Public Employee Use of Social Media at Work: Competency,Collaboration,and Communication of Workplace Policy

Abstract

Although the growth of social media has changed the way employees communicate at work, our understanding of the related workplace dynamics, particularly in public organizations, is still embryonic. This study fills these research gaps by testing hypotheses, drawn from social cognitive theory and social capital theory, using two sets of data on social media usage patterns and workplace practices among public employees. Our survey data (n = 1,360) analysis revealed that most respondents (more than 72%) spent at least an hour per day on social media while at work, for both work- and non-work-related purposes. Furthermore, public employees with higher levels of social media competence (technical understanding and impact assessment) were more likely to report effective collaboration and seek assistance when needed. The results of scenario-based randomized survey experiment (n = 600) show that the perceived fairness of social media-related termination decisions (or “get dooced”) was influenced by the presence of an explicit workplace social media policy.

Keywords

social media employee behavior public employees survey experiment

Introduction

Social media influences many aspects of today’s government and public sector workflows (Criado & Villodre, 2021; Feeney & Porumbescu, 2021). Despite the surge in use by public organizations and their workers, there is little empirical knowledge on its impacts on employee outcomes (Demircioglu & Chen, 2019; Tufts et al., 2015). Although social media platforms may have the potential to improve productivity by facilitating collaborative networks, easing access to work-related resources (Brainard & Edlins, 2015; Criado & Villodre, 2018; Luo et al., 2018), they also raise stakeholder concerns about civil servants’ use of digital technologies for non-work purposes, unintended blending of personal and professional roles and their engagement in controversial public discussions (Tufts et al., 2015).

In this regard, social media use in the public sector may introduce problems, and an understanding of the related workplace dynamics may help formulate effective organizational strategies. Scholars have identified that social media usage outpaces our empirical understanding (Bannister & Connolly, 2014; Zavattaro & Brainard, 2019). The covid-19 pandemic has accelerated and institutionalized its growth, creating an increasingly digitized “new normal” for workflows and non-work interactions (Choi et al., 2020; Meijer & Webster, 2020). This prevalence calls for a closer look at the relationships at play, to help design workplace policies that mitigate social media’s risks and maximize its impact on productivity in the public sector (Franks, 2010; Meijer & Thaens, 2013).

The literature on social media governance, while acknowledging these risks, lacks analysis of public employees’ personal (non-work-related) and professional (work-related) use of social media and its implications for public sector workplaces. The extent to which social media supports employee collaboration, or informs the development of organizational strategies is mostly unknown (Bryer & Zavattaro, 2011; Mergel, 2017). Jacobson and Tufts (2013) suggested that governmental social media policies lack clear steps in how employees should use social media while on- and off-duty and are generally confusing for an employee. When an employee is terminated, or “dooced,”¹ for posting on a social media platform, the action may cause unintended negative consequences in the workplace, especially if the organization’s policies on how social media tools should be used in the workplace are poorly defined or understood (Fusi & Feeney, 2018; Pekkala & van Zoonen, 2022). Academic literature on “doocing” has focused on its legal aspects, leaving employee perceptions understudied.

To fill these gaps in the literature, this study tests hypotheses drawn from social cognitive theory and social capital theory, using two sets of data on social media usage. Study 1 (n = 1,370) focuses on individual social media use, including analysis on general social media usage patterns (when, how, and for what purpose) in the public sector workplace, and examines the relationship between social media competency and resource-seeking collaborative behavior. Study 2 (n = 600) runs a scenario-based survey experiment to test whether perceptions of the fairness of social media-related terminations are affected by the provision and communication of formal social media workplace policies. Although individual employees may lead the social media practices at work, organizational environment that provides adequate conditions such as social media policy may affect their long-term perceptions (Fusi & Feeney, 2018), therefore, our two-study research design that focuses both on individual usage and organizational environment is expected to offer comprehensive understanding on the phenomenon of our interest.

Literature Review

Employee Use of Social Media at Work: Trouble-Maker or Problem Solver?

The many-to-many interactions made possible by social media has generated new and unexpected organizational phenomena (Bertot et al., 2012; Gascó et al., 2017) that may significantly change the way employees work, particularly collaboration, communication, and the sharing of knowledge (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015; Jafar et al., 2019; Webster & Leleux, 2018). The recent literature on social media use in organizational contexts has taken two dominant approaches (El Ouirdi et al., 2015; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014; van Zoonen et al., 2017). The first strand explores how social media affordances, or the means of engagement, shapes employee communication, while the second tracks its impact on individual and/or organizational outcomes (El Ouirdi et al., 2015; van Zoonen et al., 2017).

