Social Media in the Workplace: Information Exchange,Productivity,or Waste?

Abstract

Public managers play a central role in the adoption and smooth implementation of social media tools in the workplace, with local governments increasingly expecting managers to utilize these tools. Nevertheless, we know little about how public managers perceive social media use for work activities and what factors shape such perceptions. Preliminary research has shown that social media use in government may enhance task efficiency, but it may also increase management complexity and workload. In this study, we draw from current literature on e-government adoption and use to investigate the role of personal and organizational use of social media, organizational culture, digital threats, and technological capacity in shaping public managers’ perceptions of social media use. Combining data from a national survey of 2,500 public managers in 500 U.S. local governments, Census data, and data collected from city websites, we find that perceptions of social media tools in the workplace are influenced by the interplay of personal and organization use of social media, an organizational culture of innovation, and formal guidance on social media use. Technological capacity and perceptions of digital threats are not significantly related to perceptions of social media. We conclude with a discussion of what these findings mean for research and practice.

Keywords

social media local government Facebook

Social media is pervasive in American society. From online dating to text messaging, around 65% of American adults use social media in their everyday life (Perrin, 2015). This trend is global with 1.23 billion (Sedghi, 2014), 320 million (Twitter, 2015), and 1 billion (Billboard Staff, 2015) people worldwide using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, respectively, on a monthly basis. Social media are a group of “Internet-based technologies that build on the ideological and technical foundations of Web 2.0” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61) to leverage the social and interactive nature of technology. Social media tools allow two-way information exchange between individuals or groups via videos, images, texts messages, and podcasts, and include not only free applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr but also fee-driven services such as Basecamp or Ning.

Initially, social media tools were designed for nonwork-related activities such as socializing, sharing photos, and connecting with friends (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). In fact, the majority of Americans report using social media primarily for staying in touch with friends and family or connecting with lost friends (Smith, 2011). As social media has become a part of everyday life, organizations have sought to integrate these tools into work life. Public, private, and nonprofit organizations have progressively increased their social media presence and usage to improve their relationships with customers and citizens, promote their corporate identity, and improve their communication (Klang & Nolin, 2011; Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp, & Agnihotri, 2014). In the public sector, government has progressively expanded its online presence by opening accounts on Facebook and Twitter. As people become more accustomed to using social media, they expect government to do the same. Moreover, social media has raised expectations for a variety of positive outcomes within government, such as enhancing transparency, accountability, and collaboration within and across public agencies, encouraging citizen participation, and improving public service provision (Bonsón, Torres, Royo, & Flores, 2012; Campbell, Lambright, & Wells, 2014; Kim, Park, & Rho, 2015; Mergel, 2010).

Public managers play a pivotal role in social media adoption and use. Some public managers have promoted social media use within their departments, with entrepreneurial public managers being the first to adopt social media tools in everyday organizational activities (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). Yet, researchers and governments have little understanding of how public managers perceive social media use and how social media use is affecting their work, whether positively or negatively (Kavanaugh et al., 2012; Khan, Swar, & Lee, 2014). Social media tools can help managers to better and faster perform their tasks, but research has also found that privacy concerns, time wasting, and multi-tasking challenges may increase management complexity and decrease public managers’ concentration (Bertot, Jaeger, & Hansen, 2012; Oliveira & Welch, 2013). For example, among American adults using online tools for professional purposes, 39% report a higher flexibility in their working hours, but an almost equal percentage report that online tools have actually increased their working time (Purcell & Rainie, 2014). All in all, there appear to be ambiguous effects of technology use, including social media, on work activities.

We investigate how public managers perceive social media use and what factors explain manager perceptions of social media use. Public manager perception of social media use is important to understand whether social media support or hinder government activities and how managers can take advantage of such tools (Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015; Tsay, Dabbish, & Herbsleb, 2012). The lack of understanding of public managers’ perceptions might lead to misplaced strategies for social media adoption or the overly optimistic belief that social media use is intrinsically positive for government activities. Building on technology adoption and use theories and e-government research, we focus our attention on the role of managers’ personal experiences with social media use and organizational factors, such as organizational use of social media, organizational culture, digital threats, and technological capacity, in shaping perceptions. Although individuals are often the leaders in adopting social media, we argue that the organizational environment and the level of support they receive from their organization influence their long-term perceptions.

We combine data from a 2014 national survey administered to 2,500 U.S. public managers in 500 U.S. cities, U.S. Census data, and data collected from city websites to test our hypotheses. We find that personal use of social media has a strong positive effect on public managers’ perceptions of social media use. Moreover, public managers are more likely to report positive perceptions of social media use whether they work for more innovative organizations, organizations which use social media tools more frequently and organizations where best practices are available to guide public managers in the implementation and use of social media. Finally, we show that technological factors and digital threats do not influence public managers’ perceptions of social media use.

Literature and Hypotheses

Research has widely investigated the role of managers in the adoption of new technologies, such as social media. As organization leaders, managers play a pivotal role in innovation adoption by influencing organizational practices and policies and by creating a climate favorable to innovation and change (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009; Jeyaraj, Rottman, & Lacity, 2006; Kiron, Palmer, Phillips, & Kruschwitz, 2012). Several studies have found that technology adoption and implementation within organizations are largely determined by managers, especially their perceptions and attitudes toward technology and innovation (Karahanna & Straub, 1999), political orientation (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009), and trust toward managerial capacity (Horst, Kuttschreuter, & Gutteling, 2007). Moreover, managerial support for technology implementation positively reinforces technology impact on the organization’s performance (Heintze & Bretschneider, 2000). Hence, understanding managers’ relationships with and perceptions of new technologies is fundamental to predicting technology adoption, use, and impact across the organization.

In the case of social media, public managers have often taken an entrepreneurial position by introducing social media tools in public organizations (Klang & Nolin, 2011; Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013) and experimenting with new approaches to use social media for public service provision (Goldsmith & Crawford, 2014). However, little research has empirically examined how public managers perceive social media use in the workplace. Understanding what shapes public managers’ perceptions of social media use provides insights into whether government adoption of social media is leading to positive outcomes for managers and, if so, how to support social media use without compromising public managers’ workload. Dissatisfaction is quite common during technology implementation as actual use might not meet user expectations (Bryer & Zavattaro, 2011; Picazo-Vela, Gutiérrez-Martínez, & Luna-Reyes, 2012). Government managers may perceive social media as an opportunity to foster innovation and experimentation, but they might also perceive social media as an additional burden.

