Social media usage and employee’s job performance: The moderating role of social media rules

PurposeThis era is an era of social media (SM); thus, it is an essential tool for communication among individuals and organizations. The excessive use of SM by employees has raised many questions about their job performance. Therefore, there is a dire need to investigate the effects of SM use on an employee’s job performance mediated by knowledge exchange. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to examine how the organization’s SM rules can moderate the relationship between personal and work-related use of SM with information sharing and obtaining information.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative methodology was used and randomly 1,200 questionnaires data were collected physically from the employees of the public and private sectors in Pakistan. To examine the hypothesized relationships, partial least squares (PLS), rather than covariance-based structural equation modeling, was used to analyze the data. For this reason, multivariate technique, Smart PLS-3.2.1, was used for data analysis.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrated that personal and work-related use of SM could enhance employees’ job performance through knowledge exchange, and SM rules have adverse impacts on the relationships between SM use and knowledge exchange.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel model for the investigation of whether SM use affects employees’ job performance. Furthermore, it will help the policy makers and researchers regarding the management of SM use at work.