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This study investigates how employees' work- and social-related use of social media can individually and interactively render different impacts on employees' performance in the context of internal or external social media.

To test the research model in these two different contexts, the authors collected data from 392 internal social media users and 302 external social media users in the workplace.

The data suggest that the respondents' job performance can be enhanced when using internal social media for work-related purposes and using external social media for social-related purposes. Meanwhile, the interaction of work- and social-related use is positive for external social media but negative for internal social media on job performance. These findings highlight the significant distinction of social media use in the workplace.

First, this study contributes to the literature on the business value of IT by providing theoretical arguments on how companies can capitalize efforts to consider work-related use in combination with social-related use to create business value. Second, this research theorizes two distinct yet interacting views of social media use. The authors offer a more granular insight of the paths from work- and social-related use to employee performance instead of encapsulating social media use in a unitary concept and linking it simply and broadly to employee performance. Third, this research considers the interdependent effects of work- and social-related use on employee performance, and thus goes beyond the independent roles of these two types of social media use. Fourth, the authors find that the links from employees' work- and social-related use of social media to job performance vary in different contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of message source and types of corporate social responsibility (CSR) message on stakeholder’s perception toward CSR and behavioral intention toward the company.

A 2 (message source: CEO’s Facebook account vs organization’s Facebook account) × 3 (types of CSR messages: internal CSR vs external CSR vs control) between-subjects online experiment (n=242) was conducted online.

Internal CSR message elicited greater perceptions of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality, and commitment toward the organization among the stakeholders than the external CSR message and the CEO’s personal life message. A significant two-way interaction between the message source and the type of CSR message on behavior intention toward the organization was obtained.

Internal CSR message does matter when it comes to social media posting. The general public do pay attention to what the CEO and the organizations are posting on their social media accounts. Message source does not matter when it comes to social media message posting. However, organizations and CEOs should try to stay consistent when it comes to creating a public CSR message.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence the success of internal communication in Spanish companies, specifically the importance of the channels used, activities conducted through ISM and the role played by the communication professional.

The model employed argues that to obtain success in internal communication, three factors are considered necessary: first, communication professionals must participate in strategic decisions; second, they have to use together social media channel and classical channel to communicate with employees; and finally they must choose which activities they carry out during the use of social media. These elements are developed in the literature review. To research practices of internal digital communications and level of success of internal communication across types of organizations, a quantitative survey between professionals from Spanish companies was conducted.

The results revealed that the hierarchical level, participation in the strategic decision process and dedication of the communication practitioner, alongside with the use of face-to-face and online communication channels, and the perceived importance of communication activities conducted through social media platforms are the key factors that influence the quality of internal communication. However, no significant relationship between the level of success and the use of social media channels was found.

The current study has several limitations that should be noted and addressed in future research. The main limitation lies in the fact that the dependent variable – success in communication – is entirely based on communication professionals’ perceptions. Replication studies can be conducted to cross-validate the results obtained from this study using business outcome metrics to measure the communication effectiveness. A further limitation is related to the sampling procedure. Obtaining a representative sample of communications professionals in Spanish companies poses a number of limitations due to the impossibility of having accurate data on the total population.

The findings of the current study provide important implications for public relations professionals on what (i.e. the content) and how to (i.e. the channels) communicate within an organization. In general, internal communicators should move from historical roles as information producers and distributors to advisory roles in strategic decision making. Additionally, the implementation and use of ISM should be carefully revaluated. Communication practitioners should examine and address the difficulties involved in choosing the correct channels, devoting the necessary time to their adequate management, analyzing employees’ feedback and improving the engagement.

The study shows that internal communication practices in Spanish companies are changing. The model used in this research can be applied in an individual organization to evaluate what factors improve the communication of its employees and carry out additional research in other countries or types of organizations to identity new challenges.

The authors develop a conceptual model to examine how three basic psychological needs (i.e. needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness) affect employee social media use (i.e. work- and social-related use). The authors propose that the need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and social-related use.

To test the proposed model, 332 internal and 271 external social media users in the workplace were recruited.

The results indicate that needs for competence and autonomy and needs for relatedness and autonomy positively affect the work- and social-related use, respectively, of internal and external social media. Need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use of internal social media, and it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and the social-related use of internal social media. Need for autonomy has no moderating effect on the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates the relationship between need for relatedness and the social-related use of external social media.

First, the authors’ findings offer significant empirical support for the different social media uses, namely work and social related. Second, this study highlights the importance of psychological needs of employees in determining the form of social media use. Third, this study empirically demonstrates the differences in psychological needs and social media use between two different social media contexts.

This study aims to enhance understanding of using Web 2.0 technologies and social media in a global corporation.

A qualitative case study in a global corporation was conducted to illustrate the main uses of social media and to describe the related service portfolio.

The main uses of social media were identified and conceptualized based on the case company data. Internally, social media was used to for internal communication and knowledge transfer, to reach personnel and to conduct internal idea crowdsourcing. Externally, social media was used to enhance communications related to the company brand, to enable dialogue with customers, to build communities with various stakeholder groups and to engage external stakeholders in idea generation via a crowdsourcing platform. A categorization of social media uses for communication, collaboration and connecting vis‐à‐vis external and internal uses was created. Idea creation practices were further conceptualized as the main enactment of Web 2.0 social media technology.

This study is a single case study and thus the results cannot be generalized.

