How social networking ties mediate the associations between enterprise social media affordances and employee agility?

TY - JOUR

T1 - How social networking ties mediate the associations between enterprise social media affordances and employee agility?

AU - Talwar, Shalini

AU - Luqman, Adeel

AU - Kaur, Puneet

AU - Srivastava, Pallavi

AU - Mishra, Shreya

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - The rising diffusion of enterprise social media (ESM) platforms worldwide necessitates a deeper understanding of how specific ESM affordances impact contemporary performance parameters such as employee agility. Drawing motivation from the propositions of the affordance theory, social network theory, and the extended scholarly work on ESM, agility, and networking, we conceptualized a sequential model to determine how three ESM affordances—self-expression via microblogging, recognition via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), and network externality—associate with two types of social networking ties (instrumental and expressive) and how these ties further associate with employee agility—measured through proactivity, adaptability, and resilience. Analysis of data collected from 318 Chinese professionals with experience using ESM in their workplaces revealed the following positive relationships: (a) PDAs and externality are associated with both instrumental and expressive ties, while microblogging is associated with expressive ties only; (b) instrumental ties are associated with proactivity, adaptability, and resilience, while expressive ties are associated with proactivity and resilience only; (c) instrumental ties mediate the relationships between PDAs and all agility dimensions, as well as between externality on the one hand and proactivity and resilience on the other; and (d) expressive ties mediate the relationships between the affordances and both proactivity and resilience. These findings yield valuable theoretical and practical insights.

AB - The rising diffusion of enterprise social media (ESM) platforms worldwide necessitates a deeper understanding of how specific ESM affordances impact contemporary performance parameters such as employee agility. Drawing motivation from the propositions of the affordance theory, social network theory, and the extended scholarly work on ESM, agility, and networking, we conceptualized a sequential model to determine how three ESM affordances—self-expression via microblogging, recognition via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), and network externality—associate with two types of social networking ties (instrumental and expressive) and how these ties further associate with employee agility—measured through proactivity, adaptability, and resilience. Analysis of data collected from 318 Chinese professionals with experience using ESM in their workplaces revealed the following positive relationships: (a) PDAs and externality are associated with both instrumental and expressive ties, while microblogging is associated with expressive ties only; (b) instrumental ties are associated with proactivity, adaptability, and resilience, while expressive ties are associated with proactivity and resilience only; (c) instrumental ties mediate the relationships between PDAs and all agility dimensions, as well as between externality on the one hand and proactivity and resilience on the other; and (d) expressive ties mediate the relationships between the affordances and both proactivity and resilience. These findings yield valuable theoretical and practical insights.

U2 - 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122759

DO - 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122759

M3 - Article

SN - 0040-1625

VL - 195

JO - Technological Forecasting and Social Change

JF - Technological Forecasting and Social Change

M1 - 122759

ER -