Although social media can contribute to organizational goals, it can also hinder productivity, depending on method of usage. At the individual level, social media use can cause stress and exhaustion and hinder task completion, lowering job performance and productivity (Brooks & Califf, 2017; Demircioglu & Chen, 2019; van Zoonen et al., 2016). In particular, excessive use of social media may negatively affect employees’ self-esteem, need satisfaction, intrinsic work motivation, and intellectual development (Demircioglu & Chen, 2019). At the organizational level, social media use may decrease organizational productivity (Brooks & Califf, 2017; Fusi & Feeney, 2018), hurt the public agency’s reputation (Thornthwaite, 2016), or damage public trust (Baccarella et al., 2018; Mergel & Greeves, 2012).

Scholarly support for the positive impacts of employees’ social media usage has been largely based on social capital theory. Social capital theory, rooted in concepts such as trust, norms, and informal networks, suggests that social relationships are valuable resources (Bhandari & Yasunobu, 2009), and the existence of informal norms and shared values permit cooperation among group members (Fukuyama, 2001). The application of social capital theory assumes that the improved networks made possible by employee social media use promote employees’ collaborative resource-seeking behavior (Chen et al., 2020; Cho & Melisa, 2021). For example, Cao et al. (2016) found that employees’ work-related social media usage promotes knowledge transfer by strengthening shared vision, trust, and network ties. Ali-Hassan et al. (2015) further explained that social media use increases structural, relational, and cognitive social capital, which fosters innovation.

Other work has reported that active and dynamic social media use may provide benefits such as socialization and innovations in knowledge sharing and dissemination (Criado & Villodre, 2018; Leonardi, 2017). Social media can also support formal and informal learning, training, and personnel management functions, such as recruitment, selection, and termination (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015; El Ouirdi et al., 2015; Schmidt et al., 2016). Engagement with platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, and Twitter helps users begin and maintain personal relationships with family and friends and provides new ways of interacting with colleagues and customers (Brooks & Califf, 2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2014; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014).

Even personal social media use can result in positive employee outcomes: its social nature may contribute to “home-like” feelings within the organization, enhancing organizational commitment (Luo et al., 2018). Since personal social media use is more casual and personalized, employees can better express themselves, exchange social support, cultivate trust and social capital, and enhance attachment to the organization (Jiang et al., 2021; Li et al., 2015). Recent empirical evidence demonstrates that social media use benefits individual employees by enhancing psychological well-being (via a mental work break), intrinsic work motivation, job satisfaction, job performance, and positive feelings such as connectedness, happiness, self-worth, self-esteem, and relatedness (Charoensukmongkol, 2014; Demircioglu & Chen, 2019; El Ouirdi et al., 2015; Olmstead et al., 2016; Robertson & Kee, 2017).

At the organizational level, social media use may increase team performance, employee morale, employee engagement, organizational commitment, and perceptions of organizational support and spontaneity (El Ouirdi et al., 2015; Song et al., 2019). Information on social media can improve individual employees’ professional opinion of a colleague, leading a more functional working relationship (Olmstead et al., 2016). In the literature on collaborative competencies, one of the most critical but unobservable factors of collaboration is interpersonal understanding (Getha-Taylor, 2008), which is what social media interactions have been proved to enhance. In terms of social capital, internal collaboration can be enhanced by social media-related transformations in knowledge sharing (Criado & Villodre, 2018), thereby increasing productivity and progress toward organizational goals (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014) and innovation (Allen et al., 2020; Leonardi, 2018). However, some argue that organizations can only reap these benefits if employees possess social media competence, or an understanding of its technical details, visibility awareness, knowledge, impact assessment, and communication aspects (Walsh et al., 2016).

Based on the review of the aforementioned literature and social capital theory, this study formulated and tested the hypotheses linking social media competence with collaborative and resource-seeking behaviors, as follows:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Public employees who report higher social media competence will be more willing to collaborate with others at work and more willing to seek assistance at work.

Workplace Social Media Policy and Perceived Fairness of Organizational Practices

Due to the exponential growth of social media in workplace (Robertson & Kee, 2017), organizations should pay more attention to social media practices and related workplace policies (Oksa et al., 2021). Formulating and communicating clear social media policy and training are therefore increasingly important, especially in organizations with low levels of employee social media literacy. O’Connor et al. (2016) asserted that insufficient social media training before the implementation of new digital policies or social media workplace rules may create distress among employees and lower their job productivity. Inappropriate workplace use of social media may result in negative impacts on relationships with external stakeholders (Sakka & Ahammad, 2020).