The e-government literature recognizes that social media can help public employees to connect to one another, build social capital, maintain awareness of professional issues, and share information (Cao, Vogel, Guo, Liu, & Gu, 2012; Skeels & Grudin, 2009). Moreover, efficiency gains may arise from the simplification of everyday activities, including public service provision and design, and faster communication with the public and other stakeholders. Social media provides a platform to local governments to interact with citizens, collect feedback on public services, and better target public service delivery (Khasawneh & Abu-Shanab, 2013; Kuzma, 2010; Perlman, 2012; Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). In addition, social media tools might facilitate information dissemination within the organization (Chun, Shulman, Sandoval, & Hovy, 2010; Khan, 2015) and provide access to diverse information by connecting local governments with external stakeholders, including citizens, other public agencies, and various levels of government (Khan et al., 2014). Information diversity may improve decision-making processes and support managerial choices (Bertot et al., 2012).

Mergel and Greeves (2013) argued that setting up a social media account and using social media are relatively easy and costless activities. As compared with other technologies, which require large investments and organizational resources, social media adoption can be a low cost, bottom-up activity initiated by a single manager. However, widespread social media use within the organization may lead to managerial costs and might increase inefficiency rather than streamline organizational activities (Bryer & Zavattaro, 2011). Social media use can increase management complexity because of technical challenges that public managers have to address. With increased and faster communication, data and information sharing, public managers face concerns regarding security, privacy, and accessibility, which require the enforcement of new data and information protocols and policies (Bertot et al., 2012; Campbell et al., 2014; Landsbergen, 2010; Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). Public managers must also regulate and monitor technical problems, including data storage, system failures, and network reliability (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). Management costs are likely to increase as managers need to acquire new technical competencies and organize technical support within the organization to guarantee smooth adoption and use of social media tools (Kavanaugh et al., 2012; Picazo-Vela et al., 2012).

Social media use might also increase managers’ offline workloads as governments start providing services and communications both in person, manually, and digitally (Bertot et al., 2012). Electronic services can double efforts to provide in-person and online services and can require extra work to keep online profiles up-to-date, continually producing new content and making content available online (Mergel & Greeves, 2013; Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). Moreover, public managers are pressured to interact with citizens in real time, which increases the burden on public managers to be responsive and attentive. On social media, citizens react to government content, comment, and share text, images, or links on government accounts. Public managers have the task of responding to citizen reactions, especially negative feedback and criticisms that might affect their organization reputation (Mergel & Greeves, 2013). Social media tools provide a number of potential benefits for managerial activities, such as efficiency gains, increased information sharing, and better service provision. Similarly, there are potential costs associated with social media implementation including higher workload, and a need for new competencies, policies, and strategy design. The balance between perceived costs and benefits on managers’ work likely influences long-term social media use.

A significant body of research has accumulated evidence that perceptions of a technology’s impact on work performance are an important antecedent of its acceptance and use. Technology acceptance models (TAMs) argue that perceived technology usefulness significantly drives the propensity to use such technology (Davis, 1989; Featherman & Pavlou, 2003). Employees who perceive technology tools as more useful for their work are more willing to use them. Other theories note that expectations toward a technology performance are positively related to technology use. The Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior link technology use and intention to use to technology-expected outcomes (Compeau, Higgins, & Huff, 1999; Madden, Ellen, & Ajzen, 1992). Similarly, Motivational Models suggest that believing technology use will help achieve desired outcomes increases willingness to use a new technology (Igbaria, Parasuraman, & Baroudi, 1996). Empirical results corroborate such hypotheses showing that perceived technology performance has a major impact on technology use and intention to use as compared with effort expectancy, social influence, enjoyment, or other facilitating conditions (Compeau et al., 1999; Jeyaraj et al., 2006; Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003).

Unfortunately, public management scholarship has done little work on perceptions of social media use among public managers. Among recent work, Khan et al. (2014) analyzed the predictors of social media satisfaction looking at perceived risks—time, psychological, social, and privacy risk—and benefits—social connectivity, social involvement, information attainment, and entertainment—that are associated with social media use by public employees. Khan and colleagues find that, overall, public employees associate greater benefits than costs to social media use. Such studies focus their attention on perceived technology characteristics without integrating employees’ perceptions of the organizational environment. Yet, the e-government and social media literatures suggest that organizational characteristics are important in shaping perceptions of technology use (Oliveira & Welch, 2013). Technology characteristics are not directly translated into organizational costs and benefits, but depend on organizational environments that facilitate or increase the burden of technology implementation (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977). Previous studies which expand upon technology acceptance and motivational models have found that organizational structure, support, technology usage, and skills are positively correlated with employee technology perceptions (Chenhall & Morris, 1986; Igbaria et al., 1996).

Based on this previous work and research on e-government, we propose a framework to investigate the antecedents of public managers’ perceptions of social media use for work purposes. Our theoretical model proposes that in forming positive or negative perceptions of social media use, public managers are influenced by five factors. Figure 1 illustrates the ways in which (a) individual social media use, (b) organizational social media use, (c) digital threats, (d) technological capacity, and (e) organizational culture are related to public managers’ perceptions of social media use. We expect that public managers who more frequently use social media in their personal lives will benefit from social media knowledge and expertise and will report more positive perceptions of social media use in the work place (Akar & Topçu, 2011; Davis, 1989). Similarly, organizational use of social media will be related to more positive perceptions, as public managers will perceive the work environment as more inclined toward social media use (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). At the same time, technological capacity should better enable organizations and managers to utilize social media tools (Oliveira & Welch, 2013). In addition, organizations that have not experienced security threats or are better prepared to deal with data management challenges and threats will be better situated to foster positive perceptions about social media use. Finally, we expect that organizational culture (e.g., innovativeness, centralization, and routineness) may limit or facilitate the introduction and utilization of social media (Wang & Feeney, 2016; Welch & Feeney, 2014). Next, we develop hypotheses about the relationships between individual and organizational social media use, digital threats, technological capacity, and organizational culture and manager perceptions about social media use in the workplace.

Figure 1.

Public managers’ positive social media perceptions in the workplace.

