following research questions, in Table (1.2), will
contribute to a better understanding of the impact of personal social media use at work on
workplace outcomes among organisational employees in Jordan.
Table (1.2) Research Questions
Number
Research Questions
RQ1
What is the relationship between the social use of personal social media at
work and workplace outcomes?
RQ2
What is the relationship between the cognitive use of personal social media
at work and workplace outcomes?
RQ3
What is the relationship between the hedonic use of personal social media
at work and workplace outcomes?
RQ4
What is the relationship between the extent of use of personal social media
at work and workplace outcomes?
1.5 Thesis Structure
This thesis is organised and presented in seven chapters, in the following manner:
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter one presents a general description of the study, introduces the research
background, the research context, research aim and objectives, research questions, and
finally, here, the structure of the thesis.
Chapter Two: Literature Review
20
This chapter begins with a systematic literature review on social media use at work, to
produce an overview of the current literature, its limitations, quality, and potential future
contributions, followed by highlighting the literature most relevant to the use of personal
social media at work. There is a focus on the following workplace outcomes; job
involvement, job burnout, organisational citizen behaviour, turnover intentions,
presenteeism, absenteeism, employee adaptability, and innovative behaviour. This review
builds a deeper understanding of the research questions as well as investigating the
theoretical background to support the development of a theoretical model.
Chapter Three: Research Model and Hypothesis
Overall, this chapter develops the model of the research and outlines the hypotheses of
this research beginning with the theoretical basis of the study. It does this by reviewing
the empirical evidence and related theories supporting relationships concerning using
personal social media at work and job involvement, job burnout, organisational citizen
behaviour, turnover intentions, presenteeism, absenteeism, employee adaptability, and
innovative behaviour. This chapter ends by presenting a statement of the hypotheses
which will guide the research design.
Chapter Four: Research Methodology and Design
This chapter explains the methodological perspectives of this research, arguing the
paradigm of enquiry and philosophical assumptions. It considers the research approach
and the research methodology developed for the study and identifies the data collection
methods, hypotheses tests and the data analysis procedures. There is also a discussion of
ethics relevant to the research. Importantly, key previous studies in the field are shown to
offer supporting evidence and justification of the research methods.
Chapter Five: Data Analysis and Findings
21
The results obtained from the survey are presented in this chapter. First, there is an
explanation of statistical samples and assumptions, followed by some reflection on the
models of measurement engaged to calculate validity and reliability. After this, there is
an assessment of the structural models and tests for the hypotheses.
Chapter Six: Discussion
This chapter connects the key results of the study with the literature. The research
questions are considered and any conflicting findings between this research and prior
studies are outlined and analysed fully.
Chapter Seven: Conclusion
The results and conclusions of the study are summarised here, connecting the aims and
objectives with the research findings. There is further discussion of the academic and
professional implications of the study, the limitations of the research are acknowledged,
and areas for future research suggested.
1.8 Chapter Summary
Chapter one offered an initial overview of the research. There was a discussion of why
this study is important, touching on key issues in the literature and the theoretical and
practical importance of this issue which inspired the actual research context. There was
an initial presentation of the research questions and objectives and the methodology used
for this research. Finally, the outline of the entire thesis was presented.
The following chapter reviews the literature on personal social media use at work, job
involvement, job burnout, organisational citizen behaviour, turnover intentions,
presenteeism, absenteeism, employee adaptability, and innovative behaviour with the
objective of developing a research framework.
22
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2. Introduction
Following on from the account of the study given in the first chapter, this second chapter
begins with a systematic literature review on social media use at work, to produce an
overview of the current literature, its limitations, quality, and potential future
contributions, followed by exploring the literature most relevant to personal social media
use at work, uses and gratification theory, social capital theory, social media
classifications, social media dimensions, job involvement, job burnout, organisational
citizen behaviour, turnover intentions, presenteeism, absenteeism, employee adaptability,
and innovative behaviour in the context of the present study, to develop greater
knowledge of the key questions of this study. In addition, the theoretical background
introduced here will serve as the backbone of the theoretical model framework of the
study. Accordingly, this chapter examines the influence of personal social media use at
work on psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes. A visual guide to the
chapter is offered in Figure (2.1).
23
Figure (2.1) Chapter Two Overview
2.1 Systematic Literature Review
A systematic literature review aims to produce an overview of the current literature, its
strengths, limitations and gaps and give direction to the preparation of the current research
and propose worthwhile areas for investigation (Piper, 2013). Webster and Watson (2002)
recommend the following steps when carrying out a systematic literature review;
literature search, study selection, coding, results and discussion.
This study categorised employee workplace outcomes as indicated by Rhoads et al.
(1994) into two key elements, specifically, psychological workplace outcomes and
behavioural workplace outcomes. Additionally, the structure was augmented using
several other framework models: framework for innovation and organisation (Zaltman et
2. Introduction
2.1 Systematic
Literature
Review
2.2 Research
Gaps and
Contributions
2.3 Social Media
2.4 Social Media
Classifications
2.5 Personal
Social Media
Use at Work
2.6 Dimensions
of Personal
Social Media
Use
2.7 Social
Capital Theory
2.8 Uses and
Gratification
Theory
2.9
Psychological
Workplace
Outcomes
2.9.1 Job
Burnout
2.9.2 Job
Involvement
2.10
Behavioural
Workplace
Outcomes
2.10.1
Organisational
Citizen
Behaviour
2.10.2
Absenteeism
2.10.3 Turnover
Intentions
2.10.4
Presenteeism
2.10.5 Employee
Adaptability
2.10.6 Employee
Innovative
Behaviour
2.11 Chapter
Summary
24
al., 1973), model on organisational commitment (Meyer et al., 2002), i-adapt theory
(Ployhart & Bliese, 2006) and a framework for knowledge sharing (Wang & Noe, 2010).
These models were selected for their widespread acceptance in frequently cited studies in
the social media literature (e.g., Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel 2017; Chauhan, 2017;
Chu, 2020; Hall, 2018; Hanna et al., 2017; Kühnel et al., 2020; Moqbel et al., 2013;
Moqbel & Kock 2018; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017; Ooms et al., 2015; Syrek et al., 2018; Yasir
et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2015). Furthermore, these models match the
research objectives and questions of this study to examine psychological and behavioural
workplace outcomes. Table (2.1) and Table (2.2) outline the pertinent workplace
outcomes derived from these frameworks.
Table (2.1) Psychological Workplace Outcomes
Psychological
Workplace
Outcomes
Definition
Original
Framework
Job Satisfaction
Employees’ affective reactions to their job
experience (Hackman & Oldham, 1975; Locke,
1976), including pleasurable or positive
emotional state resulting from the appraisal of
one’s job or job experience (Locke, 1976).
Meyer et al.
(2002)
Organisational
Commitment
The relative strength of an individual’s
identification, emotional attachment with and
involvement in a particular organisation (Allen &
Meyer, 1990; Porter et al., 1974).
Job Burnout
Employee’s prolonged response to chronic
emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job,
including exhaustion, cynicism, fatigue,
weariness, and inefficacy (Maslach et al., 2001;
Shirom & Melamed, 2006).
Employee
Engagement
Harnessing of an employee’s self to his/her work
role and is expressed physically, cognitively, or
emotionally during role performances (Kahn,
1990).
Job
Involvement
The exercise, by employees of influence over
how their work is organised and carried out
(Fenton-O’Creevy, 2001).
Work-Life
Balance
The degree to which an employee’s social life
interferes with work or work interferes with
social life (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
Source: Nkwe and Cohen (2017), p.2052-2023.
25
Table (2.2) Behavioural Workplace Outcomes
Behavioural
Workplace
Outcomes
Definition
Original
Framework
Job
Performance
Actions that are relevant to the goals of the
organisation or self-reported work performance
including productivity, quality, or effort in
carrying out work (McCloy et al., 1994).
Meyer et al.
(2002)
Turnover
Intentions
Employee’s intent, desire and plan to leave the
organisation, including actively looking for
another job (Igbaria & Greenhaus, 1992).
Presenteeism
Situations where employees come to work but
underperform such as producing lower quantity or
quality of work, making mistakes, and repeating
tasks and often engage in non-work-related
activities such as personal business for a portion of
the workday (Simpson et al., 2000).
Absenteeism
Any failure of an employee to report for or to
remain at work as scheduled, may be due to stress
or medical illness (Cascio, 2010).
Organisational
Citizen
Behaviour
Employees' voluntary commitment within an
organisation or company that is not part of his or
her contractual tasks (Farh et al., 2004).
Knowledge
Sharing and
Learning
Employee exchange of knowledge and
experiences with colleagues or helping others to
solve problems (Cummings, 2004).
Wang & Noe
(2010)
Employee
Adaptability
Employee ability to cope with change in their
work (Ployhart & Bliese, 2006). Possible
measures reflect that a respondent finds it easy to
adjust to doing new tasks or finds it very
encouraging when the work they do in their job
changes (O’Connell et al., 2008; Ployhart &
Bliese, 2006).
Ployhart &
Bliese (2006)
Innovative
Behaviour
Individual actions directed at the generation,
introduction and/or application beneficial novelty
at any organisation (Kleysen & Street, 2001) and
it may include a new product, technology or a
change in procedures.
Zaltman et al.
(1973)
Source: Nkwe and Cohen (2017), p.2053.
