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

• Author: Mary K. Feeney,Federica Fusi
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074016675722
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article
American Review of Public Administration
2018, Vol. 48(5) 395 –412
Social Media in the Workplace: Information
© The Author(s) 2016
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Exchange, Productivity, or Waste?
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DOI: 10.1177/0275074016675722
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Federica Fusi1 and Mary K. Feeney1
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
media presence and usage to improve their relationships with
dating to text messaging, around 65% of American adults use
customers and citizens, promote their corporate identity, and
social media in their everyday life (Perrin, 2015). This trend
improve their communication (Klang & Nolin, 2011; Trainor,
is global with 1.23 billion (Sedghi, 2014), 320 million
Andzulis, Rapp, & Agnihotri, 2014). In the public sector,
(Twitter, 2015), and 1 billion (Billboard Staff, 2015) people
government has progressively expanded its online presence
worldwide using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, respec-
by opening accounts on Facebook and Twitter. As people
tively, on a monthly basis. Social media are a group of
become more accustomed to using social media, they expect
“Internet-based technologies that build on the ideological
government to do the same. Moreover, social media has
and technical foundations of Web 2.0” (Kaplan & Haenlein,
raised expectations for a variety of positive outcomes within
2010, p. 61) to leverage the social and interactive nature of
government, such as enhancing transparency, accountability,
technology. Social media tools allow two-way information
and collaboration within and across public agencies, encour-
exchange between individuals or groups via videos, images,
aging citizen participation, and improving public service
texts messages, and podcasts, and include not only free
provision (Bonsón, Torres, Royo, & Flores, 2012; Campbell,
applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
Lambright, & Wells, 2014; Kim, Park, & Rho, 2015; Mergel,
and Flickr but also fee-driven services such as Basecamp or
2010).
Ning.
Public managers play a pivotal role in social media adoption
Initially, social media tools were designed for nonwork-
and use. Some public managers have promoted social media use
related activities such as socializing, sharing photos, and
within their departments, with entrepreneurial public managers
connecting with friends (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). In
fact, the majority of Americans report using social media pri-
1Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
marily for staying in touch with friends and family or con-
necting with lost friends (Smith, 2011). As social media has
Corresponding Author:
become a part of everyday life, organizations have sought to
Federica Fusi, Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy
Studies, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, 411 N Central
integrate these tools into work life. Public, private, and non-
Ave #750, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.
profit organizations have progressively increased their social
Email: ffusi@asu.edu

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396
American Review of Public Administration 48(5)
being the first to adopt social media tools in everyday organiza-
As organization leaders, managers play a pivotal role in inno-
tional activities (Mergel & Bretschneider, 2013). Yet, research-
vation adoption by influencing organizational practices and
ers and governments have little understanding of how public
policies and by creating a climate favorable to innovation and
managers perceive social media use and how social media use is
change (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009; Jeyaraj, Rottman, &
affecting their work, whether positively or negatively Lacity, 2006; Kiron, Palmer, Phillips, & Kruschwitz, 2012).
(Kavanaugh et al., 2012; Khan, Swar, & Lee, 2014). Social
Several studies have found that technology adoption and
media tools can help managers to better and faster perform their
implementation within organizations are largely determined
tasks, but research has also found that privacy concerns, time
by managers, especially their perceptions and attitudes toward
wasting, and multi-tasking challenges may increase manage-
technology and innovation (Karahanna & Straub, 1999),
ment complexity and decrease public managers’ concentration
political orientation (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009), and
(Bertot, Jaeger, & Hansen, 2012; Oliveira & Welch, 2013). For
trust toward managerial capacity (Horst, Kuttschreuter, &
example, among American adults using online tools for profes-
Gutteling, 2007). Moreover, managerial support for technol-
sional purposes, 39% report a higher flexibility in their working
ogy implementation positively reinforces technology impact
hours, but an almost equal percentage report that online tools
on the organization’s performance (Heintze & Bretschneider,
have actually increased their working time (Purcell & Rainie,
2000). Hence, understanding managers’ relationships with
2014). All in all, there appear to be ambiguous effects of tech-
and perceptions of new technologies is fundamental to pre-
nology use, including social media, on work activities.
dicting technology adoption, use, and impact across the
We investigate how public managers perceive social
organization.
media use and what factors explain manager perceptions of
In the case of social media, public managers have often
social media use. Public manager perception of social
taken an entrepreneurial position by introducing social media
media use is important to understand whether social media
tools in public organizations (Klang & Nolin, 2011; Mergel
support or hinder government activities and how managers
& Bretschneider, 2013) and experimenting with new
can take advantage of such tools (Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015;
approaches to use social media for public service provision
Tsay, Dabbish, & Herbsleb, 2012). The lack of understand-
(Goldsmith & Crawford, 2014). However, little research has
ing of public managers’ perceptions might lead to mis-
empirically examined how public managers perceive social
placed strategies for social media adoption or the overly
media use in the workplace. Understanding what shapes pub-
optimistic belief that social media use is intrinsically posi-
lic managers’ perceptions of social media use provides
tive for government activities. Building on technology
insights into whether government adoption of social media is
adoption and use theories and e-government research, we
leading to positive outcomes for managers and, if so, how to
focus our attention on the role of managers’ personal expe-
support social media use without compromising public man-
riences with social media use and organizational factors,
agers’ workload. Dissatisfaction is quite common during
such as organizational use of social media, organizational
technology implementation as actual use might not meet user
culture, digital threats, and technological capacity, in shap-
expectations (Bryer & Zavattaro, 2011; Picazo-Vela,
ing perceptions. Although individuals are often the leaders
Gutiérrez-Martínez, & Luna-Reyes, 2012). Government
in adopting social media, we argue that the organizational
managers may perceive social media as an opportunity to
environment and the level of support they receive from
foster innovation and experimentation, but they might also
their organization influence their long-term perceptions.
perceive social media as an additional burden.
We combine data from a 2014 national survey adminis-
The e-government literature recognizes that social media
tered to 2,500 U.S. public managers in 500 U.S. cities, U.S.
can help public employees to connect to one another, build
Census data, and data collected from city websites to test our
social capital, maintain awareness of professional issues, and
hypotheses. We find that personal use of social media has a
share information (Cao, Vogel, Guo, Liu, & Gu, 2012; Skeels
strong positive effect on public managers’ perceptions of
& Grudin,...