Many organizations have indeed begun to formulate and implement workplace policy related to social media usage (Ho & Cho, 2017; Jafar et al., 2019), especially when communicating work-related matters in either their personal account or their organization’s official account (O’Connor et al., 2016). In some circumstances, an employee was terminated even though the offending post was made unknowingly and/or unintentionally. Therefore, it is essential that organizations design social media policies that are well defined, consistently implemented, and clearly communicated to all employees. For instance, Andreassen et al. (2014) found that organizational policies prohibiting personal social media use at work reduced the practice. Fusi and Feeney (2018) pointed out that formal guidance on social media use had a positive impact on public managers’ perceptions of the practice. Tufts et al. (2015) found that many government organizations conduct workplace monitoring, and they also try to deal with disciplinary issues around social media, while often guiding policies for these measures are still not in place.

Policies on employee social media usage tend to vary across organizations, sectors, and countries (Jacobson & Tufts, 2013). Most private sector organizations create their own social media policy or guidelines and are generally able to dismiss their workers from employment because of what an employee has written on social media posts (Schmidt & O’Connor, 2015; Yang et al., 2021). However, public sector social media policies are distinctive; some may require that a series of legislations be passed to implement social media-related workplace rules. In many jurisdictions, government organizations have formulated explicit social media policies that outline how their official social media presence should be managed and how employees should conduct themselves online while at work.

Termination based on social media transgressions is often of particular interest. Parker et al. (2019) suggested that the presence of workplace social media policies, as well as employee awareness of the policies, matters to employee perceptions of procedural justice. Social cognitive theory, emerged from the cognitive formulation of social learning theory, may illustrate this relationship. According to social cognitive theory, individuals learn from their own experience and by observing the experience of others, while their behaviors grow from three interacting determinants; personal characteristics, behavioral patterns, and environmental influences (Bandura, 1999; Plimmer et al., 2019): The basic premise holds that individuals learn from observing the actions of others, the results of those actions, and through their own experiences. Employees’ social media usage behavior and the related outcomes can be understood from this perspective (Carlson et al., 2016): when employees observe modeled behavior and its consequences, they remember this information and use it to guide their own subsequent behaviors. In the context of this study, social media policy can be considered as social environment, which shapes an individual employee’s perceptions and behavioral patterns. Based on social cognitive theory, this study developed the following hypothesis linking employee perceptions toward termination fairness and procedural justice with the presence of social media policy:

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Public employees will report higher levels of perceived termination fairness and procedural justice when the organization has a well-communicated social media policy in place.

Method

Study Context

Thailand, with a population of 69 million, has 52 million social media users, a number predicted to reach 60 million in 5 years (Sagarik et al., 2018; Statista Research Department, 2020). In the past decade, higher usage rates and penetration of internet and smartphones have dramatically increased social media engagement in the country (Electronic Transactions Development Agency, 2020). Various work and life activities, from social commerce to tax payments, are now conducted online. In response, many Thai private firms provide clear guidelines for their employees regarding appropriate social media usage. By contrast, the public sector still lacks sector-wide formal guidelines on the practice. Policymakers and legislators have initiated discussions on the impact of social media on workplaces but failed to take concrete action or enact formal rules.

Thai government employs more than two million public servants (excluding military personnel), amounting to >3% of the population and around 5% of the country’s workforce (Huque & Jongruck, 2020). Over 81% of these work in the highly centralized national and provincial government. In 2014, a coup-installed military government took control of the executive branch and created a new constitution ensuring ongoing military influence in the legislature. As employee social media usage outpaces workplace policies, Thai public managers are developing concern over digital literacy and social media competence. Currently, Thai public sector’s code of professional ethics, enacted in 2009, does not cover the issue (Chokprajakchat & Sumretphol, 2017). Posts about public service delivery, made both within and outside office hours, have occasionally led to damaged reputations and contributed to declining public trust. Corrective action, in the form of digital literacy, social media competency, and established social media guidelines for Thai public servants, is needed to nudge workplace behavioral changes.

Social Media Usage Survey Design (Study 1)

The workplace social media usage survey was distributed to Thai public employees in 21 ministries, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Justice. Chief executives or directors-general received an official letter signed by the dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration at the National Institute of Development Administration, in which they were asked to distribute an online survey link through the staff intranet. The data were collected November to December 2020. Duplicate and monotonous responses were removed, resulting in a sample of 1,370 responses used for data analysis. The demographic characteristics of the sample roughly represent the Thai public workforce, with a slight female majority (69%), ranging from 21 to 60 years old, holding bachelor’s (62%) or higher degrees (29%), earning more than 20,000 THB (Thai Baht) per month (58%), and working as government officers with at least 5 years of job tenure (56%) with their current organizations.