2.1.1 Literature Search Strategy
The major developments in social media began in 2003 with Friendster, MySpace, and
LinkedIn with Facebook arriving in 2004 (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), thus defining the limits
of the systematic search of literature of relevant articles published from January 2003 to
October 2021. A search for social media related literature was performed on several
26
online databases (e.g., ACM, Jstor, Emerald, ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest, Web of
Science, EBSCO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar) as well as a number of top
information systems and Human Resources journals (e.g., Computers in Human
Behaviour Journal, Information Systems Research, Journal of Information Systems).
Furthermore, this review is interested in both quantitative and qualitative evidence of
personal social media use at work, therefore, search terms based on methodological
consideration were not used to restrict the results.
After identifying the data sources for the literature search strategy, the next step for the
systematic review is to outline the search terms. As this research is focused on
organisational employees as the study population and social media as the technological
intervention, the search terms for social media included: ”social network sites at work”,
“social media at work”,“social networking sites at work”, “Facebook at work”, “Twitter
at work”, “LinkedIn at work”, “personal internet use”, “cyberloafing”,
“cyberslacking”.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were included in the search as they are common social
media sites and there was a high probability that they would be referenced in related
papers (Ahmad et al., 2016; Bertot et al., 2010; Duggan et al., 2015; Kietzmann et al.,
2011; Kim & Lee, 2011). As a result, the automatic search yielded, N=276, along with
articles added by hand-searching and reference list checking, N=5, producing a total of
281 results after removing duplicates.
2.1.2 Study Selection
As well as academic books and journals, peer-reviewed conferences and completed PhD
dissertations were included because they may capture additional findings not yet
appearing in journals (Chu, 2020; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017). The full text of the articles was
reviewed, and articles were excluded according to the following criteria:
27
1) No focus on using personal social media at work.
2) Not in English or Arabic (Arabic is the researcher’s home language).
3) No empirical focus on employee psychological or behavioural workplace
outcomes.
4) No peer review or poor methodological quality (e.g., lack of tests for reliability
and validity).
5) No examination of organisational employees in the study sample (e.g., using
students or retired adults as samples).
As a result, forty five (45) studies met the criteria for inclusion as stated in Table (1.3)
below. Thirty five journals articles, six conference proceeding papers and four PhD
dissertations were identified from the selected databases.
2.1.3 Coding
Webster and Watson (2002), specified that the coding process begin by setting out the
definitions developed in previous literature prior to conducting any search or engaging
with the literature itself. For this study, therefore, coding requires that the different
theoretical and practical definitions of previous studies be examined to check if there is
an effective match with the definitions laid out in this study for each workplace outcome
(see Table 2.1 and Table 2.2).
28
Table (2.3) Summary of Included Papers
Year of
Publication
2008 (2); 2009 (2); 2010 (1); 2011 (1); 2012 (3); 2013 (3); 2014
(8); 2015 (1); 2016 (4); 2017 (8); 2018 (5); 2019 (2); 2020 (2);
2021 (3).
Country
USA (7); China (9); Germany (2); Australia (1); Canada (1);
Greece (1); Netherlands (1); Norway (1); Spain (1); Taiwan
(1); Zimbabwe (1); Sri Lanka (1); Thailand (2); Turkey (1);
Yemen (1); Pakistan (1); India (1); Across the World (1); Not
Stated (11).
Type of Social
Media
General Social Media (42); Facebook (3).
Type of
Publication
Journals (35); Conferences (6); PhD Dissertations (4).
Workplace
Outcomes
Job Performance (21); Knowledge Sharing and Learning (8);
Job Satisfaction (8); Work-life Balance (4); Organisational
Commitment (4); Job Burnout (3); Organisational Citizenship
Behaviour (3); Employee Engagement (3); Innovative
Behaviour (1); Turnover Intention (1); Absenteeism (1);
Employee Adaptability (1); Job Involvement (0); Presenteeism
(0).
Study Methods
Quantitative (38); Qualitative (6); Mixed (1).
2.1.4 Methodological Review
The classification of articles was derived from Ouirdi et al. (2015). Table (2.3)
summarises preceding research schemes in articles. Qualitative methods (case studies and
interviews) were used in 15 per cent of the articles (N=6), and quantitative methods
(surveys) were used in 84 per cent of the articles (N=38), and only one article used mixed
methods (survey and interview).
2.1.5 Overview of the Included Studies
The 45 articles which met the inclusion criteria were published between 2008 and 2021.
Table (2.3) clarifies that only contemporary research has reviewed the effect of personal
social media use at work on psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes. Over
half of the studies were carried out in 2017, 2018, or 2019, which demonstrates that the
issues being investigated have only recently begun to achieve recognition (Cao & Yu,
2019; Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel 2017; Chauhan, 2017; Hall, 2018; Hanna et al.,
2017; Yu et al., 2018).
29
A total of fourteen (14) psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes were
identified from Table (2.1) and Table (2.2). However, the systematic review showed that
only five (5) outcomes had been the main focus of the papers, as shown in Table (2.3).
While some other workplace outcomes (e.g., job involvement and presenteeism) were
discussed in literature reviews (e.g., Moqbel et al., 2013), none were examined in the
studies themselves (Chu, 2020; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017).
The majority of preceding studies were carried out in Western developed countries, with
only a small number of studies conducted in other parts of the world (Chu, 2020; Nkwe
& Cohen, 2017). In addition, the majority of the previous research on personal social
media use at work used convenience sampling methods for data collection (e.g.,
Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel, 2017; Chauhan, 2017; Hanna et al., 2017; Kühnel et al.,
2020; Omar et al., 2017; Saleem et al., 2018; Van Zoonen et al., 2017).
2.2 Research Gaps and Contributions
A number of current research gaps have been identified for the current study. The
following sections provide an overview of these limitations.
Personal Social Media VS Enterprise Social Media
Generally, given rising employee engagement with social media, its effects on workplace
behaviours have gained popularity as research topics (Cai et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2020;
Carlson et al., 2018; Luqman et al., 2020). Most studies on social media use in
organisational contexts investigate the usage of enterprise social media (Dodokh, 2019;
Ellison et al., 2015; Fu et al., 2019; Treem et al., 2015) and hence they do not produce the
same results as studies on the personal use of social media within work time (Brooks,
2015; Chu, 2020; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017). In fact, public social media platforms are more
commonly used for internal communication purposes than enterprise social media due to
30
the low costs and employees’ familiarity with the features of these platforms (Ewing et
al., 2019).
Enterprise social media can be defined as a company operated social networking site,
where users are restricted to company staff members and which offers the possibility to
set up a personal profile and connect with other staff members (Buettner, 2015). The
blurring of boundaries which occurs between personal and professional life as well as
work-life conflict (Koch et al., 2012; Skeel & Gurdin, 2009) arising from using public
social media at work is not applicable to enterprise social media use at work which are
restricted to staff members. In addition, negative outcomes such as cyberloafing or
cyberslacking (Lavoie & Pychyl, 2001; Lim & Chen, 2012) from using public social
media at work will not occur when using enterprise social media since its usage is
approved by the management.
Previous research on public social media showed a number of motives for public social
media for work usage (Liu & Bakici, 2019). For example, the obtained hedonic and
utilitarian values effect employees’ public social media use for work (Leftheriotis &
Giannakos, 2014). Job demands and colleague support have a positive impact on the
intensity of social media use at work, while support from managers have a negative
relationship with it (Charoensukmongkol, 2014). Another variable is the status of
employment which can effect the employees’ usage of social media for work, For
example, it was found that part time employees spend extra time on social media with co-
workers, which can in part be explained by part time employees using social media for
extra social blending and professional networking (Robertson & Kee, 2017). In addition,
it was found that employee work reputation has an impact on social media use for work,
where employees with a high work reputation are more likely to post work-related blogs
(Huang et al., 2015).
31
Several variables that positively effect knowledge sharing activities and enterprise social
media usage are social interaction ties, knowledge self-efficacy and reciprocity norm,
which in turn impact job performance (Kwahk & Park, 2016). Employee use of enterprise
social media can also be affected by peer influence. For example, managers and
coworkers usage of enterprise social media has been found to have a positive impact on
using enterprise social media by other employees (Brzozowski et al., 2009). Also, it has
been found that older and female employees have a stronger peer influence effect on using
enterprise social media (Wattal et al., 2010).
On the one hand, previous research indicates that the main motivation for using public
social media usage is to fulfil the user’s different individual needs like self-
documentation, information sharing, entertainment seeking, networking or passing time
(Cheung & Lee, 2010; Dunne et al., 2010; Giannakos et al., 2013; Liu & Bakici, 2019).
However, such motives can be equally or better fulfilled through using public social
media which will therefore potentially diminish the use of enterprise social media for
employees (Liu & Bakici, 2019). For instance, enterprise social media is used for internal
communication within the company, however, public social media can be used by
employees for their work-related external communications, such as with a supplier,
partner, or clients, also public social media experience can have a negative effect on
enterprise social media usage. For example, employees’ who frequently use public social
media for internal and external communication will not have the motivation and interest
to use enterprise social media at work (Liu & Bakici, 2019).
Public social media still share similar functions with enterprise social media and are
proving to be handy tools to support and help work-related communications (Liu &
Bakici, 2019). However, public social media provides more possibilities for bridging
work and life gap by connecting employees’ interests and network via user-generated
32
content, and working as a medium that facilitates boundary-crossing and role transitions,
which is different than enterprise social networking sites which purely focus on work-
related communications (Yang, 2020).
