How can people benefit, and who benefits most, from using socialisation‐oriented social media at work? An affordance perspective

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Bin Wang,Yukun Liu,Jing Qian,Sharon K. Parker
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12504

Hum Resour Manag J. 2023;33:1035–1052. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj 1035

1School of Management, Shanghai University,

Shanghai, China

2School of Management, Zhejiang University,

Hangzhou, China

3Business School, Beijing Normal University,

Beijing, China

4Centre for Transformative Work Design,

Curtin University, Perth, Australia

Correspondence

Jing Qian, Business School, Beijing Normal

University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai St., HaiDian

District, Beijing 100875, China.

Email: jingqian@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract

Past research has predominantly regarded (private)

socialisation-oriented social media (SoSM) use at work as a

counterproductive behaviour and has thus focussed more on

its dark side. However, given the prevalence of social media

in today's work life and the various affordances this tech-

nology can have, social media might have important bright

sides. In this research, drawing on the affordance perspec-

tive, we propose that the day-to-day use of SoSM at work

is positively associated with perceptions of social connect-

edness, which is further positively associated with life satis-

faction and task performance. We examined our hypotheses

using an experience sampling study of 134 full-time employ-

ees in China across 10 consecutive workdays. The results of

multilevel modelling showed that, as expected, daily SoSM

use at work related positively with employees' perceptions

of social connectedness, which in turn predicted their daily

life satisfaction and daily task performance. We also found

that the relationship between daily SoSM use at work and

perceived social connectedness was stronger for employ-

ees with higher, rather than lower, perceived workloads.

We suggest this moderating effect occurs because social

media is an efficient medium, providing greater affordances,

through which busy workers can meet their belongingness

needs. Overall, our study sheds light on the previously

less-studied positive effects of social media use at work.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

How can people benefit, and who benefits most,

from using socialisation-oriented social media at

work? An affordance perspective

Bin Wang1 | Yukun Liu2 | Jing Qian3 | Sharon K. Parker4

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12504

Received: 25 March 2021 Revised: 31 December 2022 Accepted: 14 March 2023

Abbreviation: SoSM socialisation-oriented social media

WANGetal.

1036

1 | INTRODUCTION

The use of socialisation-oriented social media (SoSM), such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line, has become an indis-

pensable part of people's professional and personal lives. People today are relying more on SoSM to achieve various

purposes and to fulfil diverse needs in their lives, such as building social connections, entertainment, self-development,

and self-actualisation (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Leonardi & Vaast, 2017; McFarland & Ployhart, 2015). In the past

few decades, workplace SoSM use has attracted considerable attention from management scholars (e.g., Karahanna

et al., 2018; Leonardi & Vaast, 2017; McFarland & Ployhart, 2015).

Although there are some recent efforts to explore the possible bright sides of SoSM, limited previous research

has gone deep into how and for whom SoSM use at work is beneficial. In fact, existing studies have only considered

the main effects of social media on desirable individual outcomes, and have not paid enough attention to either

mediators (why the effects occur) or moderators of these effects (e.g., Luo et al., 2018; Robertson & Kee, 2017;

Schmidt et al., 2016). From a theoretical standpoint, the omission of deeper insights into the underlying mech-

anisms and possible boundary conditions hinders a nuanced understanding of this relatively new phenomenon.

From a practical standpoint, most managers have a negative view of the use of SoSM in the workplace and over-

look the potential benefits of social media usage at work. For example, a recent national survey conducted by

CareerBuilder reported that 37% of American employers cited social media as the worst ‘productivity killer’ in the

workplace (CareerBuilder, 2014).

Aiming to move beyond previous research, we introduce the affordance perspective (Leonardi & Vaast, 2017) to

investigate the following questions: How can people benefit, and who benefits most, from using SoSM at work? The affor-

dance perspective, derived from Gibson's (1986) work on ecological psychology, has been widely used in research

on management information systems (e.g., Karahanna et al., 2018) and communication (e.g., Evans et al., 2017). It

has more recently been introduced into the organisation and management literature (e.g., Leonardi & Vaast, 2017;

Zammuto et al., 2007). In the context of technology, an ‘affordance’ of technology refers to the possibilities for

performing certain actions based on particular technical features (Evans et al., 2017; Leonardi & Vaast, 2017).

Karahanna et al. (2018) briefly defined affordances as ‘what a user can potentially do through using the technology’

(p. 739). For example, reformability, the ability to capture images or video, is one of smartphones' affordances. The

affordance perspective can foster a more comprehensive understanding of social media at work because it does

not assume that technology is inherently good or evil; instead, it focuses on the potential actions made possible by

technology (Evans et al., 2017).

In the case of SoSM, a key affordance of SoSM is the potential to support highly interactive communications

and interactions with colleagues, friends, and family members (McFarland & Ployhart, 2015). Karahanna et al. (2018),

therefore, argued that using social media can help individuals fulfil their need for social connections; which has been

theorised to be a fundamental and universal human need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Similarly, Deci et al.’ (2017)

called for more attention to the role of advanced technologies in meeting people's belongingness needs in the work

context. Consequently, in the current study, we contend that using SoSM at work will be beneficial for employees'

social well-being. Specifically, we propose that SoSM use at work will result in higher perceived social connectedness

(a state of feeling close to others, including colleagues, family, and friends).

Fulfilment of belongingness (or social connections) can exert positive effects on individuals' well-being and

performance (e.g., Cerasoli et al., 2016; Van den Broeck et al., 2016), because high-quality social relationships can

provide valuable information or instrumental support to achieve personal goals as well as help individuals to cope

with negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and distress; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). To extend the distal outcomes of using

KEYWORDS

affordance, social connectedness, social media, workload