Participants were first asked a series of questions, adopted from Demircioglu (2018) and Carlson et al. (2016), about their general social media usage. These included “What social media do you use?,” “How many hours per day do you use social media while at work?,” “How many total followers/friends are connected on social media?,” and “How many work colleagues are connected on social media?” The next item (adopted from Olmstead et al. (2016)) covered their reasons for using social media while at work, asking “Why do you use social media while at work?”; the choices [more than one answer could be selected] included “To take a mental break from work,” “To connect with friends and family while at work,” “To make or support professional connections,” “To find information to solve work-related problems,” “To learn about someone they work with,” “To ask work-related questions from people outside of your organization,” and “To ask such work-related questions of people inside my organization.”

To measure social media competence and awareness, this study adopted survey items developed by Walsh et al. (2016): “I find it easy to find my way around in social media and understand the technical side of my profile settings (technical competence)” and “before I write something in social media, I try to picture possible consequences (impact assessment).” Respondents were asked their level of agreement on a 5-point Likert-type scale. This investigation adopted questions from Olmstead et al. (2016) and Carlson et al. (2016) to evaluate whether social media information affected their opinions of colleagues. To analyze the association between social media competency and positive organizational behavior (H1), the survey asked how much they agree with the following statements, modified from the survey items by Plimmer et al. (2021), Näswall et al. (2019), and Franken et al. (2020): “I effectively collaborate with others to handle unexpected challenges at work” (collaborative behavior) and “I seek assistance and resources when I need them at work” (resource-seeking behavior)—these dimensions of collaborative and resource-seeking behaviors imply that employees try to involve others in efforts, which is often identified as collaborative competency (Getha-Taylor, 2008). As these two items were measured on an ordinal scale (5-scale Likert-type measure), this study used an ordered logistics model.

Experimental Design (Study 2)

A between-subjects randomized survey experiment, adopted to a public-sector context from Parker et al. (2019), tested the effect of social media policy on government officials’ perceptions of fairness of related workplace practices (H2). The test described a fictional controversial social media post resulting in the termination of a public official. A single condition, the presence and communication of formal social media policy, changed in the scenario for the control group. The translated text of the scenario is below.

Mr. A is a Thai government official working as a citizen service manager at a Ministry and he is an employee with good performance. One evening at work, he posted the following message to his Facebook account.

“Working today at the Ministry’s front desk was a nightmare. A family has kids who ran around like little animals all over the government office without wearing face masks. If they can’t make their kids behave, they shouldn’t come to government office. Stay home with your brats!”

Within a day after posting this, it was shared over 10,000 times, and people argued about his description of the family at the government office and if he should refer to anyone’s children as “brats” or “little animals.”

The Ministry’s HR Director called him into the office and informed him that the HR department had decided that he should be fired.

When Mr. A tried to appeal to HR by stating that this was on his personal social media account, [the HR Director reminded him of the Social Media Policies that were written in the Employee Handbook regarding personal social media use. This handbook was sent via email to each employee on an annual basis, and social media use was also addressed in new employee orientation.] Mr. A.’s termination was effective immediately.

The second scenario was identical, except that the workplace had no social media policy. The text stated that “[the HR Director told him that upper management did not think that his post reflected the values of the Thai government]” when Mr. A tried to appeal.

Public employees were recruited and provided with the online survey link, and participants were randomly presented one of the two different scenarios. The participant sample (n = 600) was divided into two groups (n = 300 each), including Group I (the scenario with a formal social media workplace policy) and Group II (the scenario with no formal social media workplace policy). Since this study utilized a standard between-subjects survey design with random assignment, a univariate analysis of variance is used. Figure 1 shows the design of the experiment process.

Figure 1.

Experimental design.

Termination fairness was measured by modifying survey items developed by Parker et al. (2019) and Konovsky and Cropanzano (1991) to cover social media post-related terminations in a public sector organization. The participants responded with their level of agreement using a 5-point Likert-type scale, from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree,” with the following questions: “Was the termination by the Thai Ministry fair?” (fairness of decision), “Did the employee get what he deserved as a result of the social media post?” (distributive justice), and “Did the Thai Ministry use fair procedures to terminate the employee?” (procedural fairness).