Previous research investigating social media from a motivational point of view have
found that users tend to satisfy a variety of needs like seeking entertainment,
documenting, sharing knowledge, communicating or passing time through their media
(Cheung & Lee, 2010; Giannakos et al., 2013). Yet, literature reviews on employee use
of social media show that most previous studies are quite conceptual and do not offer
solid empirical insights as support (Baxter & Connolly, 2014; El Ouirdi et al., 2015).
However, it can be seen that by fulfilling those needs using public social media the need
for employees to use enterprise social media is reduced, as such needs can be equally or
better fulfilled via public social media (Liu & Bakici, 2019).
This study focuses on personal social media rather than enterprise social media for several
reasons. First, enterprise social media such as Yammer and Slack provide alternate means
of communication through which employees can create connections restricted to
themselves (Van Zoonen & Banghart, 2018). Unlike this, public social media is accessible
to everyone, offering a great potential for overlap and blurring in the why, when, what
and how of personal and professional interactions (Chen et al., 2020). The use of personal
social media not only allows workers to communicate and connect with their families and
manage family matters during working hours, but also allows them to receive and handle
job tasks after working hours such as evenings or weekends (Moqbel et al., 2013). The
use of public social media can blur the boundaries between work and life, however, there
is still a need to examine how this will affect both the personal and work environment
(Chen et al., 2020; Luqman et al., 2020). Second, personal social media has recently
undergone a pervasive expansion to become an almost ever-present part of life.
33
Understandably, this has boosted academic attention to conducting research in this area
(Chen et al., 2020). Third, enterprise social media use has been relatively well researched
already compared to personal social media at work and, given the blurring of the personal
and professional in which social media is involved, it should be of interest in both
academia and the industry (Chen et al., 2020; Huang & Liu, 2017; Luqman et al., 2020;
Wehner et al., 2017; Veeravalli & Vijayalakshmi, 2019; Yang, 2020). Accordingly, this
study aims to shed some light on personal social media use at work by examining different
use purposes and their impact on workplace outcomes.
Personal Social Media Use in an Organisational Context VS Academic Context
A review of the literature shows that the majority of published studies investigating
personal social media have depended on samples of college students (e.g., Ahn & Shin,
2013; Brooks, 2015; Clark & Roberts, 2010; Cotton et al., 2014; Mainier & O’Brien,
2010; North, 2010; Park et al., 2014; Sims et al., 2017). Such studies are inconsistent in
their findings and lack objectivity as they fail to systematically observe the influence of
personal social media use on workplace outcomes (Charoensukmongkol, 2014; Moqbel
& Kock, 2018; Parveen et al., 2015; Shujaat et al., 2019).
Treem and Leonardi et al. (2013) found that studies in the field of communication were
mainly focused on investigating social media use among young people and college
students. Clearly, it is difficult to generalise the findings of such studies to the workplace
as they exclude use within an organisational context (Brooks, 2015; Erfani et al., 2013;
Kühnel et al., 2020) and so create external validity problems in attempting to generalise
the findings to business settings which differ significantly from a student educational
setting (Akbulut et al., 2017; Moqbel et al., 2013; Moqbel, 2012).
More specifically, the pressures that a student faces while sitting in the classroom vary
greatly from the professional, economic, and possible familial pressures felt by
34
employees in the workforce (Brooks et al., 2015). On average, an employee receives
seven interruptions each working day, and these take up around 28% of the employee’s
time, as a worker gives their attention to the interruption in approximately 40% of cases,
rather than continuing with the activity they were engaged in when interrupted. After this
disruption, a worker can spend up to 30 minutes refocusing themselves cognitively to the
original task (Czerwinski et al., 2000; Spira & Feintuch, 2005). Meanwhile, students have
multiple breaks during the day including in-between classes where they have the
possibility to use their personal social media (Brooks et al., 2015). Similarly, the
developmental issues that young adults face during their college years may differ from
those of non-college young adults or workers (Pempek et al., 2009).
Furthermore, precautions for, what is known as, cyberloafing vary across these two
settings as well. Although businesses implement various counter measures to tackle
cyberloafing, e.g., blocking certain websites, or setting up notifications or penalties to
dissuade use, in higher education strong actions to curb social media use are infrequent
(Akbulut et al., 2017; Glassman et al., 2015; Ugrin & Pearson, 2013). For instance, the
Pew Research Center (2016) found greater numbers of employees now rely on
smartphones, as well as tablets, day to day, which are already leading to company
reorganisations of their mobile communications to maximise productivity.
The different opinions, beliefs and ethical orientations which people hold can cause them
to respond in a variety of ways to unregulated online access (Alder et al., 2008), further
affecting differences between student and employee populations. For example, a study by
Akbulut et al. (2017) revealed that employees performed better than students and females
performed better than males in minimising cyberloafing. Quan-Haase and Young (2010)
categorised the motiviations of college students to use Facebook as: pastime, affection,
fashion, sharing problems, cool and new trend, and sociability, which could be different
35
from employees’ motives to use personal social media at work, such as, expressive
information sharing, relaxing entertainment, and professional advancement (Papacharissi
& Mendelson, 2011).
Therefore, the findings observed in previous studies may offer little explaination of how
personal social media is used in the workplace context. Accordingly, many scholars have
argued the need for studies to now investigate personal social media at work specifically
with organisational employees to assess its impact on workplace outcomes such as
turnover intention, absenteeism, job involvement, and presenteeism (e.g., Chauhan, 2017;
Chu, 2020; Kühnel et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2017; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017; Shujaat et al.,
2019; Van Zoonen et al., 2017).
Personal Social Media Use at Work in Developing Countries
The proliferation of literature on social media is emerging alongside its rapid adoption
around the world, however, relatively few studies have surfaced from less affluent
developing countries, or nations in the East (Kishokumar, 2018; Louati & Hadoussa,
2021; Mei, 2016; Sibanda & Kudya, 2018; Yasir et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2018; Zouitina &
Hachicha, 2021). Similarly, very little research has been dedicated to exploring personal
social media use at work in the Middle East region, much less in Jordan (Al-Hamadi et
al., 2007; AbuBaker & Bagley, 2016; Al Momani, 2017; Al Omoush et al., 2012; Khan
& Azab, 2014; Louati & Hadoussa, 2021; Shujaat et al., 2019; Zouitina & Hachicha,
2021).
To better understand the impact of social media on Jordanian organisational employees,
it is essential to first explore Jordanian culture (Oguz et al., 2017). Several studies
confirmed that differences in national culture are vital to how and why users engage in
social media (Al Omoush et al., 2012; Cardon et al., 2009; Dotan & Zaphiris, 2010;
Marcus & Krishnamurthi, 2009). In particular, the values of individualism-collectivism
36
have an impact as indicators of how social media users use social ties that are strong or
weak to engage in collective actions or as behavioral references (Beugelsdijk et al., 2019;
Hu et al., 2014; Triandis 1995).
This deviation of social media usage motivations in individualistic and collectivistic
cultures is also related to the concepts of bridging versus bonding social ties (Stump &
Gong, 2020). Bridging social ties indicate the dominance of weak ties within online and
offline social networks, that can provide better information access from wider parts of the
social systems (Granovetter, 1983). On the contrary, bonding social ties is concerned with
creating and maintaining social capital from strong ties which provide feelings of
belonging and emotional support among social network users (Choi et al., 2011; Valencia,
2011).
One of the most important factors that impact not only the social life but also family
business in Jordan is the social institution in community due to the vital status of family
ties, based on Islam (Al-Saggaf, 2004; Al Busaidy & Borthwick, 2012; Mahoney &
Kiraly-Alvarez, 2019). The majoirty religion of Jordan is Islam, a Muslim should always
contact other members of their extended family and give them whatever is considered a
way to maintain a relationship with them (Najim et al., 2020). Thus, Muslims would
rather build business and social relationships with family members than with other
individuals (Long, 2005; Mahoney & Kiraly-Alvarez, 2019). Nevertheless, swift
modernisation and expanded contact with the outside world has led to changes in
Jordanian society.
The majority of firms in the Middle East including Jordan are family businesses that are
owned and operated by members of family and immediate family members are the senior
executives (Long, 2005; Samara, G., 2020). A family business is seen as a social safety
net that helps all extended family members. Similarly, social media has an impact on
37
business; given a good relationship with the right person, it will help the company to sell
its product (Rodenbeck & Wells, 2004; Syed & Van Buren, 2014). Thus, it is clear that
people in the Middle East have a different way of doing business and managing
relationships than Westerners (Askool, 2013; Samara, 2020). Research into the use of
information technology (IT) in the Middle East shows that usage behaviour often differ
from those reported in the West due to cultural differences (Sukkar & Hasan, 2005). In
Middle Eastern countries like Jordan culture continues to significantly impact on the
business environment; there is a strong integrated relationship, therefore, social media is
expected to play a very important role in different aspects of society including business
(Al Omoush et al., 2012; Long, 2005).
Transformation in the Arab world has been viewed negatively or positively as
contributing to global economic growth and has shown that social media tools have the
ability to foster social inclusion and create new employment, business and development
opportunities (ASMR, 2011). The literature review suggests that a variety of external
aspects affect the use of technology and can interact differently with various users
(Askool, 2013).
