This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.
Dr. Anu E. Sivunen, Dr. Ward van Zoonen, and Dr. Jeffrey W. Treem explored how emotions are expressed on enterprise social media and how an employer-moderated channel impacted employees’ displays of emotion.
The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 39 employees (e.g., flight attendants, customer experience personnel, and loyalty membership staff) at two European aviation companies who use Yammer as their enterprise social media tool. Interviews for the first company were held between the summer and fall of 2019, and for the second company in spring of 2020.
Key findings include:
1.) Negative emotions were commonly expressed on internal, visible, and non-anonymous social media platforms.
2.) While employees appreciated the easy access of a platform that invited engagement and discussion with one another, they noted that the emotional expression of the content on Yammer was often negative, referred to as “platform pollution.”
– However, many participants felt that having a place to vent and discuss their work challenges was necessary, particularly for employees in the flight crew.
3.) The role of moderators did little to reduce the negativity expressed by employees. Supervisory employees with the authority to censor content on Yammer were reluctant to act, fearing negative backlash from employees or being labeled as overly controlling.
Implications for Practice
Organizations and leaders should understand that the enterprise social media system acts as a representative of the pre-existing culture within the organization at large. Participants in this study noted that the negativity, bullying, and venting commonplace on Yammer were a result of the real-life communication and expressions happening in the workplace. Rather than being disillusioned at the negativity found on enterprise social media channels, leaders should instead see it as a reflection of larger workplace culture issues and take aims to address the larger issues. Organizations should also find effective ways to prevent problematic content on ESM while still encouraging healthy employee expression.
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