Results

Workplace Social Media Use and Collaborative Behavior (Study 1)

Figure 2 shows reported workplace social media use by public employees who participated in the survey (n = 1,370). The most widely used social media platforms included Facebook (91.01%) and LINE (97.72%), a local platform and the most popular among the general Thai population. Instagram (48.79%) and Twitter (25.11%) followed. Notably, most respondents had “less than 101” followers (29.67%), but followed by “more than 500” followers (23.97%), suggesting that a quarter of the employees are very light (or non) social media users, while another quarter engages heavily.

Figure 2.

Social media usage (N = 1,370).

The polarized pattern repeated across other usage-related responses. With respect to duration of social media usage, the most popular response was “less than 1 hr” (27.89%), but followed by “more than 4 hr” (17.76%), as presented in Figure 2. This indicates extreme differences in usage patterns, which suggests extreme variations in views as to what constitutes an appropriate level of usage. There were differences, of course, in how and why they used social media at work, and the nature of their usage varied. However, this varied intensity and prevalence of use (more than 72% used social media at least 1 hr per day at work) suggest the need for a formal social media workplace policy that should be clearly communicated across workplace. Interactions were not restricted to just colleagues: Figure 2 shows that 41.51% of respondents were connected to fewer than 21 co-workers.

Figure 3 shows respondents’ reasons for using social media while at work, from work-related (to solve work-related problems or to ask work-related questions) to non-work-related (to take mental break or to connect with friends and family) purposes, and the sometimes blurry distinctions among them. The leading purpose, “to find information to solve work-related problems” (67.55%), was followed by those taking a mental break from work (42.30%). While mental breaks can contribute to work productivity, they are not work-related activities. Since workplace social media usage seems inevitable, public sector workplaces should create solutions to train and nudge their employees to engage in a way that contributes to positive behavioral and organizational outcomes. However, making professional or informal social contacts is identified as one of the collaborative competencies (Getha-Taylor, 2008), therefore, using social media “to learn about someone they work with” (9.06%) or “to make or support professional connections” (11.34%) may help build rapport or develop interpersonal understanding which is critical to collaborative effectiveness.

Figure 3.

Reasons to use social media at work (N = 1,370).

Figure 4 illustrates how respondents’ social media experiences shape their perceptions of a colleague. Approximately two thirds (65.34%) reported that they discovered information on social media that “improved” their opinion of a colleague, while one third (38.87%) found posts that “lowered” this opinion, showing that social media content can shape opinions of co-workers, and therefore, affect workplace climate. These numbers also suggest that positive opinions win out in our sample—perhaps people are more likely to post their workplace accomplishments on social media to impress those in their professional network. The number of lowered opinions, however, may have an outsized impact, worsening intra-organizational reputations and creating psychologically unsafe environments. Overall, this result implies that one’s use of social media may be associated with workplace perception outside of that particular digital space. This reinforces the need for public agencies to design and implement social media workplace training.

Figure 4.

Opinion of a colleague shaped by social media (N = 1,370).

Figure 5 reveals the presence of respondents’ explicit social media policy at workplace. More than half of the respondents (51.11%) reported that their organizations did not have explicit policies regarding the use of social media. As the majority of public employees used social media at work for various reasons, this lack of policy may lead to uncertainty over workplace practices such as disciplinary measures, especially in light of reported terminations due to inappropriate or offensive posts. The respondents who reported that their organization had a social media policy were asked whether such policy included disciplinary consequences: 68.15% affirmed that they did, while 31.85% said that disciplinary consequences were not included. This study explores the impact of explicit policy in a separate experimental design (Study 2).

Figure 5.

Explicit social media policy (N = 1,370).

Table 1 shows the frequencies of the response variables, collaborative and resource-seeking behaviors. Respondents tended to agree or strongly agree with both statements (“I effectively collaborate with others to handle unexpected challenges at work” and “I seek assistance and resources when I need them at work”), though variations appeared at different thresholds. Table 2 shows the results of ordered logistics analysis. The results show that the levels of social media technical competence (“I find it easy to use social media and understand account settings”) and impact assessment competence (“Before I write something in social media, I try to picture possible consequences”) were positively and statistically significantly associated with self-reported collaborative behavior (p < .001) and resource-seeking behavior (p < .001). The respondents who reported having 101 or more colleagues connected on social media showed higher levels of self-reported collaborative behavior (p < .05). As for control variables, centralization was positively associated with both collaborative behavior and resource-seeking behavior, while formalization and age were positively associated only with resource-seeking behavior.

Table 1.

Collaborative Behavior at Work and Seeking Assistance/Resources at Work.