Culture has been identified as an external factor influencing the use of information
systems and technology, leading to the question of how social culture influences the
purpose of behavior and the actual use of such technology (Mukred et al., 2017; Van et
al., 2019). Straub et al. (2003) offered the Cultural Influence Model and noticed that
cultural beliefs played a major role in impeding the transfer of IT to Arab countries. Loch
et al. (2008) used this model to examine how cultural values and beliefs may allow and
interfere with the use of the Internet in Arab countries. They pointed out that both the
level of technology and social norms influence organisational and individual use and
acceptance of the Internet. Alternatively, the study showed that motivation plays a major
38
role in shaping user attitudes and behaviors in adopting new technologies (Davis et al.,
1992). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation were highlited as two types of
motivation.
Unless both types of stimuli influence the user's intention to use technology, various
effects on diverse users can be experienced. Similarly, very limited numbers of studies
have been conducted to examine the effect of cultural limitations on user motivation,
behavioural intention, attitudes toward technology use, and ultimately actual use (Al
Omoush et al., 2012; Askool, 2013). Consequently, the following research question as
been formed: How do cultural differences and restrictions in Jordan affect the use of
personal social media at work?
The impact on workplace outcomes of the use of personal social media in Western,
educated, industrialised, rich, and developed countries may be quite distinct from the
impact of the same technology across the rest of the world, especially those most different
from the West (Al Omoush et al., 2012; Erfani et al., 2016; Shujaat et al., 2019). As a
result, there have been calls for more research to understand the psychological and
behavioural workplace outcomes in countries such as Jordan, which are currently
developing a competitive and robust market economy (e.g., AbuBaker & Bagley, 2016;
Ahmad, 2013; Al Momani, 2017; Al Omoush et al., 2012; Shujaat et al., 2019).
Therefore, there is ample evidence to support the development of a study focusing on
how organisational employees using personal social media at work affects workplace
outcomes in the context of Jordan.
Inconsistency of Previous Findings
Currently, results in the literature contrast on personal social media use at work (Chen &
Wei, 2020; Davison et al., 2014; Koch et al., 2012; Luqman et al., 2020) with studies
identifying both positive and negative effects on workplace outcomes among
39
organisational employees (e.g., Brooks, 2015; Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel, 2017;
Kühnel et al., 2020; Persson et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2018; Van Zoonen et al., 2017; Wei
& Gao, 2017).
The rise of social media has been met with some fear and there has been a tendency for
research on personal social media use at work devoted chiefly to the negative side of this
behaviour (Kühnel et al., 2020) with the adoption of a variety of negative terms such as,
cyberloafing (Lim & Chen, 2012), cyberslacking (Lavoie & Pychyl, 2001), virtual
absenteeism (Friedman, 2001), and blurring boundaries (Koch et al., 2012; Skeel &
Gurdin, 2009). At the same time, a number of positive workplace outcomes have come to
the forefront like increased productivity and job satisfaction (Moqbel, 2012), increased
job performance and enhanced communication (Patel & Jasani, 2010; Zhang et al., 2015),
and decreased burnout at work (Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel 2017).
Research remains fragmented (Chen et al., 2020; Chu, 2020; Kühnel et al., 2020; Louati
& Hadoussa, 2021; Luqman et al., 2020; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017; Sakka & Ahammad,
2020; Yang et al., 2021), and the debate is ongoing whether the personal use of social
media at work is a counterproductive behaviour and actually damages performance, for
instance by lowering productivity, or if it delivers some helpful outcomes such as
reducing job burnout and increasing innovative behaviour (Anadarajan et al., 2011;
Zouitina & Hachicha, 2021). However, simply describing the number of positive versus
negative studies without any statistical analysis does not deliver an account of these
findings, and the magnitude of the relationships reported varied from study to study,
possibly due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics but the sources for the
heterogeneity have not been assessed yet (Chu, 2020). This means that the issue of the
regulation of personal social media use at work is still open and there has been little or no
investigation of the impact on some workplace outcomes such as job engagement,
40
innovative behaviour, and job burnout (Chen et al., 2020; Luqman et al., 2020; Tijunaitis
et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2020; Van Zoonen & Banghart, 2018).
There have been strong arguments for the development of more nuanced understandings
of the direction of the effect of personal social media use at work on workplace outcomes
by future studies (e.g., Cai et al., 2020; Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel 2017; Chen et al.,
2020; Chu, 2020; Kühnel et al., 2020; Kushlev, 2018; Luqman et al., 2020; Moqbel &
Kock 2018; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017; Tijunaitis et al., 2019). This study aims to deliver
more precise observations regarding the relationship between personal social media use
at work and positive and negative workplace outcomes among organisational employees.
Personal Social Media Use at Work and Workplace Outcomes
Previous studies on using personal social media at work have looked at several workplace
outcomes, with job performance found to be the most studied, appearing in 21 of the 45
articles reviewed. This was followed by job satisfaction in 8 articles, and knowledge
sharing and learning in 8 articles, work-life balance and organisational commitment in 4
articles, job burnout, employee engagement, and organisational citizenship behaviour
each appearing in 3 articles, and in 1 article, innovative behaviour, turnover intention,
employee adaptability, and absenteeism. In terms of identified gaps for future research,
two workplace outcomes not discussed in any of the identified studies were job
involvement and presenteeism, as shown in Table (2.4).
41
Table (2.4) Summary of Overall Evidence of Direction of Effect
Workplace Outcomes
Number of
Qualitative
Studies
Number of
Quantitative
Studies
Overall Evidence
of Direction of
Effect
Job satisfaction
1
7
+
Organisational Commitment
1
3
+
Job Performance
1
20
+
Knowledge Sharing and
Learning
-
8
+
Work-life Balance
2
2
+
Employee Engagement
-
3
+
Job Burnout
-
3
Contingent
Organisational Citizen
Behaviour
1
2
Contingent
Absenteeism
-
1
Inconclusive
Innovative Behaviour
-
1
Inconclusive
Turnover Intentions
-
1
Inconclusive
Employee Adaptability
-
1
Inconclusive
Presenteeism
-
-
No evidence
Job Involvement
-
-
No evidence
The above findings of the systematic literature review offer a basis on which this study
may fill some gaps and contribute to the literature to provide a clear direction of effect by
exploring the impact of personal social media use among organisational employees at
work on these workplace outcomes (job involvement, job burnout, organisational citizen
behaviour, turnover intentions, presenteeism, absenteeism, employee adaptability, and
innovative behaviour).
A final area of concern is how personal social media use at work has been measured in
previous studies (e.g., Charoensukmongkol et al., 2017; Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel,
2017; Chauhan, 2017; Persson et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2018). It is important to consider
that all these studies took social media use in its entirety as the research object with little
attempt to break down social media use and classify activities (Gao et al., 2016). Most
research treated social media use as homogoneic, and only developed measures of
intensity and regularity (Holland & Bardoel, 2016; Moqbel et al., 2013). These
methodologies fail to notice the distinct behaviours involved in using social media across
42
a range of multifaceted conditions (Chen & Wei, 2020; Chen et al., 2020; Luqman et al.,
2020).
There has been less study on the impact of workplace use of personal social media
regarding the cognition and behaviour of employees (Ali-hassan et al., 2015; Carlson et
al., 2016; Priyadarshini et al., 2020; Richardson, 2017). The majority of previous research
engaged social support theory (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998) or work/non-work boundary
theory (Ashforth, 2000) to demonstrate the relationships between social media use at
work and workplace outcomes (Chu, 2020; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017; Van Zoonen &
Banghart, 2018). However, limited studies have engaged social capital theory (Ali-hassan
et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2020; Tijunaitis et al., 2019; Yen et al., 2020). Therefore, this
study has adopted methodology based on Ali-Hassan et al. (2015) on the basis that
combining the general social media use measure with more specific measures (cognitive,
hedonic and social) capturing what users actually do on social media sites and how users
interact with others will bring us to a much greater understanding of the impact of
personal use of social media at work on work-related outcomes.
This study aims to fill the knowledge gap identified by the conducted systematic literature
review on personal social media use at work, as it showed that more than half of the
studies were carried out in 2017 (Charoensukmongkol & Moqbel, 2017; Hanna et al.,
2017; Kühnel et al., 2020; Yasir et al., 2017), which indicates that the relationship under
examination started gaining attention and interest only recently. Within these studies,
only five workplace outcomes were examined, while some of the other workplace
outcomes such as job involvement, turnover intention, and presenteeism have been
discussed in the extant literature, but none of these specific research studies examined
them, therefore, this study will incorporate these additional issues, thus providing an
43
opportunity to improve knowledge of personal social media use at work and its impact
on psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes.
While the consequences of using enterprise social media in the workplace are generally
consistent, the effects of personal social media use at work on workplace outcomes are
contested having been found to be both positive and negative (Cheng, 2019). Importantly,
the outcomes of personal social media use at work will vary based on how it is measured
(Chauhan, 2017; Dutta, 2010; Junco, 2013). It remains unclear what drives employees to
use personal social media at work and in what ways such use influences their work (Yu
et al., 2018)
Altogether, this study offers numerous contributions to existing research. First, it can
augment social media research by examining the experience of personal social media use
in work environments, building on previous research on its influence on psychological
and behavioural workplace outcomes. Second, this study distinguishes three main types
of personal social media use (social, hedonic, and cognitive) at work as an improvement
on merely employing a catch-all concept (e.g., social media use for work or social media
use intensity at work) to appreciate personal social media use within organisations and
increase our knowledge of this relatively new experience. Finally, this study uses social
capital and uses and gratification theory as a primary framework to develop the study
hypotheses. In taking a user-focused approach to studying personal social media use in
the organisational environment (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015), it can produce more empirical
evidence upon which managers may develop social media use policies and help
employees to be more aware of to better control their use to avoid negative outcomes.
