Abstract
The use of social media in the workplace is becoming increasingly common and it has important implications for employees. However, little is known about the relationship between social media use and employee well-being. Based on the socially embedded model of thriving at work, we theorized and tested a research model in which employees’ social media use affects employee well-being via thriving at work. We developed an online survey and collected responses from employees using social media at work in China at two time points (N = 613). The results show that employees’ social media use positively influences thriving at work while thriving at work has a positive effect on employee well-being. Notably, thriving at work fully mediates the relationship between employees’ social media use and employee well-being. These findings contribute to a richer understanding of the downstream effects of social media use on employee psychological outcomes.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available, and we have uploaded the data to the journal as supplementary electronic materials.
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This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021YJS052).
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Conceptualization: [Man Zhu, Hongyan Gao]; Methodology: [Sitan Li]; Formal analysis and investigation: [Sitan Li, Lijuan Zuo]; Writing - original draft preparation: [Man Zhu]; Writing - review and editing: [Hongyan Gao, Sitan Li]; Funding acquisition: [Man Zhu]; Resources: [Hongyan Gao]; Supervision: [Hongyan Gao]. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Zhu, M., Li, S., Gao, H. et al. Social media use, thriving at work, and employee well-being: a mediation model. Curr Psychol 43, 1052–1066 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04367-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04367-w