When Relationships Meet Situations: Exploring the Antecedents of Employee Communication Behaviors on Social Media

Yuan Wang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Grounded in the relationship management theory and the situational theory of publics, this study examines the effects of employees’ perceived relationships with their organization on their situational perceptions and how these perceptions influence their communication behaviors on social media. An integrated model of situational organization–employee relationship is proposed and tested. The study was based on a national survey of 449 employees working at large organizations in the United States. Organization–employee relationships were found to facilitate employees’ problem recognition and level of involvement and to weaken their constraint recognition. Employees with low constraint recognition and high levels of involvement were more likely to seek, process, and share information on social media, whereas those with high problem recognition tended only to process information. This study is one of the first to integrate the relational perspective with the situational perspective. It also offers practical suggestions for large organizations on how to build and maintain quality relationships with employees and improve their communication behaviors on social media.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)77–94
Number of pages18
JournalSocial Science Computer Review
Volume40
Issue number1
Online published12 Feb 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The work described in this article was fully supported by a grant from City University of Hong Kong (Project No. 7200615) and another grant from Eastern Kentucky University.

Research Keywords

  • communication behavior on social media
  • constraint recognition
  • level of involvement
  • organization–employee relationships
  • problem recognition

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'When Relationships Meet Situations: Exploring the Antecedents of Employee Communication Behaviors on Social Media'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this