Organizational Followership: How Social Media Communication Affects Employees’ Behavior

Abstract

The communication process between organizations and employees is going through a deep systemic revolution. Over time, the environments in which communication occurs have totally changed, also with new interdependencies between the actors involved in this dynamic information’s exchange. Drawing from the literature on social network and organizational behaviors, this study aims at rethinking the concept of organizational followership, starting from Kelley’s studies (1988), considering a perspective focused on the use of digital tools. The study is structured in two moments: an experiment on a social media account (Instagram), showing online users a series of pictures with cognitive bias to verify the ability to analyze targeted digital followership, and a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews to a sample of native-digital people, to investigate possible behaviors and hidden motivations in digital ecosystems. The results suggest the possibility of cognitive biases in communication via social networks between leaders and followers, so the aim is to start the debate about the possibility that the phenomenon of communication via digital channels can overturn within organizations.