2.3 Social Media
Web 2.0 expertise brought about the development of new internet based structures to
support the new Social Media (Aksoy et al., 2013) which has seen further advances with
44
Web 3.0 (Choudhury, 2014). The first version, Web 1.0, recognised as the web of
documents, allowed users to access enormous amount of written text online, but allowed
only limited editing or interaction with the text (Choudhury, 2014). Conversely, Web 2.0
saw the arrival of widespread user-generated content (Lam, 2016), with even further
improved interactive tools seen with the advent of Web 3.0 (Choudhury, 2014).
Therefore, over a realtively short period of time social media was developed on these
evolving platforms to enable various forms of communication (Kietzmann et al., 2011;
Wolf et al., 2015).
The diverse series of platforms may be collectively defined as social media by some basic
commonalities; users can create a public profile and develop a list of other users to
connect with, and they can finally connect with people on other users’ lists (Boyd &
Ellison, 2007). Researchers frequently refer to these as collaborative technology when
they have these characteristics; social interaction, social collaboration, content sharing
and social connectedness (Doyle et al., 2015). Users can ‘interact’ with one another,
collaboration is achieved through virtual groups and communities, within the wider
network, founded on shared interests and beliefs. Collaborative technology platforms
offer space for ‘user-generated content’ where users can create content, which is not
necessarily professionally made, and publish it on social media platform for others to
view. Finally, these platforms present different methods for people to feel socially
connected using a variety of technologies. Consequently, social media platforms are
designed to encourage people to make and share informations effortlessly for work or
personal reasons (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Doyle et al., 2015; Luqman et al., 2020; Nduhura
& Prieler, 2017; Sigala & Chalkiti, 2015).
Social media content is mostly user-generated (Soliman, 2012), social and professional
community directed (Ellison, 2007), and relationship-based (Buettner, 2015) platforms,
45
which can be accessed from computers, mobile devices “smartphones” and tablets which
allows users to connect with their social network regardless of time and place (Powell,
2009). As a result, the total number of users of social media has increased from nearly 1
billion in 2010 to 3 billion in 2015 (Buettner, 2015; Ellison, 2007; Powell, 2009; Soliman,
2012; Zolkepli & Kamarulzaman, 2015).
Launched in February 2004, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world.
Facebook reached 2.5 billion active users at the end of 2019 and reaching more users and
increasing the engagement of users through its family of social media platforms, including
WhatsApp and Instagram. On average, internet users are engaged with Facebook six
hours a month, with more than half accessing it via their mobile phones (Statista, 2021).
Twitter is another social media site launched in July 2006, which offers a networked
character limited micro-blogging platform (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), and is described as “a
service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through
the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: what are you doing?”
(Clark & Roberts, 2010, p.508).
In the Information System literature, there are several social media definitions. Kane et
al., (2014) defined it as having four characteristics; (1) users have a unique user profile
created by the individual users or by members of their network or by the platform (2)
users access digital content through, and protect it from, several search mechanisms
delivered by the platform (3) users can articulate a list of other users with whom they
share a relational connection, and (4) users can see and navigate their connections and
those made by others on the platform. Another definition is by Boyd and Ellison (2008),
who describe it as web-based facilities which let people (1) build a profile in a delimited
system, and make it public to varying degrees (2) develop a catalogue of users to be
46
connected with, and (3) observe and navigate their own and others’ catalogues of
connections within the structure.
Another way to define social media is as an instrument which enables users to develop,
contribute to, collaborate on, customise and share web content (O’Reilly, 2005; Vickery
& Wunsch-Vincent, 2007). Social media platforms are now considered the norm for
sharing text, images, news and videos content generated by users within a bounded system
(Boyd & Ellison, 2007). In addition, social media may be expressed as a power of social
realms, a generator of social interaction, social relationships, social norms, social
knowledge, social learning, social cooperation, social tools and so on (Fan & Gordon,
2014; Fisher, 2017; Zafarani et al., 2014). Furthermore, Nath and Iswary (2015) views
social media as a knowledge management system which can contribute to the cultivation
of knowledge management processes in organisations.
Social media’s advanced features are understood to stimulate different impulses in users
than those of traditional Internet content (Kimmerle et al., 2015). There has, therefore,
been an increase in scholarly interest regarding those factors which impact on social
media use, and what effect this may have on numerous factors within organisations
(Khang et al., 2014). Based on these definitions and the aim of this study to examine the
impact of personal social media use at work and on workplace outcomes, personal social
media use at work may be defined as:
"The degree to which employees are using their personal Social Media at work that
allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content to generate social
interaction, social relationship, social norms, social knowledge, social learning, social
cooperation, social tools, and social capital in order to enhance psychological and
behavioural workplace outcomes".
2.4 Social Media Classifications
47
Social media usage can be classified according to the type of usage and relationships
supported. For example, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) offer a 3x2 matrix to classify social
media tools based on media research social presence theories (Short-Williams & Christie,
1976) and media richness theories (Daft & Lengel, 1986), and social process theories
(Goffman, 1959) of self-presentation and self-disclosure (Barczyk & Duncan, 2011), as
shown in Table (2.5) below.
Table (2.5) Categorisation of Social Media Tools
Social Presence/ Media Richness
Low
Medium
High
Self-
Presentation/
Self-
Disclosure
High
Blogs
Social Networking
Sites (e.g.,
Facebook)
Virtual Social
Worlds (e.g.,
Second Life)
Low
Collaborative
Projects (e.g.,
Wikipedia)
Content
Communities (e.g.,
YouTube)
Virtual Games
World (e.g.,
World of
Warcraft)
Source: Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), p. 62.
In addition, Scheepers et al. (2014) developed a categorisation of use by information-
seeking activities, hedonic activities, sustaining strong ties, and extending weak ties.
Similarly, another categorisation of social media behaviour is into active and passive,
where active is when users post, write a comment or press like on something on the
platform, and passive is surveillance use (Tandoc et al., 2015). Furthermore, Dutta (2010)
classified social media according to the type of relationships supported, where social
media use has an impact on users personally in “personal/public social media”, as well as
within their organisations in “enterprise social media”, as shown in Figure (2.2) below.
48
Personal & Private
Family & Friends
Message
I want to keep in touch with you.
Sample social media tools
Facebook
Goals
Brand: Show commitment to your
relationships.
Engage: Strengthen your ties.
Learn: Keep abreast of changes in your
social network.
Personal & Public
Society
Message
I am passionate about ideas and want to
share them with you.
Sample social media tools
Blogs, YouTube, Twitter
Goals
Brand: Become known for your ideas.
Engage: Find new outlets for your
passions.
Learn: Leverage others’ ideas and
viewpoints.
Professional & Private
Work Colleagues
Message
I am a team player, and I want to
collaborate with you.
Sample social media tools
Yammer and other corporate platforms
Goals
Brand: Enhance your image at work.
Engage: Collaborate; boost productivity
and effectiveness.
Learn: Leverage your colleagues’ input.
Professional & Public
Professional Peers
Message
I am competent and growing
professionally.
Sample social media tools
LinkedIn, Twitter, and sector-specific
communities.
Goals
Brand: Build peer recognition.
Engage: Find new opportunities; show
commitment.
Learn: Boost industry knowledge;
develop yourself.
Figure (2.2) Social Media Usage Classification (Dutta, 2010, p. 10-13)
Table (2.6) below summarises different social media types and classification.
Table (2.6) Categorisation of Social Media Tools
Social Media Types/ Classification
Source
Entertainment networks, Profiling networks, Social
networks
Koukaras et al. (2019)
Online Social Networking, Blogging, Micro-blogging,
Wikis, Social news, Social book-marking, Media
sharing, Opinion, reviews and rating, Answers
Gundecha and Liu (2012)
Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence,
Relationships, Reputation, Groups
Kietzmann et al. (2011)
Blogs, Social networking sites, Virtual social worlds,
Collaborative projects, Content communities, Virtual
games world
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010)
Personal and Private, Personal and Public, Professional
and Private, Professional and Public
Dutta (2010)
As the key usefulness of using social media is to support a wide variety of social
relationships online (Kane et al., 2014), Dutta (2010) states that social media activities
49
are categorised into two dimensions; personal or professional aspects of employees’ lives,
and either a private or public method of interaction, to help users choose the appropriate
combination of platforms and amount of time to dedicate to various activities on social
media. According to its aims, this study focuses on personal private/public social media
use at work in order to enhance and increase the social ties and social capital among
colleagues and friends.
