Excessive use of personal social media at work: antecedents and outcomes from dual-system and person-environment fit perspectives
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 21 September 2022
Issue publication date: 17 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of excessive use of personal social media at work. The prevalence of personal social media in the work environment can easily lead to excessive use and negative consequences. Understanding the predictive factors and negative consequences of employees' excessive use of personal social media at work is important to develop their appropriate use of social media and improve their job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on dual-system theory and the person-environment fit model, this study develops a research model to examine the effect of habit and self-regulation on excessive use of personal social media at work and that of the outcomes of excessive use on employee job performance through strain. This study conducts a questionnaire survey on 408 employees to test the research model and hypotheses empirically.
Findings
Results suggest that the imbalance between habit and self-regulation drives excessive personal social media use of employees at work. Furthermore, excessive use of personal social media has a strong impact on employee strain, which can significantly decrease job performance.
Originality/value
First, this study considers excessive use of personal social media at work as a result of two different cognitive systems, that is, an automatic system and a controlled system, thereby extending the dual-system theory to explain excessive use of personal social media in the work context. Second, unlike previous studies that focused on the outcomes or explored the antecedents of excessive social media use at work respectively, the study employs the person-environment fit model and examines the systematic influence of excessive social media use at work from a broad perspective by linking its antecedents and outcomes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editor, the associate editor, the Internet Research Editorial Office, and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and insightful suggestions. The authors also thank Guangcheng Qin for his assistance in gathering data. The authors would particularly like to acknowledge the 9th Annual Meeting of China Association for Information Systems (CNAIS 2021) for accepting the manuscript as a poster paper. This work was supported by Shanghai Science and Technology Program (No. 21692191000), Shanghai University Sailing Program, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 沪教委人〔2021〕40号), 2021 Teaching Reform Project of Zhejiang University of Technology (No. PX-88213588), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72002203), and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LQ20G020018).
Citation
Yu, L., Chen, Y., Zhang, S., Dai, B. and Liao, S. (2023), "Excessive use of personal social media at work: antecedents and outcomes from dual-system and person-environment fit perspectives", Internet Research, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 1202-1227. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-05-2021-0287
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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