Individual Social Media Use

Given the popularity of social media in the United States, we expect that social media are likely to be widely embedded in the personal life of public managers and integrated into the work environment. The boundary between personal and professional use is nuanced, and many social media tools are used in both work and personal lives (Ollier-Malaterre & Rothbard, 2015; Skeels & Grudin, 2009). Experience using social media in personal life is likely to affect the perception of social media use in professional settings. Several researchers have found that frequent social media use increases the gratification that individuals obtain from the social experience that such tools offer—for instance, sharing, and connecting with others—and, as a consequence, fosters positive engagement in social media use (Akar & Topçu, 2011; Chen, 2011; Khan et al., 2014). In addition, the more frequently public managers utilize social media for their personal activities, the more they acquire knowledge and ability to use such tools. A manager’s ability to use social media tools will reduce the learning costs needed to integrate that technology in the workplace (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012) and will increase perceived social media usefulness at work (Davis, 1989; Igbaria et al., 1996). Thus, the more one is using social media, the more likely one will have a positive perception of it.

Hypothesis 1: Public managers who more frequently utilize social media for personal purposes will report more positive perceptions of social media use in the workplace.

Organizational Social Media Use

Along with personal use, the way social media tools are used within the organization is likely to influence managerial perceptions. Drawing from social influence theory, Karahanna and Straub (1999) suggested that coworker behaviors and perceptions, especially those of peers and supervisors, are likely to affect an individual’s technology perception. Individuals within the same organization are more likely to view technology adoption as useful when they see others reporting a positive experience with such technology (Schmitz & Fulk, 1991). Social influence is amplified in the case of social media tools whose primary aim is communication and information exchange, both requiring input and response from multiple users (Leonardi, Huysman, & Steinfield, 2013). Given the nature of social media, there are strong incentives for a user to recruit other users within one’s work network. Social media will provide greater benefits within organizations where more individuals use them, thus allowing organizations to exploit social media benefits, such as communication, coordination, and social capital building (Khan et al., 2014; Leonardi et al., 2013). Hence, we expect that when other employees are currently using social media tools within the organization, public managers will report more positive perceptions of social media.

Hypothesis 2: Public managers who report higher organizational use of social media tools will report more positive perceptions of social media in the workplace.

As the number of people using social media grows and its usage becomes more frequent, organizations must establish common rules to avoid misuse, reduce privacy risks, and prevent security problems (Bonsón et al., 2012; Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). Although in the adoption stage the absence of regulation promotes entrepreneurship and experimentation (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013), in the long term, policies and guidelines are needed to manage and bound concerns about privacy and data misuse (Campbell et al., 2014; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).

We argue that social media policies might have a positive effect on public managers’ perceptions. Social media policies create a safe environment for social media use by setting standard operating procedures that reduce the amount of time and attention required to resolve failures and errors derived from social media misuse (Khan et al., 2014; Kiron et al., 2012; Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). For instance, social media policies simplify social media use by driving and bounding its scopes and applications, such as the separation between professional and personal use (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012; Skeels & Grudin, 2009), or by providing examples of social media uses (i.e., best practices). Thus, while flexibility is important for innovation, we expect that in public sector environments, guidance about social media use will better enable managers to utilize and harness the potential of social media.

Hypothesis 3: Public managers who report that their organizations have social media policies will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Digital Threats

Risk is an important influence on managerial choices, especially when it comes to the adoption of new technologies (Landsbergen, 2010). Although social media policies can help to ease managerial concerns about technology use, they may not be sufficient for reducing perceived risks associated with social media use. Social media risk management is a key issue in the adoption of social media tools within public organizations (Landsbergen, 2010; Webber, Li, & Szymanski, 2012). Kavanaugh and colleagues (2012) and Khan and colleagues (2014) found that cybersecurity is one of the most critical barriers for social media use in government. Cybersecurity refers to perceived risk of online network exposure to the world (Featherman & Pavlou, 2003) and unauthorized disclosure of data and personal information. Cybersecurity issues might result in a loss of reputation, legal contentions, and other negative consequences (Webber et al., 2012). If public managers perceive social media use as risky, they will be less likely to view social media use in the workplace positively. Managers will feel that social media is a potential threat to their work and to their constituencies, as it increases the risk of unintended data disclosures (Campbell et al., 2014). In some cases, managers might have already experienced data or security leaks. Such previous experience might also negatively affect public managers’ perceptions of such tools.

Hypothesis 4: Public managers who report increased concerns about data management will report less positive perceptions of social media use.

Hypothesis 5: Public managers who report previous experience with data or security threats will report less positive perceptions of social media use.

Technological Capacity

Technology capacity is the organization’s ability to mobilize IT resources and support (Nah & Saxton, 2013). Technology capacity has a positive effect on social media and e-government use as it increases the tools that public managers can deploy, and reduces implementation and learning costs by providing adequate support to public managers and employees (Feeney & Welch, 2016; Oliveira & Welch, 2013). In fact, managers in public and nonprofit organizations report that low organization technological capacity and staff expertise are serious barriers to social media adoption and use (Campbell et al., 2014). When organizations have low technology capacity, public managers must learn to use social media by themselves and cannot access organizational support in using such tools, thus increasing costs associated with social media use. As such, we expect that public managers in organizations with higher technology capacity will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Hypothesis 6: Public managers who report higher organizational technology capacity will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Public organizations might actively monitor social media use or more broadly monitor Internet-related activities by, for example, checking employee emails, blocking access to social media and personal websites, or monitoring data transmission and online activities. From the employer perspective, online monitoring limits the misuse of the Internet and Internet-based technologies and helps the organization prevent productivity losses due to employees wasting time online (Griffiths, 2010; Young, 2010). As Landsbergen (2010) noted, monitoring social media activities might be fundamental to avoid the mistaken publication of inappropriate content (i.e., politically sensitive information) and to discourage employees from misusing social media.

From the employee perspective, monitoring practices might negatively affect satisfaction, trust, productivity, and engagement, and can be perceived as an invasion of privacy and a threat to autonomy (Alder, Schminke, Noel, & Kuenzi, 2007; Choudhury, 2008; West & Bowman, 2016). Over-monitoring employee activities can reduce trust toward the organization and increase stress, workload, and perceived organization injustice (Grant & Higgins, 1989; Kallman, 1993; Oz, Glass, & Behling, 1999). As such, we might expect that organizational monitoring will decrease the benefits that public managers derive from social media use. Monitoring increases barriers to using social media in flexible and innovative ways while also increasing the psychological costs of using such tools. Moreover, monitoring negatively affects the likelihood of data and information sharing and internal electronic collaboration among colleagues.

