Towards Thriving or Draining? Psychosocial Well-Being Implications of Social Media Use at Work

Employees increasingly use technological advancements such as collaborative technologies and social media platforms at work in response to rapid change and demands of contemporary work life. Pervasive by its nature, social media use for work purposes imposes both opportunities and threats, such as knowledge sharing, social support, blurred boundaries between work and private life, and technology-related stress and exhaustion that influences employees’ psychosocial well-being at work. The technological transformation of work and interaction progressively to online environments is a crucial social psychological phenomenon. More detailed knowledge is needed to understand the psychosocial well-being implications of social media use at work because they can have severe consequences for the modern work life.

This doctoral dissertation in social psychology examines the way employees use social media at work in five professional organizations and among the general workforce in Finland as well as how the use relates to psychosocial well-being at work. The aim is also to identify other key predictors of psychosocial well-being in the context of increased social media use at work. The dissertation consists of four distinct studies conducted during years 2018–2021. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the first study utilized focus group interviews (N = 52) and cross-sectional survey data (N = 563) from five professional organizations. A mixed-method approach was also used in the second study, which utilized the data sets from the first study along with cross-sectional Finnish workforce survey data (N = 1,817). The third study was based on the same cross-sectional survey data sets from the second study. The fourth study consisted of longitudinal 4-point survey data (n =965 of the original sample of N = 1,817) from the Finnish workforce. Analyses were conducted with theory-driven content analysis, structural equation modeling, linear regression analysis, and hybrid multilevel linear regression analysis.

According to the results, employees actively use social media in professional organizations and among the overall Finnish workforce. Following and sharing content, communicating, and staying in touch with colleagues and networking were the main purposes for the use. The use is driven by intrinsic motivations of personal choice and interest and extrinsic motivations of organizational culture and personal branding. The positive psychosocial well-being implications included enhanced information, autonomy, organizational encouragement and support, social networks, and professional identity development. Higher organizational identification, social support, and higher work engagement were also identified. Negative psychosocial well-being implications involved physiological symptoms, fears, social pressure, and unclear rules. Higher psychological distress, burnout, and technostress were observed, especially among millennials.

The positive and negative psychosocial well-being implications were related to various use motivations such as content production, information seeking and communication with colleagues, as well as generational and occupational differences, and situational and sociodemographic factors. Millennials were more active social media users than former generation employees were, but they also perceived the use as more straining, similar to the result among women and heavy users. The results highlight that nonwork-related social media communication with colleagues and work community, in addition to work-related communication, is associated with positive psychosocial well-being implications.

This dissertation accelerates an integrative view of social media use at work and psychosocial well-being in contemporary work environments from both organizational and national perspectives. The results emphasize the dynamic relationship of social media use at work and psychosocial well-being, and the dual – thriving and draining – well-being implications. The motivational potential can be harnessed by encouraging formal and informal social media communications and nurturing psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence by fostering employees’ resources and work engagement. The results are timely and provide practical suggestions for employees and organizations, which are central considering the intensified social media use at work and the post-COVID work life.