Excessive social media use at work

TLDR

Research on how excessive social media use affects job performance is limited, highlighting a gap for theory‑based studies. The study aims to examine how excessive social media use impacts job performance and the underlying mechanisms. An extended stressor–strain–outcome model was tested via an online survey of 230 professionals to explain the link between excessive social media use and job performance. Excessive social media use causes information and communication overload that increase exhaustion, which in turn lowers job performance; social overload had no significant effect.

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance and its exact mechanism. An extended stressor–strain–outcome research model is proposed to explain how excessive social media use at work influences individual job performance. Design/methodology/approach The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 230 working professionals who use social media in organizations. Findings The results revealed that excessive social media use was a determinant of three types of social media overload (i.e. information, communication and social overload). Information and communication overload were significant stressors that influence social media exhaustion, while social overload was not a significant predictor of exhaustion. Furthermore, social media exhaustion significantly reduces individual job performance. Originality/value Theory-driven investigation of the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance is still relatively scarce, underscoring the need for theoretically-based research of excessive social media use at work. This paper enriches social media research by presenting an extended stressor–strain–outcome model to explore the exact mechanism of excessive use of social media at work, and identifying three components of social media-related overload, including information, communication and social overload. It is an initial attempt to systematically validate the casual relationships among excessive usage experience, overload, exhaustion and individual job performance based on the transactional theory of stress and coping.