Could social media help in newcomers' socialization? The moderating effect of newcomers’ utilitarian motivation

Highlights

• This study examines the impact of the intensity of social media usage on newcomers' socialization.

• The intensity of social media usage has positive effects on performance proficiency.

• The intensity of social media usage has positive effects on interpersonal relationships.

• Utilitarian motivation moderates the relationship between the intensity of social media usage and newcomer socialization.

Abstract

Organizational turnover is often highest among newcomers. Thus, exploring how to help newcomers integrate into an organization is critical to both practice and theory. Social media is a popular tool used by employees to communicate and establish relationships with their colleagues and leaders to achieve rapid socialization. However, the influence of social media usage intensity on newcomer socialization has been neglected in the literature. Using a sample of 238 newcomers and taking WeChat as an example, this study examines the impact of the intensity of social media usage on newcomers' socialization and its boundary conditions. The results show that the intensity of social media usage has significant and positive effects on the two dimensions of newcomer socialization (performance proficiency and interpersonal relationships) and that the effect of the intensity of social media usage on performance proficiency is mediated by interpersonal relationships. In addition, the intensity of social media usage has a stronger impact on the two dimensions of newcomer socialization when newcomers’ utilitarian motivation is high than when it is low.

Introduction

With the advancement of the Internet, social media has become increasingly popular in people's daily lives and has gradually penetrated the workplace (McAfee, 2006, Roth et al., 2016). Many new employees (newcomers) use social media to understand their organization and accelerate their integration into it. However, no consensus has been reached either theoretically or practically on whether employees are encouraged to use social media at work or whether social media can help employees improve their work performance. Gaudin (2009) found that 54% of companies prohibited employees from using Facebook and Twitter at work. However, research by McKinsey Consulting (2012) showed that social media could improve employees' performance and bring value to companies. Some academic studies have also found that social media improves job satisfaction and work performance (Charoensukmongkol, 2014), but others have described the negative impact of social media. For example, Charoensukmongkol (2016) argued that social media could lead to emotional exhaustion, and Brooks (2015) asserted that social media in the workplace could reduce employees' happiness. These opposite findings have raised questions as to whether social media can facilitate new employees' integration into organizations and under what circumstances social media can play a positive role in the workplace.

To fill these gaps, this study investigates the relationship between social media usage and newcomer socialization, the process through which newcomers acquire the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes needed to integrate into the organization (Allen et al., 1999, Fisher, 1986, Van Maanen and Schein, 1977). Newcomer socialization is essential to both the organization and its new employees. Rapid and high-quality newcomer socialization can reduce organizational costs and facilitate performance (Hyosun and Hyehyun, 2014, Kang et al., 2017, Wang et al., 2017), and newcomers' rapid socialization can make the organization accept them more readily. Specifically, newcomers can quickly integrate into the organization by building close relationships with its members (Wang & Kim, 2013) and acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to understand their jobs (Wang, Kammeyer-Mueller, Liu, & Li, 2015). If newcomers cannot quickly integrate into an organization, the organization's turnover rates will increase significantly (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2013, Takeuchi and Takeuchi, 2009). Research has shown that organizational turnover is often highest among newcomers (Allen, 2006). Thus, it is important to investigate the factors influencing newcomer socialization. With the increasing popularity of social media, increasing numbers of newcomers are relying on this tool to communicate and establish relationships with their colleagues and leaders to achieve rapid socialization. However, the effect of the intensity of social media usage on newcomer socialization has been neglected in the literature. We attempt to fill this gap.

In addition, it is apparent that not all newcomers who use social media are able to quickly integrate into their organizations. Therefore, we also try to find the boundary condition of the effect of the intensity of social media usage on newcomer socialization. Research has indicated that the effect of social media usage on newcomer socialization outcomes is contingent on employee motivation (Hansen & Levin, 2016). Thus, the second purpose of this study is to examine the potential moderating effect of utilitarian motivation on the relationship between the intensity of social media usage and newcomer socialization. “Utilitarian motivation” refers to employees' perception that using social media for work is useful and effective (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014). Therefore, when newcomers believe that using social media helps them acquire knowledge for work and maintain colleague relationships, a higher intensity of social media usage may make it easier for them to integrate into the organization. Conversely, if newcomers perceive that social media does not help them acquire essential work knowledge and maintain colleague relationships, more intense social media usage may not necessarily facilitate newcomer socialization. That is, the effect of the intensity of social media usage on newcomer socialization will be amplified when newcomers’ utilitarian motivation is high.

This study attempts to fill these important gaps in the literature and argues that newcomers' social media usage intensity has a positive effect on their socialization. Furthermore, we propose that utilitarian motivation moderates the relationship between the intensity of social media usage and newcomer socialization. This study contributes to the social media and newcomer socialization literature in three ways. First, by exploring the relationship between the intensity of social media usage and newcomer socialization, this study enriches the research context of social media. Second, this study introduces newcomers’ social media usage intensity to the field of newcomer socialization, providing a new perspective for newcomer socialization research. Finally, this study empirically examines the moderating effect of utilitarian motivation on the intensity of social media usage and newcomer socialization, and reveals the boundary condition of the effect of such intensity on newcomer socialization.