However, studies of social media use in public organizations suggest that monitoring might have a positive impact on social media perceptions. Monitoring of social media use is a way for organizations to reduce perceived risks related to social media use by preventing misuse, information leaks, and privacy issues (Meijer & Torenvlied, 2016). Moreover, in the case of smaller municipal governments, the ability to monitor digital activity is likely a key indicator of technological and management capacity. The governments included in this study are relatively small, making the monitoring of digital activity a resource-intensive task. We expect that managers who report monitoring of online activities are more likely to be in organizations where there are clear rules and regulations about technology use and higher technological capacity, thus resulting in managers with more sophisticated levels of technology use, including social media, and, therefore, managers who are more likely to have positive perceptions of such technologies.

Hypothesis 7: Public managers who report higher organizational monitoring of online activities will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture strongly predicts technology adoption in public organizations (Aiken & Hage, 1971; Damanpour & Schneider, 2009; Pandey & Bretschneider, 1997; Wang & Feeney, 2016; Welch & Feeney, 2014). Hence, the organizational culture—innovativeness, centralization, and routineness—in which social media activities are embedded will likely affect the overall perceptions of social media use among public managers.

Innovativeness is defined as “the [organizational] propensity to accept innovations” (Oliveira & Welch, 2013, p. 3). Innovative organizations are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors and adopt and implement new technology, such as social media (Powell & Grodal, 2005). Oliveira and Welch (2013) found that innovative public organizations are more likely to use social media for government tasks, such as disseminating information, collecting feedback on public policies, and collaborating internally. Moreover, innovative organizations are more likely to adapt their practices to innovation (Thompson, 1965). Social media use requires designing new managerial procedures and building of new managerial skills and competences (Mergel & Greeves, 2013), which significantly change organizational culture and practices (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). We hypothesize that more innovative organizations are increasingly likely to accept the introduction of social media use for work purposes and will more actively encourage and support social media use. Thus, public managers who report working for innovative public organizations will be more likely to take advantage of social media use and apply social media tools to their tasks.

Hypothesis 8: Public managers who perceive their organizations as more innovative will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Researchers have consistently argued that implementing new technologies, such as social media, is easier in decentralized organizations where managers have the necessary autonomy and decision-making authority to guide the organizational change (Landsbergen, 2010) and adjust organizational practices (Li & Feeney, 2014). When introducing social media tools, managers need to adapt their daily work routines according to new online activities and opportunities (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). Meijer and Torenvlied (2016) found that Twitter use for external communication and information sharing was more effective in decentralized organizations where individuals could take the initiative on when and how to use Twitter for communicating with their constituencies. By promoting the autonomous use of social media tools, decentralized organizations increase opportunities to learn and experiment with social media tools and facilitate the design of customized social media practices. Thus, we expect that decentralized organizations will allow for more experimentation and learning, and that managers in decentralized organizations will report more positive perceptions of social media use.

Hypothesis 9: Public managers who perceive their organizations as more centralized will report less positive perceptions of social media use.

Finally, we argue that managers with more standardized and routinized tasks might see social media as less useful for their job and as a waste of time. Job routineness provides less opportunity for innovation adoption (Aiken & Hage, 1971), slows down technology adoption in public organizations (Li & Feeney, 2014), and reduces perceived positive outcomes from technology use (Welch & Feeney, 2014). Public managers who perform routinized activities will have fewer incentives to experiment with social media use and less opportunities to innovate their daily activities taking advantage of social media characteristics. As such, when performing routinized tasks, public managers might perceive social media use as an additional burden. Although we hypothesize that more innovative and decentralized organizations are more likely to accept social media use for work purposes, and will more actively encourage social media use, we state that managers performing routinized activities will report lower positive perceptions of social media use.

Hypothesis 10: Public managers who perceive their organizations as more routinized will report less positive perceptions of social media use.

Data and Method

We combine data from the U.S. Census, city websites, and a national survey conducted in 2014 by the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies at the Arizona State University. A survey is an appropriate method for this study, as we are interested in investigating managers’ perceptions of social media use. Individual perceptions are relevant to the choice of using a new technology or not, as shown in previous studies (Davis, 1989; Horst et al., 2007; Karahanna & Straub, 1999).

The survey was administered to public managers in 500 local governments with populations ranging from 25,000 to 250,000 inhabitants. Because there are fewer large cities in the United States, we sampled the census of cities (184) with populations between 100,000 and 250,000 inhabitants and drew a random sample of smaller cities (316) with populations of 25,000 to 99,999 residents. For each city, five managers were selected to participate to the study, one from each of the following departments: City Management, Community Development, Finance, Police, and Parks and Recreation, for a total of 2,500 managers. After removing bad addresses, vacancies, retirees, and managers who were no longer working in the position, the sample was reduced to 2,461 public managers. The final response rate, calculated according to the Response Rate 2 (RR2) method from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, is 33.07% (790 respondents). The RR2 method counts partial interviews as respondents.

In the survey, we defined social media in line with the literature:

having the characteristic of being social and interactive in nature—allowing, but not requiring, two-way information exchange between individuals or groups, such as between individuals, public employees and citizens. Examples of commonly used social media tools include: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, GovLoop, Ning, Basecamp, Tweetdeck, Jive, Tibbr, Yammer, and SocialCast.

Because our focus is on understanding how social media, as a group of tools that share similar characteristics, are related to public managers’ perceptions, we do not differentiate between social media type and we broadly refer to social media use for any work activity (Cao et al., 2012; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014).

Dependent Variable: Positive Social Media Perception

The dependent variable, positive social media perception, is partially based on the perceived usefulness scale developed in TAM studies. Similar to Davis (1989) and Karahanna and Straub (1999), we asked public managers about how social media affects their job performance, productivity, and time wasting. In addition, we asked perception of social media use for information and knowledge exchange, a primary function of social media tools (Bonsón et al., 2012; Leonardi et al., 2013). Respondents rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale their level of agreement (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree) with the following statements:

Social media enhance knowledge exchange in my organization.

