Connecting with Coworkers on Social Network Sites: Strategies, Social Norms and Outcomes on Work Relationships

Although an increasing number of individuals are connected with their coworkers on social network sites (SNS) that are professional and personal (e.g., Facebook), little research has explored the outcomes of these connections on interpersonal relationships at work. Drawing on SNS research as well as on an existing typology of online boundary management strategies (i.e., “audience”, “content”, “custom” and “open”), we took an exploratory qualitative approach and interviewed all employees of 4 teams in diverse working environments. Our findings reveal that although interviewees’ behaviors reflected the 4 strategies, there were gray zones, and the audience strategy veered off course. Almost all interviewees monitored their content disclosure through either content or custom strategies. Specific social norms regarding SNS emerged. The outcomes of connecting with coworkers on SNS were mostly positive, including liking, closeness, respect, and organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals (OCBI). However, disliking, loss of respect and envy were also mentioned.

[1]  M. Sherif.  The Psychology of Social Norms , 1937 .

[2]  Emily Christofides,et al.  More Information than You Ever Wanted: Does Facebook Bring Out the Green-Eyed Monster of Jealousy? , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[3]  P. Valkenburg,et al.  Preadolescents' and adolescents' online communication and their closeness to friends. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[4]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  The Benefits of Facebook "Friends: " Social Capital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[5]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  All My People Right Here, Right Now: management of group co-presence on a social networking site , 2009, GROUP.

[6]  Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol,et al.  Effects of support and job demands on social media use and work outcomes , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[7]  Nicole B. Ellison,et al.  ‘There’s a network out there you might as well tap’: Exploring the benefits of and barriers to exchanging informational and support-based resources on Facebook , 2013, New Media Soc..

[8]  Jason Martin,et al.  Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[9]  Soumitra Dutta,et al.  What's your personal social media strategy? , 2010, Harvard business review.

[10]  L. Miller,et al.  Self-disclosure and liking: a meta-analytic review. , 1994, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[12]  Max Weisbuch,et al.  On Being Liked on the Web and in the "Real World": Consistency in First Impressions across Personal Webpages and Spontaneous Behavior. , 2009, Journal of experimental social psychology.

[13]  D. Trottier.  Interpersonal Surveillance on Social Media , 2012 .

[14]  Richard N. Landers,et al.  Validation of the Beneficial and Harmful Work-Related Social Media Behavioral Taxonomies , 2014 .

[15]  D. Boyd,et al.  Social Network Sites: Public Private or What? , 2007 .

[16]  Kevin G. Corley,et al.  Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research , 2013 .

[17]  Sonja Dreher.  Social media and the world of work : A strategic approach to employees’ participation in social media , 2014 .

[18]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Exploring Multiplexity: Social Network Structures in a Computer-Supported Distance Learning Class , 2001, Inf. Soc..

[19]  Maria L. Kraimer,et al.  A Social Capital Theory of Career Success , 2001 .

[20]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[21]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  When social networks cross boundaries: a case study of workplace use of facebook and linkedin , 2009, GROUP.

[22]  W. Siffin,et al.  Bureaucracy , 1971 .

[23]  Zeynep Tufekci.  Can You See Me Now? Audience and Disclosure Regulation in Online Social Network Sites , 2008 .

[24]  Judith Donath,et al.  Public Displays of Connection , 2004 .

[25]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[26]  Saggi Nevo,et al.  Organizational members' use of social networking sites and job performance: An exploratory study , 2013, Inf. Technol. People.

[27]  Justin M. Berg,et al.  in Cyberspace : How Boundary Work in Online Social Networks Impacts Professional Relationships , 2013 .

[28]  R. Bies,et al.  Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome , 1989 .

[29]  Frederic Stutzman,et al.  Boundary regulation in social media , 2012, CSCW.

[30]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Assimilating Generation Y IT New Hires into USAA's Workforce: The Role of an Enterprise 2.0 System , 2010, MIS Q. Executive.

[31]  Lin Qiu,et al.  Emotional disclosure on social networking sites: The role of network structure and psychological needs , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[32]  Nicholas Christakis,et al.  The Taste for Privacy: An Analysis of College Student Privacy Settings in an Online Social Network , 2008, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[33]  D. Boyd.  Facebook's Privacy Trainwreck , 2008 .

[34]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Bridging the work/social divide: the emotional response to organizational social networking sites , 2012, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[35]  Katherine A. Karl,et al.  A Facebook ‘friend’ request from the boss: Too close for comfort? , 2013 .

[36]  Sonja Utz,et al.  The function of self-disclosure on social network sites: Not only intimate, but also positive and entertaining self-disclosures increase the feeling of connection , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[37]  Christian Fieseler,et al.  Professional Personae - How Organizational Identification Shapes Online Identity in the Workplace , 2015, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[38]  B. Hogan.  The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online , 2010 .

[39]  José van Dijck,et al.  'You have one identity': performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn , 2013 .

[40]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  Cultivating Social Resources on Social Network Sites: Facebook Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Their Role in Social Capital Processes , 2014, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[41]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  Toward a theory of organizational socialization , 1977 .

[42]  Daniel A. Miller,et al.  Why do people lie online? "Because everyone lies on the internet" , 2016, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[43]  Jessica Vitak,et al.  Norm evolution and violation on Facebook , 2012, New Media Soc..

[44]  N. Rothbard,et al.  Social media or social minefield? Surviving in the new cyberspace era , 2015 .