Response	I effectively collaborate with others to handle unexpected challenges at work		I seek assistance and resources when I need them at work
Response	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent
Strongly disagree	42	3.1	13	0.9
Disagree	42	3.1	32	2.3
Neutral	442	32.3	334	24.4
Agree	506	36.9	540	39.4
Strongly agree	338	24.7	451	32.9
Total	1,370	100.0	1,370	100.0

Table 2.

Ordered Logistics (n = 1,370).

IVs		DV1: I effectively collaborate with others to handle unexpected challenges at work			DV2: I seek assistance and resources when I need them at work
IVs		Estimate	SE	Sig.	Estimate	SE	Sig.
Threshold	Strongly disagree	1.194	.515	.021	2.679	.575	.000
	Disagree	1.954	.507	.000	4.044	.533	.000
	Neutral	4.525	.518	.000	6.839	.545	.000
	Agree	6.383	.531	.000	8.876	.567	.000
Location	Social media technical competence	.440	.052	.000	.334	.052	.000
	Social media impact assessment competence	.637	.068	.000	.661	.069	.000
	21 or less colleagues	–.064	.112	.566	–.121	.114	.286
	101 or more colleagues	.364	.173	.035	–.024	.176	.894
	1 hr or less a day	–.079	.120	.511	–.200	.122	.101
	4 hr or more a day	–.014	.140	.922	.263	.144	.068
	Centralization	.274	.061	.000	.577	.063	.000
	Formalization	.020	.044	.656	.107	.045	.017
	Age	–.009	.008	.218	.027	.008	.001
	Female	–.255	.111	.021	–.094	.113	.406
	MA or PHD	–.087	.114	.448	.029	.117	.803
	Work 5 years or more	–.072	.137	.597	.152	.139	.276
	Fixed-term contractor	.124	.156	.428	.184	.159	.249
−2 log likelihood		3,232.013			2,940.659
Pseudo r²		.185			.223

Effect of Workplace Social Media Policy on Perceived Fairness of Social Media Post-Related Termination (Study 2)

The results of our randomized survey experiment are presented in Tables 3, 4, and 5. To offer more intuitive presentations of the findings, the experiment group (formal social media policy scenario) and control group (no social media policy scenario) averages, as well as error bars with 95% confidence interval, are presented in Figure 6. The mean values of the experiment group were higher than those of the control group; therefore, it seems that the participants given the scenario of formal workplace social media policy were more likely to perceive terminations based on social media posts to be fair. Tables 3, 4, and 5 present whether or not the mean differences were statistically significant.

Table 3.

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects: Fairness of Decision, “Termination Is Fair” (n = 600).

Source	Type III sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.	Noncentrality parameter	Observed power
Corrected model	1.307	1	1.307	.979	.323	.979	.167
Intercept	3,504.167	1	3,504.167	2,624.197	.000	2,624.197	1.000
Experiment (social media policy scenario)	1.307	1	1.307	.979	.323	.979	.167
Error	798.527	598	1.335
Total	4,304.000	600
Corrected total	799.833	599

Note. R² = .002 (Adjusted R² = .000).

Table 4.

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects: Distributive Justice, “Deserves to be Fired” (n = 600).

Source	Type III sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.	Noncentrality parameter	Observed power
Corrected model	5.607	1	5.607	4.155	.042	4.155	.530
Intercept	3,229.440	1	3,229.440	2,393.205	.000	2,393.205	1.000
Experiment (social media policy scenario)	5.607	1	5.607	4.155	.042	4.155	.530
Error	806.953	598	1.349
Total	4042.000	600
Corrected Total	812.560	599

Note. R² = .007 (Adjusted R² = .005).

Table 5.

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects: Procedural Fairness, “Took Fair Steps to Dismiss” (n = 600).

Source	Type III sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.	Noncentrality parameter	Observed power
Corrected model	9.127	1	9.127	6.291	.012	6.291	.707
Intercept	2,939.307	1	2,939.307	2,026.018	.000	2,026.018	1.000
Experiment (social media policy scenario)	9.127	1	9.127	6.291	.012	6.291	.707
Error	867.567	598	1.451
Total	3,816.000	600
Corrected Total	876.693	599

Note. R² = .010 (Adjusted R² = .009).

Figure 6.

Perceived termination fairness by scenario (N = 600).