Social media tools are helpful for doing my work.

Social media tools improve the work I do.

Social media use tends to waste time. (Reversed)

Using social media makes work more efficient.

The benefit of social media tools in the workplace is highly overrated. (Reversed)

Social media tools increase the exchange of useful information in my organization.

The dependent variable, positive social media perception, is an average scale with a Cronbach’s alpha of .89. A higher rating on the Positive Social Media Perception scale indicates positive perceptions of social media use. A lower score is associated with negative perceptions of social media use. Scale average is 3.33 (SD = 0.70).

Independent Variables

Individual social media use

We measure Social Media Personal Use asking, “While at work, how often do you communicate with friends or family using social media?” Response categories range from 1 = less often than every few days or never, 2 = every few days, 3 = about once a day, 4 = several times a day, to 5 = several times an hour. These broad categories allow respondents to give general estimates of their social media use, which should be more accurate than asking for specific time reports (i.e. number of hours). Research indicates that self-reports of the number of hours using technology typically over or under estimated actual use (Collopy, 1996).

Organizational social media use

We measure organizational social media use with three variables: diffusion in organization, social media use, and social media policies. Diffusion in organization is the frequency of social media use for work purpose within the organization. For each social media tool that the organization uses, we asked respondents, “On average, how frequently do people in your organization use the following social media tools for work purposes?” Frequency of use has been measured with a 6-point Likert-type scale: 1 = less often than monthly, 2 = about monthly, 3 = about once every two weeks, 4 = about once per week, 5 = several times a week, and 6 = daily or almost daily. The average frequency of use is 4.31 (SD = 1.25) indicating that public managers generally use social media a little more than “about once per week.” Social Media Use is an ordinal variable indicating the presence of three types of social media on the city website: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The variable is coded 0 = no social media, 1 = one type of social media, 2 = two types of social media, 3 = all three social media tools. These data were collected by coding city websites in 2014. In this sample, 10% of managers work for a city that uses only one type of social media, 34.4% for a city which uses two types of social media, and 39.1% for a city using all three.

We include a set of dummy variables to indicate whether the organization has policies regulating social media use. Participants indicated whether their organization has developed guidance for social media use in any of the following forms: agency policies, best practices, and guidance on acceptable use. Multiple answers were possible. We recoded responses into the following dummy variables: (a) agency policies (1 = yes), (b) best practices (1 = yes), (c) guidance on acceptable use (1 = yes), and (d) agency policies and guidance on acceptable use (1 = yes). Such recoding controls for multicollinearity issues across the three categories used in the survey. On average, 8% of public managers indicated that the organization provides some agency policies or guidance on acceptable use, while a large majority (67%) indicated that their organization provides both agency policies and guidance on acceptable use. Just under half (45%) of public managers reported that their organizations provide best practices.

Digital threats

We measured managers’ perceptions of digital threats by asking them about their past experiences, and concerns about data management. Past data or security threats is measured using five items which asked managers, “During the last 12 months, has your organization experienced” (a) unintended or accidental electronic disclosure of organization information, (b) unauthorized disclosure of information to media, (c) unauthorized disclosure of information to politicians and other key public officials, (d) unauthorized disclosure of information to citizens or other community groups, and (e) an attempted security breach in which an external organization sought to access your electronic files or data (e.g., hacking). The variable was coded “0” if none of the previous events have ever occurred, “1” if at least one of the events has occurred. Around 29% of managers have reported at least one data or security threat. Data management concerns is measured with responses (5-point Likert-type scale of agreement) to the following questionnaire item: “My agency is concerned about employee misuse of data.” The average is 3.21 (SD = 0.97).

Technological capacity

To capture organizational technological capacity, we included two variables measuring information technology (IT) capacity and one variable measuring monitoring activities. IT capacity is the averaged scale of responses to four questionnaire items asking managers about the city IT infrastructure and support: (a) my agency is ill equipped to manage important questions online security and privacy, (b) management lacks software applications that would make work more efficient, (c) there is a mismatch between our department’s needs and what technology can provide, and (d) my agency is too busy to effectively monitor, control, and use the data we collect (response categories: 5-point Likert-type scale of agreement). The scale is coded with the highest score indicating greater IT capacity in the organization. The scale has a Cronbach’s alpha of .73. The e-services measures the availability of online services, including (a) online payment for services including fees and fines, (b) online delivery of local government records or department information to citizens who request information, (c) online requests for services that your department is responsible for delivering, and (d) online completion and submission of job applications. The variable is measured by summing the number of e-services available from 0 to 4. Technology monitoring is measured using responses to the following question: “Based on what you know, has your organization done any of the following during the last year?”: (a) store and have access to all employee e-mail; (b) scan employee emails; (c) listen in on phone calls; (d) record phone calls; (e) monitor in the workplace by video camera; (f) track web sites visited by employees; (g) block Internet websites and use firewalls; (h) monitor data transmissions; and (i) monitor personal social media sites (e.g., Facebook). To construct the variable, we sum the number of monitoring activities implemented by the organization.

Organizational culture

All measures of organizational culture—Innovativeness, Centralization, and Routineness—are items with 5-point Likert-type agreement scales. Innovativeness is an average scale of five questionnaire items (Oliveira & Welch, 2013): (a) This organization has a strong commitment to innovation. People who develop innovative solutions to problems are rewarded; (b) employees in this organization are resistant to change related to technology (R); (c) this organization is a very dynamic and entrepreneurial place. People are willing to stick their necks out and take risks; (d) employees in this organization are rewarded for developing innovative solutions to problems; and (e) most employees in this organization are not afraid to take risks. The Cronbach’s alpha for the scale is .79. Centralization is the averaged responses to three questionnaire items drawn from Hall’s (1963) Centralization scale: (a) There can be little action taken here until supervisor approves a decision; (b) in general, a person who wants to make his own decisions would be quickly discouraged in this agency; (c) Even small matters have to be referred to someone higher up for a final answer. The Cronbach’s alpha for the Centralization is .79. Routineness is a scaled average of responses to four questionnaire items (Hage & Aiken, 1969; Hall, 1963): (a) People here do the same job in the same way every day; (b) one thing people like around here is the variety of work (R); (c) most jobs have something new happening every day (R); and (d) my daily routine is highly predictable. The Cronbach’s alpha for the scale is .62.

