Work along both lines: The positive impact of work-based social media use on job performance

Abstract

Social media has rapidly become an important tool in organizations and has a significant impact on employees’ work and organizational operations. By applying social media to their daily work, employees gain access to important information resources that can help them get things done. Using the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the impact of work resources generated by employees’ work-based social media use on work status, as well as job performance. Data were collected from the employees of Internet companies in Henan Province and Shanghai, China. We distributed 519 pairs of questionnaires, and 369 pairs of valid paired questionnaires were returned. To estimate the proposed relationships in the theoretical framework, we used SPSS and MPLUS. The results show that work-based social media use can increase employees’ work engagement, which in turn increases task performance, job dedication and interpersonal facilitation. It also reduces the negative effects of work interruptions on task performance and job dedication. Therefore, we conclude the positive effects of work-based social media use on job performance can be achieved by increasing work engagement and by reducing work interruptions.