Table 3 displays the test results of between-subjects effects on the fairness-of-decision question. The finding from the univariate ANOVA shows that the participants who were randomly assigned to the formal social media policy scenario had higher levels of perceived distributive justice in the termination (M = 2.47, SD = 1.15) than the participants assigned to the scenario of no formal social media at work (M = 2.37, SD = 1.15); however, the difference was not statistically significant (p = .323, F = .979). Therefore, there was no statistically significant evidence that formal organizational policy on the use of social media increased the levels of perceived fairness of the termination decision itself.

Table 4 shows the test results of between-subjects effects on the question of distributive justice (“deserves to be fired”). The univariate ANOVA shows that participants randomly assigned to the formal social media policy scenario had higher levels of perceived distributive justice in the termination (M = 2.42, SD = 1.14) than the participants assigned to that with no policy (M = 2.24, SD = 1.16), and the difference was statistically significant (p = .042, F = 4.155). The presence of social media policy was found to affect perceived distributive justice (“deserves to be fired”) in the scenario in which a public employee was “dooced.”

Table 5 shows the test results of the between-subjects effect on the question of procedural fairness (“took fair steps to dismiss”), and the finding shows that participants who were randomly assigned to the formal social media policy scenario had higher levels of perceived procedural fairness in the termination (M = 2.35, SD = 1.22) than those without (M = 2.09, SD = 1.18), and the difference was also statistically significant (p = .012, F = 6.291). This means that the presence of formal social media policy increased the perceptions of procedural fairness regarding the termination in the scenario.

Discussion

Social media platforms and new technologies have brought about capabilities previously unavailable to government organizations (Deng et al., 2021; Williams et al., 2018), changing the landscape of public sector agencies and government bureaucracies (Criado et al., 2013; Kavanaugh et al., 2012). According to Leftheriotis and Giannakos (2014), employees’ motivations for using social media at work include creating and strengthening ties with colleagues and customers, maintaining external professional networks, gathering professional information, people sensemaking, and promoting knowledge sharing and resources, all of which align with our survey results. This study asked public employees why and how they use social media platforms and about their work behaviors. This investigation also conducted a scenario-based survey experiment to measure the impact of social media policy on perceptions of workplace practices. This work contributes to literature on employees’ workplace use of social media by testing hypotheses drawn from social capital theory and social cognitive theory. The findings confirm the positive relationship between social media competence and employees’ collaborative and resource-seeking behaviors (social capital theory), and that between the presence of social media policy and employees’ perceptions toward termination fairness and procedural justice (social cognitive theory).

Existing studies have rarely measured the antecedent and outcome variables explored in this study—this investigation includes antecedent variables that are social media competence (a user attribute) and social media policy (an organizational climate attribute). Furthermore, organizational social media policy has just begun to receive scholarly attention; it is mainly used as a mediator in existing studies (Chen et al., 2020). Regarding outcome variables, this study explored the impact of social media usage on collaborative and resource-seeking behaviors as well as perceptions toward termination fairness and procedural justice, both of which have gained attention in recent studies on employee resilience (Franken et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2022; Plimmer et al., 2021). While most existing studies have focused on general variables such as work performance, job satisfaction, work engagement, job burnout, and work motivation (Chen et al., 2020), this study clarifies how employee social media use can lead to distinct individual opportunities and challenges, which in turn influence employee engagement and collaboration, and ultimately, organizational outcomes.

Our findings provide practical implications for public managers, who may leverage social media training to make employees focus on positive social media behaviors, like collaboration, which can help develop attachment and solve workplace problems. Morgeson and Humphrey (2006) suggested that managers can effectively design not only formal tasks but also social characteristics among public employees. They can create social media groups, which employees can use to communicate, collaborate, share ideas, and solve problems together. Managers may also use these tools to recognize employees’ accomplishments and share success stories. Such actions capitalize on existing social media connections (which our findings show is significant) to improve work relationships.

Although stakeholders may be concerned about civil servants’ use of digital technologies for non-work purposes or controversial public discussions that may reflect poorly on their organization, this study provides empirical evidence for the benefits of the practice too. Social media may reshape public management by promoting communication and collaboration, which can ultimately enhance employee well-being, social capital accumulation, transparency, and the accountability of public services. It can also increase employee engagement with their affective environment, via social media-enabled social interactions among colleagues. Government organizations may struggle with how they should regulate their employees’ actions in social media, while public employees may be concerned about their right to freedom of speech (Jacobson & Tufts, 2013). Public organizations may legally limit their employees’ actions in social media, however, there can be adverse effects in the attempt to control individual behavior in the workplace, and employers should consider how social media policies reflect on their strategic goals and public values.