Control Variables

We include a set of control variables at the individual and organization level. At the individual level, we control for age and job tenure which can explain the discretion that managers have within the organization as well as their propensity to undertake new procedures to accomplish everyday tasks (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009). On average, managers in our sample are 52 years old (SD = 8.46) and have been working for the city around 15 years (SD = 10.82). At the organizational level, we control for department type using a set of dummy variables for mayor’s office (16.6%), community development (24.8%), finance (15.8%), parks and recreation (19.9%), and police (22.9%). We also include a control for city population (natural log) and organization size, which approximate the number of employees within the department. Form of government is a dummy variable indicating whether the government is Mayor Council = 1 or Council–Manager = 0. The sample includes 27% of Mayor–Council cities. These data were collected from government websites and the U.S. Census. Finally, we include a variable measuring % of Internet use among city employees.

Table 1 shows descriptive statistics for variables included in the model. Correlations among variables are reported in Appendix.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables.

	n	Minimum	Maximum	M	SD
Dependent variable
Positive social media perception	762	1	5	3.33	0.70
Independent variables
Individual social media use
Social media personal use	769	1	5	1.47	0.86
Organizational social media use
Diffusion in organization	699	1	6	4.31	1.25
Social media use	790	0	3	1.96	1.07
Agency policies	764	0	1	0.08	0.27
Best practices	755	0	1	0.45	0.50
Guidance on acceptable use	759	0	1	0.08	0.28
Agency policies and guidance on acceptable use	764	0	1	0.67	0.47
Digital threats
Past data or security threats	790	0	1	0.29	0.46
Data management concerns	758	1	5	3.21	0.97
Technological capacity
IT capacity	759	1	5	3.20	0.74
E-services	736	0	4	2.75	1.22
Technology monitoring	753	0	9	4.18	2.02
Organizational culture
Innovativeness	733	1	5	3.13	0.69
Centralization	727	1	5	2.40	0.73
Routineness	727	1	5	2.45	0.61
Control variables
Age	707	21	79	52.40	8.46
Job tenure	728	0	49	15.39	10.82
Age × Job Tenure	707	0	3,479	824.30	634.56
Mayor’s office	790	0	1	0.17	0.37
Community development	790	0	1	0.25	0.43
Finance	790	0	1	0.16	0.37
Parks and recreation	790	0	1	0.20	0.40
Police	790	0	1	0.23	0.42
City population (natural log)	790	10.13	12.39	11.14	0.66
Organization size	725	1	999	115.40	190.76
Form of government	790	0	1	0.27	0.45
% of Internet use	711	0	1	0.69	0.31

Note. IT = information technology.

Analysis and Results

Our research focuses on public managers’ perceptions of social media use in the workplace. Figures 2 and 3 show the results from our analysis of public managers’ perceptions of social media use. We calculated those percentages by considering respondents who indicate both “strongly agree” and “agree” scores. Figure 2 shows the response frequency for each item included in the Positive Social Media Perception scale. Figure 2 shows that not all managers perceive social media as beneficial for their work. Around one fourth (25.5%) of municipal managers report that social media benefits are highly overrated and believe that social media use tends to waste time in the workplace. Less than half of the managers report that social media tools improve their work (41%) or contribute to making their work more efficient (34%).

Figure 2.

Positive social media perception, single items.

Figure 3.

Positive social media perception.

Among benefits, the majority of managers agree or strongly agree that social media tools enhance the exchange of knowledge (62%) and useful information (55%), and that social media tools are helpful for their work (54%). Figure 3 shows public managers’ overall perceptions of social media use as captured in the Positive Social Media Perception scale. The distribution of the variable shows that half of the managers in this study report a score between 3 and 3.84 out of 5-point Likert-type scale; overall, managers have a positive perception of social media tools (M = 3.33; Mdn = 3.29).

To understand how individual and organizational use of social media, digital threats, technological capacity, and organizational culture shape perceptions of social media use among public managers, we conducted an ordinary least squares regression model using R. The analysis of averaged Likert-type scales with parametric models is justified by the Central Limit Theorem, and previous studies have shown that parametric regression and data analysis models are robust when applied to Likert-type scales (Allen & Seaman, 2007; Norman, 2010). Table 2 shows the estimation results. The adjusted R² indicates that 26% of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by the variables included in the model.

Table 2.

Positive Social Media Perception.

	B	SE
Intercept	2.651	0.635***
Individual social media use
Social media personal use	0.151	0.029***
Organizational social media use
Diffusion in organization	0.085	0.022***
Social media use	0.002	0.027
Agency policies	0.172	0.117
Best practices	0.170	0.061**
Guidance on acceptable use	0.170	0.115
Agency policies and guidance on acceptable use	0.156	0.081^†
Digital threats
Past data or security threats	−0.056	0.058
Data management concerns	0.018	0.028
Technological capacity
IT capacity	0.035	0.039
E-services	0.037	0.025
Technology monitoring	0.002	0.014
Organizational culture
Innovativeness	0.143	0.050**
Centralization	0.020	0.048
Routineness	−0.084	0.050^†
Control variables
Age	−0.004	0.004
Job tenure	−0.013	0.019
Age × Job Tenure	0.000	0.000
Mayor’s office	0.218	0.090*
Community development	0.270	0.085**
Parks and recreation	0.490	0.087***
Police	0.432	0.105***
City population (log)	−0.061	0.045
Organization size	0.000	0.000
Form of government	0.134	0.058*
% of Internet use	−0.064	0.085
R	.292
R ²	.260
N observations	618

Note. Reference categories: Finance. White robust standard errors to adjust for heteroscedasticity. Regression weighted for city size. IT = information technology.

†

p < .10. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Overall, there are significant variables in three out of five categories that we identified as important to explaining positive social media perception: personal social media use (H1), organizational social media use (H2; H3), and organizational culture—innovation (H8) and routineness (H10). Centralization (H9), digital threats (H4; H5), and technological capacity (H6; H7) are not significantly related to positive perceptions of social media use in the workplace. Thus, we find that individual and organizational determinants are significant in explaining social media perceptions among public managers, while technology-oriented factors are not.