2.5 Personal Social Media Use at Work
The Web provides unique means of facilitating social processes, as well as managing
data, information and knowledge. Since the advent of widespread social media use, new
terms have arisen, such as Enterprise Social Software, social software-based knowledge
management (Von Krogh, 2012), Enterprise 2.0 (McAfee, 2009), or social business. Such
terms indicate an acknowledgement that social media has a significant role to play in
terms of collaboration, as well as in supporting social processes, for the purpose of
communicating and managing knowledge in modern ventures (Hester et al., 2016;
Majchrzak et al., 2013). Firms are now investigating, through social media, novel ways
in which they foster and maximise benefit from knowledge sharing, not only with
customers, but also experts, suppliers and partners both internal and external to the
organisation (Davison et al., 2014). Furthermore, direct communication between user,
stakeholders and co-workers is facilitated by social media and it becomes possible for
employees to respond to questions, ideas, viewpoints and successes of their fellow
workers (Dimicco et al., 2008; Waters & Jamal, 2011).
A diversity of Internet communication software technologies are offered for social use,
e.g., instant messaging, forums, text chats, virtual worlds, and social media. Social
software grew out of computer-supported collaborative working and groupware, as a
means to enable group interaction (Haefliger et al., 2011). It is, therefore, possible for
50
members of an organisation to make use of such facilities to improve their performance
at work, expanding their knowledge and developing skills and behaviour, and using the
software for problem solving tasks (Ellison et al., 2015). It allows them to contact experts
and peers, to share and extract relevant knowledge and new ideas globally at any time
without restrictions (Lam et al., 2016) and allows these beneficial behaviours to be
brought into their organisations (Leonardi et al., 2013).
A variety of research has found that personal social media lets people share their views
on events and topics in their daily life (e.g., Ehrlich & Shami, 2010; Humphreys et al.,
2013; Java et al., 2007; Zhao & Rosson, 2009). Moreover, social software allows
employees’ to channel their views internally. For example, on Twitter, which consists of
comments on daily issues updating friends, family and work colleagues, workers may
write as a witness describing activities at their work. Such observations are described as
‘commentary’ (Agrifoglio et al., 2012; Miles & Mangold, 2014; Van Zoonen et al., 2016).
Accordingly, personal social media can also provides a platform for informal learning,
training, knowledge management and suitable network connections with experts,
specialists and entrepreneurs in various fields. Employees are thus empowered to build
their own individual human capital (Razmerita et al., 2014; Yates & Paquette, 2011).
Consequently, these facilities can enhance human capital, knowledge-sharing process,
and the problem-solving capacity of organisations (Turban et al., 2017). Without a doubt,
such factors can lead to successful innovation, as they are considered essential to
competitive advantage and the growth of an organisation (Felin & Zenger, 2014; Hislop
et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2016).
Worker may also relate to their organisation, and therefore, identify content to share with
their organisation e.g., voice behaviours and ambassadorship (Fuller et al., 2006; Van
Zoonen et al., 2014). The frequency of such activity depends on how organisation are
51
perceived externally by the wider world, denoted as ‘perceived external prestige’. When
staff believe their organisation has high levels of prestige, externally, then they are more
willing to identify themselves with it publicly (Bartels et al., 2007). For example they
may publish highlights of their company’s achievements or annual calendar on their
personal Twitter account (Van Zoonen et al., 2016). The positive associations the public
has about these organisational achievements extrapolate to the employee, and thereby
confirm employees’ self-views, leading to positive assessments by others in their network
(Ollier-Malaterre et al., 2013). Furthermore, staff employ personal social media to create
an online portrayal of their company and sponsor the marketing of their own employer
(Helm, 2011; Miles & Mangold, 2014; Van Zoonen et al., 2014).
Staff foster extensive connections with both internal and external colleagues throughout
their profession, and utilise such networks to acquire material or encourage associates to
act (Van Zoonen et al., 2016). To achieve these goals they must be persuasive.
Communicating persuasively requires actions that invite a reciprocal act by the other. In
the case of social media a worker seeks an interactive response from colleagues within
their social media realm (Back & Koch, 2011). A company seeking to promote their brand
would welcome staff engaging their personal accounts to promote work related issues
such as job opportunities or to persuade contacts to attend an event or join a campaign
(Van Zoonen et al., 2016; Van Zoonen et al., 2014; Verhoeven, 2012).
People recounting their daily lives on social media and work is a fundamental part of
daily life. Consequently, as people update their social media during the day, it is very
likely that they will publish content relating to their jobs. Such updates cover day to day
issues, like exchanges with colleagues or managers, work tasks and deadlines (Agrifoglio
et al., 2012; Humphreys et al., 2013; Java et al., 2007; Luchman et al., 2014; Ma & Chan,
2014). The worker expects that colleagues and managers may view their content and
52
judge their work performance on the basis of it. Therefore, the worker will seek to project
a positive image, sharing the information which makes them look most effective (Fuller
et al., 2006; Moqbel et al., 2013; Ollier-Malaterre et al., 2013; Yun et al., 2007).
Being a widespread tool with various purposes of uses, social media encourage employees
to be active online for personal and work reasons during their work (Rooksby et al., 2009).
However, personal social media use at work remains controversial and unquantified, and
there seems to be limited understanding of personal social media use at work due to the
lack of research published to date which addresses both the positive and negative effects
of personal social media usage dimensions and types at work on different workplace
outcomes (Chauhan, 2017; Chu, 2020; Farivar, 2015; Kühnel et al., 2020; Moqbel et al.,
2013; Moqbel, 2012; Nkwe & Cohen, 2017).
Studies have shown several postitive consequences from the personal use of the Internet
at work such as; stress reduction, relieving boredom and improving creativity and
satisfaction with work (Adams & Kirkby, 2002; Eastin et al., 2007; Reinecke, 2009).
Employees can start and develop interpersonal relationships when personal social media
use is allowed at work (Bevan et al., 2014), which reduces the pressure of their role,
assisting them to balance their professional and personal lives which is fundamental for
well-being and effective performance at work (Hanna et al., 2017, Ollier-Malaterre &
Serre, 2018; Robertson & Kee, 2017). Social media engagement is seen to improve the
sharing of information and cooperation between employees who are distantly located
(Beck et al., 2014; Evans-Lacko et al., 2013). Further, it is argued that using personal
social media at work supports staff to move good problem-solving skills developed in
their personal relations into their professional lives (Kühnel et al., 2020). Overall,
Hoffman and Novak (2011) identified 24 forms of impetus for social media use at work,
such as self-esteem, altruism, peer pressure curiosity and entertainment.
53
The use of personal social media at work was found to increase social capital (Ellison et
al., 2014) and also motivate problem-solving, increase productivity, reduce stress,
promote work-life balance and help users to increase their skills and knowledge
(Anandarajan & Simmers, 2005; Sonnentag, 2003), increase productivity and job
satisfaction (Muqbel, 2012), improve job performance and enhance communication
(Bennett et al., 2010; Patel & Jasani, 2010; Zhang et al., 2015). Moreover, it was found
to raise satisfaction both in life and work (Charoensukmongkol, 2014; Moqbel et al.,
2013), increase communications beyond geographical barriers which can help the sharing
of beliefs and views and the improvement of social and professional standing (Hall et al.,
2004; Lakhani & Von Hippel, 2003).
Nevertheless, a significant amount of research has identified a negative link between work
performance and the personal use of social media at work (Farivar, 2015; Jiang et al.,
2017; Van Zoonen & Rice, 2017). One study by Van Zoonen and Rice (2017) described
the harmful impact of using social media at work on work-life balance, because of greater
connectivity to many different individuals and groups, there was increased disruption to
the working day and more conflict between personal and work life, with employees
reporting greater stress at work. These findings were echoed in Yu et al. (2018) that social
media exhaustion may result from overexposure to social media at work which can have
a damaging impact on work performance. Other studies have also found that this extended
exposure to social media, when used both in the home and work, can reduce satisfaction
and increase conflict for an employee both at work and at home (Farivar, 2015; Jiang et
al. 2017).
Other studies have argued that the use of social media at work squanders valuable time
and labour resources and damages productivity for organisations (Nucleus, 2009;
Rooksby et al., 2009; Shepherd, 2011). Furthermore, it can waste working time and
54
organisational resources through “cyberloafing” and may violate organisational norms as
well as weakening individual job performance through its negative impact on growing
security and liability risks, network overload, and decreased productivity (Anandarajan
et al., 2011; Garrett & Danziger, 2008a). It is, therefore, important to consider the
potential advantages and disadvantages in detail.
2.5.1 Disadvantages of Personal Social Media Use at Work
Table (2.7) below indicates the previous studies that show a negative correlation
concerning personal social media use at work and psychological and behavioural
workplace outcomes.
Table (2.7) Summary of Previous Research Negative Findings
No.
Reference
Results
Relationship
1
Skeels and
Gurdin
(2009)
Results showed that there is a negative relationship
between personal social media use at work and work-life
balance by raising tensions from mixing work and
personal connections.
Negative
2
Bevan et
al. (2014)
Results indicate that the more time spent on and the
more social network memberships, the higher stress and
lower quality of life.
Negative
3
Farivar
(2015)
There is a negative correlation of personal social media
use at work and work-life balance. Increased personal
social media usage relate correlates with increased
work-to-family conflict, lower work and family
satisfaction.
Negative
4
Fox and
Moreland,
(2015)
Results demonstrate that although Facebook users often
experience negative emotions, they feel pressured to
access the site frequently due to the fear of missing out
and to keep up with relationship maintenance demands.
Negative
5
Brooks
(2015)
Results showed that higher amounts of personal social
media usage led to lower performance on the task, as
well as higher levels of technostress and lower
happiness.
