The influence of organisational commitment on employees’ work-related use of online social networks

Abstract

Purpose Although online social networks (SNs) (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram) have been used by employees for various work- or non-work-related motives, there has been lack of research on the use of such networks in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to draw on commitment theory and the tricomponent attitude model to explain the role organisational commitment plays in predicting the work-related use of online SNs and the mediating role a constructive employee voice may have in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted among the employees of seven different companies within seven different industries. The validity of the measures and structural models was evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings The results indicated that organisational commitment promotes employees’ work-related use of online SNs directly and also indirectly via the mediating role of a constructive voice. Originality/value This study is among the few studies which have used the tricomponent attitude model to investigate employees’ behaviour in the workplace, in particular work-related use of online SNs. In terms of theory, this study contributes to expanding the boundaries of knowledge as SNs are considered a challenge in contemporary organisations. Organisations can convert this challenge from a potential threat to an actual opportunity by reinforcing “organisational commitment”.

Linking organizational members' social-related use of enterprise social media (ESM) to their fashion behaviors: the social learning and stimulus-organism-response theories

“…There can be considered many constructive outcomes for ESM in the workplace (Table 1). For example, employees' use of ESM is associated with their work performance (Cai et al, 2018), organizational commitment (Lou et al, 2018, voice behavior and engagement in organizational procedures (Olfat et al, 2020a;Estell and Davison, 2019), improving knowledge management process in the organization (Qi and Chau, 2018), and work-and nonwork-related socialization (Leidner et al, 2018). However, as a source of social interactions, according to the literature review done in Table 1, the role of employees' social-related use of ESM in shaping their behaviors by learning from each other seems to be neglected by the previous studies, especially when it comes to fashion behaviors.…”

Organizational commitment and work-related implementation of enterprise social networks (ESNs): the mediating roles of employees' organizational concern and prosocial values

“…According to a comprehensive recent study conducted by Zhang et al (2019), previous studies have considered several antecedents for the work-related implementation of social information systems such as the supervisors' support, the coworkers' support, the jobrelated demands (Charoensukmongkol, 2014) and technology-organization-environmental (TOE) framework (Tajudeen et al, 2018). Furthermore, a recent study conducted by Olfat et al (2020) showed that organizational commitment can play a predicting role in the workrelated use of public social networks (SNs) like Facebook and Instagram in the workplace. Olfat et al's (2020) study differs from this study in several aspects.…”

“…Furthermore, a recent study conducted by Olfat et al (2020) showed that organizational commitment can play a predicting role in the workrelated use of public social networks (SNs) like Facebook and Instagram in the workplace. Olfat et al's (2020) study differs from this study in several aspects. The most significant one is that the present study is related to the internal platform (ESNs) that is allocated for a particular purpose in organizations.…”

“…In other words, employees are usually expected to take advantage of the conventional information systems in their work since they do not have any other choice (Rezvani et al, 2017). However, regarding the use of ESNs, not only is it entirely arbitrary but also employees can use this technology with different work-or non-work-related motivations (Olfat et al, 2020). Regarding the reviewing of the existing literature, it seems that there are only a few studies addressing this important relationship between organizational commitment and the work-related use of ESN (please see section 2.1 for more discussion on the work-related use of ESN antecedents).…”

Organizational members' use of online social networks and their job satisfaction: a social cognitive perspective

“…WhatsApp) and wikis (e.g. Wikipedia) (Hamouda, 2018) that have dramatically transformed people's lifestyles and social relationships (Cao et al , 2016; Olfat et al , 2020a). As a social phenomenon, organizations have also been affected by this type of information technology (Cao et al , 2016).…”