Social media personal use is positively and significantly correlated with positive social media perception (B = 0.151; p < .001). While at work, managers who more frequently utilize social media tools to communicate with friends and family are more likely to perceive social media tools as useful for work purposes. This confirms our first hypothesis that managers’ personal use of social media has positive spillover effects on professional social media use as it lowers learning costs and enhances the positive, emotional experience of social media use (H1).

We also find support for Hypothesis 2, social media diffusion in the organization is positively correlated with positive social media perception (B = 0.085; p < .001). As social media use is more widespread within an organization, public managers report more positive perceptions of social media tools. We hypothesized that social media diffusion might not only enhance usefulness of such tools for information exchange and communication but also incentivize social learning mechanisms that facilitate the social media use. Although frequency of use is a significant variable, we did not find evidence that using only one type of social media tool rather than multiple tools is correlated with social media positive perceptions. Whether or not the city reports one or more social media platforms on its website is not significantly related to perceptions of social media use in the workplace. We conclude that the intensity of social media use is more important for explaining public managers’ perceptions than the diversity of tools adopted, and most important, personal use is more strongly related to positive perceptions than citywide adoption.

Among social media policies (H3), we find a positive and significant relationship between best practices (B = 0.170; p < .01) and social media perceptions and a weakly significant relationship with agency policies and guidance on acceptable use (B = 0.156; p < .1). Managers who report that their organization provides best practices on social media are more likely to report positive perceptions of social media than those who do not. Moreover, we find that managers working in organizations that have more comprehensive regulations of social media use through both policies and guidance on acceptable use report more positive perceptions of those technologies. These results lead us to conclude that organization regulation and guidance on social media are important to create value from social media use.

We find support for Hypothesis 8, organizational innovativeness is positively related to public managers’ positive perceptions of social media (B = 0.143; p < .01). Organizations that reward innovation and entrepreneurship, and allow employees to develop innovative solutions for managerial problems positively encourage public managers to use social media in a way that is beneficial to their work. In comparison, we find that organizational routineness (H10) is negatively, although weakly, correlated with positive social media perception (B = −0.084; p < .1). This further confirms our assertion that experimentation is important to create value in social media use as less routinized organizations give managers more occasion to create new practices and procedures for using social media. We find no support for Hypothesis 9; centralization is a not significantly related to social media perceptions.

Finally, we found significant differences across city departments. Public managers working in finance departments are the least likely to report social media as useful tools for their work. Managers working in parks and recreation and police departments are the most likely to report positive perceptions of social media use. Managers in mayor’s offices are less likely as compared with those in parks and recreation and police departments to report positive perceptions of social media tools, which is somewhat surprising given their public exposure and interaction with citizens and stakeholders. Managers working in cities with mayor–council governments are significantly more likely to report positive perceptions of social media as compared to council-manager governments. Next, we discuss the implications of our findings.

Discussion

Although our research provides some preliminary findings on public managers’ perceptions of social media use in the workplace, it is important to note some limitations and areas for future research. First, most of our variables are based on self-reported measures. So, our data are subject to errors and biases that are common when respondents are asked to report their perceptions on technology use and implementation. Specifically, research indicates that self-reports of computer use is often biased, with high users underreporting hours of use and light users overreporting hours of use (Collopy, 1996)—though these report biases regress to the mean. Second, the construction of some variables is limited by the data collected. We know little about how managers have responded to past data and security threats and monitoring policies. It might be that our lack of findings on these measures is because we asked managers about events rather than their intensity. Future studies should further explore the relationship between technology threats and social media use. Third, this research investigates the organizational and individual factors related to perceptions of social media use, but does not assess whether or not public organizations should be adopting social media technologies and the overall impact of such tools on public outcomes, such as efficiency, transparency, or accountability. Finally, this study does not consider how public managers are actually using social media tools and we do not distinguish among social media types. Previous work has suggested that organizational factors influence diverse task-technology couplings (Oliveira & Welch, 2013) and that such couplings influence social media perceptions (Feeney & Welch, 2016). Future research should focus on understanding how perceived costs and benefits differ according to technology type and work activity.

Our research contributes to social media literature by investigating public managers’ perceptions of social media use for work purpose and what factors explain differences in such perceptions. Previous research has shown that technology impact on work performance is a fundamental antecedent of technology use and adoption (Compeau et al., 1999; Jeyaraj et al., 2006; Venkatesh et al., 2003). Although research suggests increasing efforts to adopt and utilize social media in government, we know little about whether managers perceive such tools as an improvement to their work activity or an increase in workload and complexity. For those public organizations that seek to adopt social media tools in the workplace, it is important to understand what factors can be leveraged to support smooth implementation and reduce negative impacts. Social media, while potentially similar to other technological innovations (i.e., computers or e-mail), has unique features. Compared with more expensive, top-down technologies, social media tools are free, enable interaction in public spaces, and can be implemented on the initiative of entrepreneurial public managers (Mergel & Greeves, 2013). Also, social media requires a change in the interaction with external stakeholders and introduces new challenges for privacy and security management. Hence, social media might require a different response from public organizations for successful implementation.

Results from our survey indicate that municipal managers in general have positive perceptions of social media tools. Social media tools promote and support knowledge and information exchange, and improve day-to-day work activities. Nevertheless, one fourth of managers reported that social media tools tend to waste time and that social media benefits in the workplace are highly overrated. More than half of the managers reported that social media tools little improve their work or make it more efficient. Such findings suggest that social media tools lead to some negative externalities for managers as they increase workload, result in spending time on personal activities while at work, and fail to streamline management activities. For instance, social media might require public managers to provide public services and communications both online and offline, thus doubling workloads. Moreover, managers might be afraid of employees spending time on personal activities while online.

Our analysis shows that positive perceptions of social media use among public managers are related to more frequent personal use of social media and organizational factors, such as organizational usage, social media policies, and innovative culture. These findings partially confirm previous work in social media and e-government literature (Campbell et al., 2014; Khan et al., 2014; Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013).

We find that managers’ perceptions are more influenced by organizational and individual factors than technological barriers. The current literature suggests that low technological capacity often inhibits social media adoption and use (Campbell et al., 2014). We argue that technological capacity is a base condition for social media use only in the early stages of technology adoption and use (Gil-Garcia, Pardo, & Baker, 2007). As managers start using new technological tools for work activities, they need further support and guidance to feel comfortable with using such tools.

