Dissertation Defense: Daniel Smith, "Social Media Correlates of Organizational Climate" (5/7/2009)

Social Media Correlates of Organizational Climate
Dan Smith
Thursday, May 7, 2009, 2:30pm
Crawford 322

Management should encourage employees who feel comfortable with social media – blogs, social networks, etc. – to use them in moderate amounts at work according to this research. They likely will trust top management more – in addition to other benefits to themselves and your company. While opinions were divided, employees tended to be more trusting of coworkers and top management if they had used a variety of social media recently at work. They were also higher on other organizational climate measures of cooperation and information sharing. The results are correlational; they represent associations so one cannot claim the relationships to be causal. However there was a modest, statistically significant correlation of the favorable organizational climate with the years since the company encouraged use of social media.

Employees who had some social media use were more likely to recognize the potential benefits from social media to build social capital in conjunction with work. They recognized the informational and affect values of social media to strengthen ties in the work group and to build new ties outside the immediate group and the company.

The research gathered data from a sample of 235 employees from a national pool on their social media practices and the social media policies of their employers. It investigated how social media added to a model of organizational climate that promotes knowledge sharing and cooperation, and trust in peers and management. The research integrated theories of social capital, trust, organizational climate, and knowledge sharing to test claims that social media add value to firms in social dimensions above and beyond knowledge sharing. Statistically significant associations of social media use were found with trustworthiness of employees and management, cooperation, and knowledge sharing. A hypothesis that social media use would fit a specific model incorporating organizational climate and knowledge sharing and combination was not supported. Modest associations were shown by multiple regression. The dominant effect of trust both of coworkers and management in organizational climate was reaffirmed.

The sample of respondents came from a wide range of industries and not specifically from social media-active firms so the findings may be robust. The research replicated a commitment-based HR theory linked to increased productivity. It extended the theory by adding trust in top management and social media use.

Some evidence was found that the length of time in years that an organization has had social media correlates with better organizational climate ratings. Moreover, stronger correlations were found for trust in coworkers and trust in management with more recent social media actions.

Employees also tended to use social media for work related matters more at home than on the job. Furthermore in the study sample in relation to work there was a strong plurality for Facebook compared to other social media sites.