Meanwhile, excessive social media use in the workplace (such as more than 4 hr a day, as responded by 17.76%) may still generate negative effects; it may hinder task completion, which is more critical in the public sector due to their greater social purpose. This dynamic could harm not only individuals but also work teams, organizations, and, eventually, citizens. This implies that public managers should use caution in encouraging their subordinates to use social media for non-work-related purposes or misrepresent the core value of public service (Demircioglu & Chen, 2019; Im et al., 2014).

Our results reinforce the importance of training employees in how to use social media effectively and in an appropriate manner. Public managers should formulate and communicate explicit social media workplace policy to make clear what will and will not be tolerated, and communicate this policy throughout their organization. Public employees who use social media in responsible ways may feel more connected to co-workers and resources, possibly balancing negative effects on productivity. This study, however, does not provide guidance on the design of such policy, including proposed changes in the conditions under which employees may access or use social media. Further study is needed to identify which workplace policy produces optimal outcomes while preventing potential damage to a given public organization.

Conclusion

During the past decade, social media use has become an indispensable part of most employees’ professional and personal lives, and its platforms have become increasingly embedded into the formal activities of many public organizations. This study examined public employees’ use of social media in the workplace and how it affects organizational behaviors and perceptions of workplace practices. The largest proportion of respondents were light users, with fewer than 101 total contacts on their preferred social media, but the next segment had more than 500 contacts (heavy users). However, most connected to fewer than 20 colleagues. Most respondents spent at least an hour on social media while at work, to solve work-related problems and ask colleagues and other professionals’ work-related questions or to take a mental break from work or connect with family or friends. Approximately half of the respondents reported that their organizations had explicit social media policy. Among these, two thirds had workplace social media policies which included disciplinary consequences.

The results also indicated that social media skill and maturity levels had statistically significant positive associations with both self-reported collaborative and resource-seeking behavior. In our scenario-based survey experiment, respondents in the “formal workplace policy on social media” scenario were more likely to consider social media-post-related terminations to be fair than those in the opposite group, and the difference was statistically significant. This means that the presence of formal social media policy at work increases the level of procedural fairness of workplace practices in which employees are “dooced.”

This study fills research gaps on social media use at work by enhancing our empirical understanding on its public sector context. Apart from investigating the characteristics and behaviors of social media users, this study explores the relationships between social media-related constructs and positive organizational behaviors. This study employed a scenario-based survey experiment, establishing a more trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship proposed by previous research. Furthermore, social media studies have under-represented the developing world (Cunha et al., 2017; Ojo & Mellouli, 2018); therefore, our study on Thai public employees’ use of social media can contribute to knowledge accumulation on an under-explored region.

In addition, the research results contribute to the practical aspect of the public sector management of social media use, a trending issue across the globe. These findings provide evidence on public employees’ professional and personal use of social media and the related challenges and opportunities. Public agencies cannot overlook these realities in the era of digital disruption era. These recommendations enable public managers to understand and assess the risks that employees’ online behavior can pose to citizen trust in agencies and the public sector as a whole and strike a reasonable balance between employees’ rights as individuals and their obligations as public servants. Furthermore, they illustrate the critical need for public organizations to design and implement social media policies and guidelines, to prevent the misuse of social media in the workplace and mitigate its undesired consequences.

This study is exploratory in nature, as research on the topic of social media dynamics in public sector workplace is still embryonic. It relies on a self-reported survey (Study 1) and scenario-based experiment (Study 2), which inherently capture only perceptions. Therefore, future studies should measure more objectively observable phenomenon, studying actual social media posts by public employees and their consequences. Another limitation of the hypothetical scenario-based experiment method is its outcomes represent future intentions rather than actual behavior. Further studies are needed to acquire real-world data and conduct field experimentation about public sector workplace dynamics regarding social media use at work.

The generalizability of this study is also limited, not only in our hypothetical scenario experiment but also in our usage survey, as our samples are from a single country in which public organizations act under very specific cultural and institutional contexts. As to the generalizability of our findings, the instrument used for our experimental design adopted by Parker et al. (2019) captures the perceived fairness only in a very specific and rare situation (employment termination), therefore, future study should measure the impact of social media policy on other important workplace practices. Another suggestion for future study is to collect multi-wave/time-series panel data on public employees, so that changes in practices and behavior can be tracked as the social media environment and public sector workplace respond to the rapid changes in digital technology.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

ORCID iD

Wonhyuk Cho

Author Biographies

Pananda Chansukree is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand.

Danuvas Sagarik is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand.

Wonhyuk Cho is a Senior Lecturer at the Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

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