Negative
6
Charoensu
kmongkol
(2016)
Found that using personal social media during work
tends to increase burnout in employees who have a low
level of mindfulness.
Negative
7
Van
Zoonen et
al. (2017)
There is a negative effect of personal social media use at
the workplace on work-life balance, as the increased
connectivity and diverse social groups on social media
platforms interrupt regular work routines and raise
work-life conflicts.
Negative
8
Jiang et al.
(2017)
There is a negative effect of personal social media use at
work which causes a low control over work and thus
experienced a significant level of time-based and strain-
based work-life conflict.
Negative
55
9
Yasir et al.
(2017)
Results indicate a negative relationship between
intensive personal social media use and job
performance, technostress and job performance.
Negative
10
Moqbel
and Kock
(2018)
The results find that social media addiction produces
negative effects on personal and professional life, where
decreasing constructive feelings which improve work
performance and health, increased distraction from tasks
which limits performance.
Negative
11
Hall
(2018)
The result shows that there was a consensus that
personal social media use at work does hinder employee
performance; especially if the organisations do not have
proper guidelines in place for the employees to follow.
Negative
12
Sibanda
and
Kudya
(2018)
The results indicated that WhatsApp is most used during
working hours. It was also noted that WhatsApp reduces
the productive time of employees.
Negative
13
Yu et al.
(2018)
The results revealed that excessive information and
communication burdens were significant predictors of
exhaustion by social media, however excessive
sociallising was not a significant stressor. Also, social
media exhaustion is found to damage performance at
work.
Negative
14
Oksa et al.
(2021)
Results shows that millennials were more active social
media users for work, they also experienced higher
technostress and burnout than members of former
generations.
Negative
Several studies identify correlations between personal social media use and negative
workplace outcomes as shown in Table (2.7). For example, a study by Van Zoonen et al.
(2017) showed that there is a negative effect of personal social media use at the workplace
on work-life balance, as the increased connectivity and diverse social groups on these
platforms cause interruptions in daily work processes and increase work-life conflicts.
Likewise, a study by Farivar (2015), using structural equation modelling in an online
web-based survey of white-collar Australian employees, showed an adverse impact on
work-life balance from their use of personal social media at work. Specifically, those
using social media more often described greater stress and decreased satisfaction in their
work and home life.
Another study by Jiang et al. (2017) used an online survey on communication
professionals in the U.S. in various organisations (e.g., nonprofit associations,
government, and military organisations) and also found a negative effect of personal
56
social media use at work which causes a less control over work and thus significant
amounts of work-life conflict due to time and strain. Similarly, a study by Yu et al. (2018)
revealed that excessive information and communication were important stressors that
encourage social media fatigue. Such social media exhaustion damages performance at
work.
2.5.2 Advantages of Personal Social Media Use at Work
Table (2.8) below indicates the previous studies that show a constructive correlation
between personal social media use at work and workplace outcomes.
Table (2.8) Summary of Previous Research Positive Findings
No.
Reference
Results
Relationship
1
Moqbel et
al. (2013)
Found that personal social media at work can encourage
job satisfaction of employees as it supports them to
reach work-life balance and decrease work-life conflict.
Positive
2
Charoensu
kmongkol
(2016)
Found that using personal social media during work
tends to lower burnout in employees who have a high
level of mindfulness.
Positive
3
Mei (2016)
Result found there is a constructive correlation for
using social media at work and all mediating variables
(trust, social networking, and shared language),
Although, this varies across diverse cultures.
Positive
4
Charoensu
kmongkol
et al. (2017)
Found that a moderate degree of personal social media
use at work lowers job burnout, and a strong positive
linkage between personal social media use intensity at
work and emotional exhaustion.
Positive
5
Hanna et
al. (2017)
Found that job satisfaction is positively correlated with
how intense an individual uses their personal Facebook
at work to connect with their family and friends.
Positive
6
Charoensu
kmongkol
and Moqbel
(2017)
Results found that while a moderate degree of personal
social media use at work tends to lower job burnout, a
high degree of use appears to create more job burnout.
The results also reveal a strong positive linkage between
personal social media use intensity at work and
emotional exhaustion in U.S. samples.
Positive
7
Syrek et al.
(2018)
The study found that workers were more involved in
their work in the hour after they had used social media
recreationally in the preceding hour of work. This
indicates that social media is used in the context of a
refreshing break from work tasks.
Positive
8
Hanna et
al. (2017)
Results revealed that job satisfaction is positively
correlated with the intensity of personal Facebook use
betweeen colleagues and work satisfaction. The studies
indicated that organisations investigate the potential
positive outcomes of such use.
Positive
57
9
Robertson
and Kee
(2017)
Results show that an employee's satisfaction at work is
positively associated with the amount of time they spend
on their personal Facebook interacting with co-workers.
Also, results have implications for Facebook as a
strategic platform for promoting employee satisfaction
at work.
Positive
10
Ollier-
Malaterre
and
Luneau-de
Serre
(2018)
Results show that the outcomes of connecting with
coworkers on personal social media were mostly
positive, including liking, closeness, respect, and
organisational citizenship behaviours toward
individuals (OCBI).
Positive
11
Zhang et al.
(2019)
Results show that the social-related social media usage
at work positively affects employees’ organisational
commitment through their organisational engagement,
and improves job satisfaction and reduces employees’
turnover intention through improving their engagement
and organisational commitment
Positive
12
Yang
(2020)
Results indicate that motivations for relationship
reinforcement, career advancement, and compliance
with peers lead to increasing coworker social media
interactions, also social media interactions induce
workplace fun and guanxi (relationships).
Positive
13
Kühnel et
al. (2020)
There is a positive relationship between personal social
media use and work-life balance.
Positive
14
Yang et al.,
(2021)
Findings indicated that message transparency could
motivate employees to share knowledge via social
media and improve work efficiency.
Positive
15
Louati and
Hadoussa
(2021)
Results reveal that social media use in the workplace
positively influence social capital, which impact
knowledge sharing among employees that leads to better
work performance.
Positive
Several studies indicated that personal social media has a constructive relationship with
psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes as described in Table (2.3). For
example, Kühnel et al. (2020) identified positive impact using ambulatory momentary
assessment and surveying a number of white-collar German employees from different
sectors like engineering, IT and finance. The study identified an association between
personal social media use at work and improved work-life balance such as, reduced
disparity between personal and professional priorities, improved personal satisfaction and
organisational performance. Likewise, a study by Chauhan (2017) revealed a positive
effect of using personal social media at work on work-life balance using multilevel
58
modelling with a survey restricted to Americans. Respondents who used more personal
social media experienced higher job and life satisfaction.
Another study by Moqbel (2012) examined the impact of personal social media use in the
workplace on work satisfaction and performance, organisational commitment, turnover
intention, absenteeism, and creative behaviours. The results identified personal social
media use at work as positively promoting work performance with mediating variables.
Likewise, Charoensukmongkol and Moqbel (2017) found that while a moderate degree
of personal social media workplace use acts to reduce job burnout, a high degree of use
tends to create more job burnout. Furthermore, the study found a significant negative
connection for personal social media use intensity at work and emotional exhaustion.
As a result, these inconsistent viewpoints (i.e. negative and positive relationships) create
ambiguity around the use of personal social media at work and motivate numerous
organisations to control employees’ activities on their personal social media at work.
Therefore, this study aims to deliver more precise observations regarding the relationship
between personal social media uses at work and workplace outcomes among
organisational employees.
2.6 Dimensions of Personal Social Media Use
Each of the three dimensions of personal social media use will now be conidered in turn.
2.6.1 Social Use of Personal Social Media
Social use encompasses building and maintaining social relationships such as creating
new friendships, connecting with others through mutual interests, and keeping in contact
with friends and colleagues (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015). It is embraced by organisations to
enable communication, collaboration and information sharing in a personal and
professional context (Cao & Ali, 2018) and lets you check the virtual personal profiles of
contacts (Correa et al., 2010). These behaviours can spread awareness of the skills and
59
knowledge of others and build a catalogue of individual knowledge and expertise (Ali et
al., 2019). Social communication and relationships aids the sharing of knoweldge.
Colleagues in the same work group are more inclined to communicate expertise and
special knowledge if they already acquainted with each other (Lefebvre et al., 2016).
2.6.2 Cognitive Use of Personal Social Media
The cognitive use of social media refers to generating and distributing content as well as
reading content created by other users such as thoughts and ideas, stories, reviews, and
personal photos and videos (Deryakulu & Ursavas, 2014). Similarly, the use of LinkedIn
offers socialisation advantages as well as accessing and distribution of knowledge. Group
members have a variety of different skill and knowledge sets; therefore, it would be
valuable for all members to be exchanging skills and knowledge by generating content
intensifying and improving knowledge management and retrieval through such cognitive
social media use (Ali et al., 2019; Huang et al., 2013). Staff are likely to retrieve, comment
and forward content shared by colleagues with similar interests in social media.
Accordingly, this allows knowledge to be created more easily and develops an ongoing
system of sharing where every member of staff can debate, interconnect, and share
individual and group knowledge on individual content creating a rich specialisation of
knowledge for those actively involved in cognitive social media use for work (Ali et al.,
2019).
