Ellen Soens and An-Sofie Claeys
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of social media guidelines (SMGs), as well as their impact on control mutuality, a sub-dimension of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of social media guidelines (SMGs), as well as their impact on control mutuality, a sub-dimension of the organization–employee relationship (OER). A total of two studies compare guidelines with a focus that is either predominantly incentive or restrictive. In addition, they investigate the moderating effect of guideline writing style and enforcement.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, two online experiments were conducted among Belgian employees. Participants read a social media policy manipulated in terms of focus (restrictive vs incentive) and style (conversational vs corporate; Study 1) or enforcement (signature requested vs not requested; Study 2).
Findings
Incentive guidelines increase employee branding behavior more than their restrictive counterparts, while also safeguarding employees' perceived control mutuality. However, solid SMGs will not compensate for an organization's bad reputation among employees. The guidelines' style and manner of enforcement did not seem to matter.
Practical implications
Communication executives can use our findings to draft SMGs in a way that increases opportunities (e.g. ambassadorship) and reduces risks (e.g. criticism) associated with employee social media use.
Originality/value
Prior research on SMGs is predominantly descriptive and focused on the organizational perspective. This research paper contributes to both theory and practice by studying the causal impact of these guidelines on employees.
Details
Keywords
Maria Da Graça Benedito Jonas, Luis Artur, Siri Ellen Hallstrøm Eriksen and Synne Movik
Disaster management practices depend on societies' knowledge. As climate change rapidly reshapes knowledge, questions arise about how knowledge for disaster management is produced…
Abstract
Purpose
Disaster management practices depend on societies' knowledge. As climate change rapidly reshapes knowledge, questions arise about how knowledge for disaster management is produced and (re)shaped in modern world and how effective it is to withstand the ever-growing frequency and magnitude of disasters. This paper discusses the dynamics of knowledge creation and its use for disaster management in Chokwe district, southern Mozambique.
Design/methodology/approach
The study reviews historical archives to identify how disaster management knowledge has changed from pre-colonization to the present.
Findings
Before colonization, local knowledge associated with traditions of asking gods and ancestors for rain and blessings in life prevailed. With colonization, around the 1500s, Portuguese rulers attempted to eliminate these local practices through an inflow of European settlers who disseminated scientific knowledge, built dams and irrigation schemes, which changed the region’s knowledge base and regimes of flooding and drought. After independence in 1975, the new government nationalized all the private property, expelled the settlers and imposed a socialist order. All knowledge on disaster management was dictated by the new government; those against this new order were sent to re-education centers implanted nationwide. Centralization of knowledge and power was, therefore, implanted. Socialism collapsed by the 1990s, and over time, there has been an amalgam of different knowledge bases and attempts to recognize local disaster management practices.
Originality/value
The Chokwe case shows that knowledge for disaster management evolves with local socioeconomic, political and environmental changes.