Public managers who use social media in their personal lives are more likely to report positive perceptions of social media tools. This finding reinforces previous research that suggests that individual capacity to use a technology facilitates its implementation by increasing ease of use and decreasing perceived risks (Davis, 1989; Khan et al., 2014). It also emphasizes the importance of managers in social media adoption in public organizations (Heintze & Bretschneider, 2000; Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). Organizations seeking to foster social media use or increase frequency of use might target employees who are comfortable with these technologies to serve as lead adopters and users. Public organizations that incentivize and support individual learning processes might also be more successful in enhancing positive perceptions of social media use.

We find that organizational support and culture are as important as personal experience. Social media use is positively correlated with social media policies and rules and an innovative culture. Policies and rules are needed to orient and support public managers’ experimentation. Public managers look to the organization to guide and manage the risks associated with social media use in the workplace (Khan et al., 2014). Organizations which provide guidance appear to reduce potential negative impacts of such new tools on manager workloads (Bertot et al., 2012; Picazo-Vela et al., 2012). However, new rules and procedures should not limit experimentation and individual learning. Organizations rewarding innovation and entrepreneurship and allowing employees to experiment with innovative solutions for managerial problems have managers that report more positive perceptions of social media use. Hence, successful social media use in public organizations is a balance between experimentation, learning, and the provision of guidance.

In sum, the findings provide some important implications for public organizations, which seek to support bottom-up adoption and the use of new, free, and user-based technologies. Public managers more favorably perceive social media use in the workplace not only when they are able to use them—that is, because they use social media tools more often in their personal lives—but also when the organization provides adequate conditions for their adoption and use. A good “social media” manager, along with her experience, necessitates guidance on how social media tools should be used in the workplace and the autonomy to experiment with new ways to use social media for work improvement.

Footnotes

Appendix

Correlation Among Study Variables.

	Positive social media perception	Social media personal use	Diffusion in organization	Social media use	Only agency policies	Best practices	Guidance on acceptable use	Agency policies and guidance on acceptable use	Past data or security threats	Data management concerns	IT capacity	E-services	Technology monitoring	Innovation	Centralization	Routineness	Age	Job tenure	Mayor’s office	Community development	Parks and recreation	Police	City population (log)	Organization size	Form of government	% of Internet use
Positive social media perception	1
Social media personal use	.25**	1
Diffusion in organization	.23**	.08*	1
Social media use	.06	.02	.06	1
Agency policies	.03	.05	−.08*	.03	1
Best practices	.27**	.13**	.18**	.12**	−.17**	1
Guidance on acceptable use	−.09*	−.06	.00	−.02	−.08*	.11**	1
Agency policies and guidance on acceptable use	.17**	.05	.13**	.11**	−.41**	.46**	−.44**	1
Past data or security threats	−.04	.03	.08*	−.04	.00	.03	.00	.09**	1
Data management concerns	.05	.04	.07	.04	.00	.11**	.06	.08*	.13**	1
IT capacity	.13**	.01	.03	.00	−.04	.12**	−.05	.17**	−.03	−.13**	1
E-services	.08*	.03	.17**	−.01	.02	.17**	−.05	.16**	.17**	.23**	.02	1
Technology monitoring	.15**	.03	.11**	.19**	.00	.21**	−.05	.22**	.08*	.00	.16**	.06	1
Innovation	.19**	.06	.12**	.05	−.05	.21**	−.07	.20**	−.01	−.08*	.39**	−.01	.25**	1
Centralization	−.14**	.02	−.09*	−.04	.00	−.05	.03	−.12**	−.04	.02	−.16**	.00	−.16**	−.38**	1
Routineness	−.11**	.02	−.07	−.04	−.01	−.10**	.00	−.12**	−.02	.04	−.26**	.01	−.15**	−.45**	.42**	1
Age	−.05	−.11**	.04	.00	−.02	.01	−.06	.05	−.06	−.03	.10**	−.07	.12**	.11**	−.08*	−.10**	1
Job tenure	.05	−.03	.02	.00	.03	.10**	−.10**	.13**	−.03	.08*	.06	.08*	.03	.07	−.06	−.16**	.27**	1
Mayor’s office	.03	.04	.08*	.03	−.10**	−.06	.00	.08*	.14**	−.09*	.08*	−.02	.15**	.08*	−.05	−.01	.04	−.23**	1
Community development	−.11**	−.07*	−.16**	.00	.01	−.13**	−.01	−.12**	−.10**	−.11**	−.04	−.13**	−.15**	−.06	−.01	.10**	−.04	−.10**	−.26**	1
Parks and recreation	.19**	.07*	.04	.02	.03	.05	.00	−.05	−.10**	−.01	−.05	−.13**	.07	.01	−.10**	.04	.07	.00	−.22**	−.29**	1
Police	.10**	.02	.11**	−.03	.10**	.19**	−.09*	.14**	.06	.17**	−.01	.24**	−.08*	.05	−.02	−.18**	−.05	.44**	−.24**	−.31**	−.27**	1
City population (log)	.02	.03	.06	.37**	−.03	.05	−.04	.09**	.03	.05	.04	.04	.12**	.07	−.05	−.01	.07	.08*	−.01	.02	−.04	.08*	1
Organization size	.03	.01	.06	.05	−.02	.09*	−.04	.13**	.17**	.11**	.05	.09*	.06	.04	−.07	−.11**	.05	.18**	.20**	−.26**	−.14**	.39**	.31**	1
Form of government	.06	.05	.02	−.09*	−.02	−.05	.02	−.05	−.02	−.02	−.04	.02	−.18**	−.08*	.10**	.13**	−.03	−.04	.01	−.01	.05	−.03	.02	−.01	1
% of Internet use	−.01	.03	−.01	.00	−.02	.01	.04	.06	.07	.01	.05	.05	.05	.06	−.05	−.03	−.08*	.00	.11**	.18**	−.25**	.00	−.01	−.08*	−.03	1

Note. IT = information technology.

p < .05. **p < .01.

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.

Author Biographies

Federica Fusi is a PhD student at the School of Public Affairs and the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Arizona State University (ASU). Her research focuses on public management, e-government, data sharing, and science and technology policy.

Mary K. Feeney is associate professor, Lincoln professor of ethics in public affairs, and associate director of the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at ASU. Her research focuses on public management and science and technology policy.

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