2.6.3 Hedonic Use of Personal Social Media
The hedonic use suggests to use personal social media to pursue pleasure and emotional
experiences, such as taking a break and relax at work (Lee & Cho, 2011), for example,
Facebook can be used for an abundance of entertainment purposes e.g., browsing photos
or playing games. Alternatively, it can be a platform for communicating skills and
knowledge, e.g., advice seeking from friends and groups. Consequently, one of the main
60
reasons to use personal social media in the workplace is as an outlet for fun and relaxation,
these hedonic advantages appearing as central aspects of its use (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015;
Del Bosque, 2013), Leftheriotis and Giannakos (2014) identified that regular workplace
social media use is a foundation for gratifying and enjoyable work atmosphere. Equally,
qualitative research conducted by Del Bosque (2013) found that staff considered
interacting with colleagues on social media made the working environment more
enjoyable. Hence, expertise and knowledge in the group can be developed through
hedonic communication, while the real catalysts for advances for the organisation lie in
social and cognitive social media use (Cao et al., 2012; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014;
Skeels & Grudin, 2009).
Accordingly, the interaction amongst the various kinds of personal social media use at
work and their effect on workplace outcomes require further investigation (Ali et al.,
2019; Chen et al., 2020; Cheng, 2019; Chu, 2020; Luqman et al., 2020; Nkwe & Cohen,
2017; Yang, 2020; Yu et al., 2018). Therefore, this study takes a user-focused approach
to understand the phenomena of personal social media use at work by examining the
social, cognitive, and hedonic use of personal social media to gain a deeper understanding
of personal social media use at work and its impact on psychological and behavioural
workplace outcomes.
2.7 Social Capital Theory
Social capital theory is a widely used framework in research on relationships and social
networks to obtain psychological and tangible benefits (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Yen et al.,
2020). The central premise is based around the accumulation of resources accessible to
any one person’s set of connections, such as information, assistance, encouragement and
patronage (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998; Yen et al., 2020). The internet offers new
environments for the accumulation of social capital through social media tools (Hsu,
61
2015). Social media use in organisations can be divided into two categories. First, staff
communicate externally, with customers, suppliers and the general public. Second, to
communicate with colleagues and managers, as well as generally across the organisation
(Leonardi et al., 2013; Yen et al., 2020). Coleman (1988) considered social capital as a
personal resource, while other studies, such as Lambert (2016) identify it as a resource
which is rooted in the social relationships and structures which people have and encourage
to grow around them. Social capital is intricately bound up in the social relationships
which transmit it and can deliver emotional care and trust, as well as information and
knowledge sharing (Cao et al., 2016; Putnam, 2000).
Social capital represents the network structure as well as the resources that can be
activated with the network. These networks can be made up of work colleagues, friends,
family members, or former colleagues, and include the mutual benefits of these
connections for members of that network (Tijunaitis et al., 2019). Since this study focuses
on how workers interact with coworkers by using personal social media at work in
organisations, social capital theory is adopted by this study, described as the resources
rooted in and accessed through an employee’s social relationships (Chen et al., 2020;
Luqman et al., 2020; Yen et al., 2020).
The focus of social capital is not only on the available resources and social interaction but
also the relationship ties. Moreover, Putnam (2000) placed social capital into two
categories, bridging and bonding.
2.7.1 Bridging Social Capital
Bridging social capital denotes a wider social set of connections without strong personal
links (Trieu et al., 2019). Such networks offer the opportunity to access a wider range of
resources, and may contain annual reporting, news on the wider business environment
and opportunities for learning and training (Yen et al., 2020). The social connections are
62
weak, as they are not linked to a specific individual or even specific job roles, and the
resources are, in effect, available to all, opening up a greater diversity of information and
opinion to employees (Sheer & Rice, 2017).
2.7.2 Bonding Social Capital
Bonding social capital denotes close connections within a social network and the
resources arising from them (Sheer & Rice, 2017). These, more intimate connections,
which include close friends and family, carry a feeling of relational obligation and
commitment to mutual support, whether emotional or practical (Adler & Kwon, 2002).
Employees may often connect with close colleauges or managers through personal social
media. This method of communication denotes stronger and more intimate bonds, which
then carry greater relational obligation for exchange and support between contacts (Adler
& Kwon, 2002). There is the opportunity to be ‘in touch’ at any time of day or night, from
any location, home or work to discuss problems or seek advice from close colleagues
(Yen et al., 2020). Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between bonding social
capital and relational satisfaction due to the intimate bonds which heighten the emotional
nature of the relationship (Sheer & Rice, 2017).
Numerous studies have considered the association between social capital and social
media (Tijunaitis et al., 2019), where social media can be seen as making social
interactions smoother, as it allows easier and greater access and exchange of information
and support (Ellison et al., 2011). This increased access to support and information
increases social capital between users (Burke et al., 2010; Gil de Zuniga et al., 2012). For
example, Sheer and Rice (2017) found that the satisfaction experienced by workers with
both job and relationships increased as the strength of the social bonds with their set of
connections increased, making accessible a wider range of resources and interrelatedness.
This correlation was not found to be present for job performance. On the contrary, with
63
regards to bridging social capital, Huang and Liu (2017) identified improvements in job
performance (but not job satisfaction) for workers’ Facebook use in organisations and a
positive impact on job performance through the access to bridging social capital which
Facebook offers in the workplace.
In this sense, it could be considered that bonding social capital has more impact on
emotional satisfaction, whereas bridging social capital has more impact on performance.
However, research conducted by Sheer and Rice (2017) suggested that the association
between job performance and social capital is independent of the relationships with social
media use. Social media can alter the approach by which employees communicate with
colleagues, such as acting more effectively by using social media to schedule meetings,
share information, and keep colleagues up to date (Yen et al., 2020).
The organisation will also benefit more widely, as social media assists social exchange,
innovation and co-creativity at work (Bharati et al., 2018). Other studies have found that
social media use, and the increased social capital generated, can also improve
organisational knowledge management (Bharati et al., 2015). Further, it has been linked
to improvements in both routine and innovative work performance, strengthening the new
relationships, successful communication, and knowledge sharing among colleagues (Ali-
Hassan et al., 2015) due to the greater visibility and diligence which social media tools
offer (Treem & Leonardi, 2013). These studies have been repeated with subjects in a work
environment, positively indicating their relevance to collaboration in the work context
(Cao & Yu, 2019).
The use of personal social media at work may improve employees’ workplace outcomes,
as it acts as a resource (Moqbel et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2009) by providing further
resources to employees through social interactions (Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2004). Also,
personal social media can improve quality of life by realising users’ emotional needs,
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cognitive needs, interactive social needs, and personal integrative needs (Hsu et al., 2015).
Accordingly, resources related to personal social media use at work (i.e. accessibility and
efficient communication) can meet basic psychological necessities like relatedness and
competence (Bakker et al., 2014; Nahrgang et al., 2011).
Employees who encounter increasing job demands may see the use of personal social
media at work as a vital tool to relax and take breaks from their stressful job (Syrek et al.,
2018), and allowing additional and improved relationship with their networks both inside
and outside the workplace (Konig & Caner De La Guardia, 2014). In one study (Tijunaitis
et al., 2019) workers who engaged with one or more social media tools at work reported
greater levels of social capital than colleagues who did not use social media at work, as
suggested by social capital theory (Adler & Kwon, 2002), it is possible that social media
can produce a wide range of positive impacts on work outcomes, such as greater trust, job
performance, job satisfaction, emotional support, social connections and common vision
for an organisation (Treem & Leonardi, 2013).
For the current study, a distinct emphasis is identified for each of the three types of
personal social media use. Cognitive use is associated more with work-focused activities,
hedonic use concentrates on private entertainment, whereas social use is related to
developing and sustaining personal relationships at work (Cao & Yu, 2019). Such
emphasis is effectively grounded in social capital and uses and gratification theory, as
structures to clarify how people network and develop relationships to gain both tangible
and intangible benefits through using personal social media at work (Adler & Kwon,
2002; Chen et al., 2020; Luqman et al., 2020; Yen et al., 2020). Accordingly, this study
seeks to develop a research model, which can be empirically tested, to clarify how the
three dimensions of personal social media usage affect psychological and behavioural
workplace outcomes.
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2.8 Uses and Gratification (U&G) Theory
U&G theory was first developed in radio communication research and has been widely
used in the field of mass communication (Gan & Li, 2018). It seeks to understand the
social and psychological desires of a person which motivates their use of different media
(Leung & Wei, 2000), concentrating on why an individual selects one medium over others
to satisfy a variety of needs (Katz et al., 1973). According to Jiménez et al. (2012, p. 232),
U&G theory has a clear guiding principle:
“Different people can use the media for different objectives. Therefore, the choice and
the use of media has a specific intention and arises from both personal and social
motivations. Communication is characterised by the active nature of its audiences, as
well as by social and psychological factors as mediators in communicative behaviour,
and with certain media competing with other forms of communication to meet the needs
of human beings, given that these media can come to have more influence than certain
interpersonal processes.”
U&G theory clarifies the social and psychological motives which drive individuals to
choose particular media channels and contents, and also the attitudinal and behavioural
outcomes (Ruggiero, 2000). U&G theory is adopted extensively to examine user
motivations to choose a certain type of mediated communication (Ayyad, 2011) and has
assisted researchers to understand the different needs of users in media adoption (Huang
et al., 2014). Much of the previous research on U&G has focused on traditional media,
such