Interplay of enterprise social media and learning at work: a qualitative investigation

Citizen behaviors, enterprise social media and firm performance

Purpose

The goal of this study is twofold: first, it seeks to investigate how enterprise social media (ESM) usage contributes to firm performance, especially through operational performance metrics; second, to identify the ESM users’ behaviors that help to improve firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretive case study of a medium-sized manufacturing company in the food industry. After developing a theoretical framework, an exploratory research was undertaken about the use of an ESM. Qualitative methods were adopted for data collection and analytic induction for data analysis, using structural and descriptive coding. A series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers and middle-managers were conducted. Operations performance metrics were also assessed through documentary analysis before and after the implementation of the ESM.

Findings

The study integrates concepts and theories from across three main fields of research, namely organizational behaviors, management and information systems. It complements the extant research on ESM by providing a new theoretical framework that connects ESM use with firm performance. Empirical findings suggest that ESM contributes to firm performance through social capital development fostered by organizational citizenship behaviors. The emergence of leadership development has been also observed.

Research limitations/implications

The exploratory nature of the study combined with the fact that it has been conducted within a single organization greatly limits the generalization of the findings.

Practical implications

Managers can use the findings of this study as a support of a successful ESM implementation. Besides, it provides references for practitioners aiming to use and evaluate ESM and their corresponding citizenship behaviors within a manufacturing milieu.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to bring a multi-disciplinary perspective of the contribution of ESM usage on firm performance-based in a social capital enacted by organizational citizenship behaviors. These understandings add new insights to the literature and establish new theoretical connections between organizational citizenship behaviors, ESM use and social capital that also allowed to emerge leadership development.