As Web 2.0 technologies and social media have become a topic of interest for many companies, it is essential to understand how social media can be used in a business context. The classification of social media uses is deployed to highlight the possible implications for company operations, and the human factor is emphasized in system adoption and use. Challenges related to social media implementation are described.

As of to date, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence on uses of social media. This research is based on a case study, allowing an in‐depth insight into the phenomenon and related issues.

To advance the theoretical understanding of employees' advocacy on social media, this study aims to propose and test an integrative model that incorporates individual and organizational antecedents. Drawing from the relationship management theory in public relations and online behavior literature, the model specifically examines the collective impacts of the social media-related behavioral motivations of individuals and the quality of employee–organization relationship (EOR) on their positive information-sharing intentions about their company on personal social media.

An online survey was conducted with 419 full-time employees in the USA who use social media.

The results of an online survey with full-time employees in the USA showed that the EOR influenced by symmetrical internal communication significantly increases employees' advocacy intentions and social media-related motivations. Considerable and distinct effects of individuals' positive behavioral motivations on social media (i.e. self-enhancement, altruism, enjoyment) on advocacy intentions are also found.

This study is among the first attempts to test the value of strategic internal communication and relationship management approach in enhancing employee advocacy on the digital environment, social media and their motives of using such channel for benefiting their company.

Adopting a social capital theoretical (SCT) lens, this study aims to propose a conceptual framework of effective internal communication (IC) for the hospitality industry. The study explores how to enhance current practices and the suitability of social media as an augmentation to traditional IC channels.

A qualitative research methodology, consisting of 20 semi-structured interviews with hospitality employees, was adopted. Following a “reduction” and “interpretation” process, 16 themes related to effective IC were identified which informed a conceptual framework.

Characteristics of effective IC were identified in addition to IC benefits at both employee and organizational levels. Considering the limitations of current practices, the applicability of social media was explored. Requirements of effective IC suggest that new channels (e.g. social media) should be adopted to build social capital.

The study informs SCT from a meso-level (process) perspective. The articulation of an IC framework informs how social capital can be built through effective IC, providing a foundation for further empirical examination as to the impact of various channels on the IC process. Adoption of a case study design suggests that results and implications can only be generalized to similar environments.

The study details the characteristics of effective IC and its subsequent benefits, highlighting how social media can augment current IC practices in a hospitality organization.

Being a 24/7 labor-intensive operation makes employee communication to ensure service excellence challenging in the hospitality industry. Through the application of SCT and the exploration of social media in a workplace setting to enhance IC, significant theoretical and practical insights are realized.

Ensuring effective usage of Web 2.0 within government organisations is not as straightforward as it seems. The organisations should be aware of a number of issues when implementing Web 2.0 internally. This paper introduces a theoretical model that highlights the importance of management, technology and people issues influencing the level of Web 2.0 usage from an internal perspective. The purpose of this paper was to identify and explore these issues in a government context.

This paper uses a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) analysis to identify the issues that should be focused on for achieving effective usage of Web 2.0 among government employees. A combination of interviews, surveys and usage data collected from two government organisations was used to gather the data.

The main finding is that, a policy will act as an initial catalyst for culture change and effective usage of Web 2.0 technologies in a government environment. It was also found that it is important to develop an understanding among senior management about the motivation for their employees to utilise Web 2.0 internally. As a result, the proposed theoretical model could assist government organisations in developing effective adoption approaches through identifying their employees’ motivation to adopt Web 2.0 technologies and developing a suitable organisational social media policy.

There is the issue of the small number of both qualitative and quantitative respondents within the research. Such limitation is because the research relies solely on the voluntary participation of the employees. This limitation was coupled with the fact that both organisations had different security requirements that had affected the amount and level of feasible information that was accessible to the researchers.

This paper extends the understanding of issues applicable to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools from a government organisations’ perspective. The developed theoretical model acts as an adoption guide for organisations to achieve effective Web2.0 tools usage. At the same time, this paper also examines related motivation aspects which higher management should consider while using a new social media or Web 2.0 platform internally.

This paper highlights suitable overview approaches for organisations to consider in increasing adoption of Web 2.0 among their employees. This paper also provides an initial foray into identifying other complex issues that may exist within different government organisations in relation to internal technology usage.

The paper aims to highlight the role of enterprise social media as an internal workplace tool for employee engagement purposes.

The paper provides a viewpoint on how social media can be used internally by organizations after considering both academic and practitioner literature in the respective field.

The paper posits that organizations should move beyond using social networking tools for recruitment and branding purposes and take a step further to use social media tools internally for employee engagement initiatives. It provides practical implications for managers to embrace social media as an engagement tool and to increase employees’ participation on such media.

The paper provides implications for both researchers and practitioners for using social media as a strategic employee engagement initiative and devising appropriate social media and human resource strategies to do so.

The paper offers insights into how enterprise social media can be used as an internal communication tool for engaging employees in this technologically connected era.

Academics and professionals across management and communication fields have increasingly recognized significant contributions of engaged employees to organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of communication channels, and communication attributes of transparency and authenticity on employee engagement in China.

A web survey was conducted with 407 employees randomly selected from a variety of medium-sized and large corporations in China.

The study results show that face-to-face interactions and social media are the most effective channels in building organizational transparency, authenticity, and engaging employees in China. Organizational transparency and authenticity demonstrate strong positive effects on employee engagement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study was among the first empirical attempts to examine the impact of corporate communication channels on employee engagement in China. It also contributes to the growing literature on corporate transparency and authenticity, two of the major communication trends identified in the twenty-first century.