How does social media use affect employee voice behaviour?

Abstract

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for employees to communicate and share their opinions. Yet, there are still some gaps in the social media use research. We investigated leader–member exchange and voice efficacy mediation of social media use on employee voice behaviours. The study sample comprised 359 Chinese environmental protection employees and their 79 leaders. PROCESS model regression results showed that social media use had a significant positive influence on leader–member exchange, employee voice efficacy, and on voice behaviour. Both leader–member exchange and employee voice efficacy partly mediated the influence of social media use on employee voice behaviour. Leader–member exchange mediated the relationship between social media use and employee’s voice behaviours were greater than that of employee voice efficacy. Findings align with social exchange theory and social cognitive theory in that leader–member exchange and voice efficacy played important roles in the relationship between social media use and employee voice behaviour. From these findings, we suggest that organisations should provide timely services and support (social media tools), set exemplary leadership in social media usage, and foster open communication to improve employee voice.

Keywords:

• leader–member exchange
• voice efficacy
• voice channels
• open communication

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the author without undue reservation.

Acknowledgement

Funding was provided by the Ningxia Planning Office of Social Science (Grant NO. 23NXCGL02).

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.