Trick or Treat? Social Media Use by Employees

Gordon SchmidtOctober 30th 2015 MSU BroWnBag Presentation

What is social media?

• “a group of Internet-based applications… that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)• Facebook has over a billion active

global users

71%

28%

26%

23%

28%

Social Media Life And Work Life Overlap

• 71% of adult internet users/58% of US adult population have Facebook account (Duggan et al., 2015 Pew Research Center)•~60% of employees report having one or more co-worker friend on Facebook (Duggan et al., 2015; Weidner et al. 2012)• 25% Facebook friends with supervisor (Weidner et al. 2012) • Countless groups connecting employees on social media

Workers Fired for Facebook

• Looked at workers fired for their content posted on social media• 8% of organizations say have fired someone • Doesn’t have to be illegal actions- can be deemed immoral or org interest

•We have looked at legal ramifications of such cases • Can be customers or co-workers posts, too

Legality of being Fired for Facebook Posts• Little to no 1st amendment protection• Social media posts discoverable in court regardless of privacy settings• Employee protections mostly for “Protected Concerted Activity”• Employees discussing work terms or conditions• A Facebook “like” is protected based on current rulings

• State laws impact, too

Perceptions of fairness and opinions on using social media for terminations

• Examined young adults’ perceptions of social media use in firing decisions (Drouin, O’Connor, Schmidt, & Miller 2015)• 42% Facebook/ Twitter posts shouldn’t be used for decisions• 52% K-12 teacher should be able to post picture of drinking

beer during a vacation (only 24% actually disagreed)• Only 10% thought posted something would hurt own job search• So some disconnect between law + perceptions of what is fair

Social Media Policies• Estimates vary, but one estimate is 80% of companies have a policy•Many of these policies have been found too restrictive of workers’ rights to engage in concerted activity•Walmart policy is one that has passed muster•Question of how well workers know policies

Knowledge of Policies

•Working adults’ knowledge of social media policies• 35% did not know if company had policy• Those who did had poor knowledge of it

Applicant Social Media Content Impacting Selection

• Estimates vary (45% to 91%), but a significant percentage of organizations use social media in their candidate screening process•Much of this is done informally without clear standards• Existing research has been mixed on if this can be effective•Questions of how screening should be done

Ambiguity of content on social media

•How should content be interpreted?• In press volume on Social Media in Selection Landers & Schmidt

Problem Gambler??

Bad Fashion

Choices?

Bad Mustache Choices & Maybe squeezing a cat?

Social Media and work embeddedness• Schmidt, Lelchook, Martin (in press) looked at how % of Facebook co-worker friends relates to workplace outcomes in sample of 106 unionized retail employees•Greater % of co-worker friends, greater perceived organizational support•Greater % of co-worker friends, greater organizational spontaneity

Connections in field of I/O

• Potential for connections between I/O Psychologists• Schmidt & Landers (2010) discussed social media as a means for discussing identity issues and make connections in I/O• But in field use still low•Will talk about some applications

I/O Psychologists on Twitter

• Some usage of •#iopsych #iopsychology•Most chatter during conferences with #SIOP15

I/O Psychology sub-Reddit• Place for questions and discussion related to I/O• AMA (Ask Me Anything) with I/O Psychologists talking about field, advising students and the like

Future Research Directions•More proscriptive versus descriptive work• What factors have impacted versus documenting existing reality• Experiments or quasi-experiments would be helpful in this regard

• Longitudinal research• How do social media connections impact work outcomes over time?• How do social media interventions have impact?

• International research• What are country effects?

• How does social media use and function differ by culture?

Any Questions or Comments?

•This presentation can be found on Slideshare•You can also email me at: schmidtg@ipfw.edu•Or message me on LinkedIn or Twitter:•https://www.linkedin.com/pub/gordon-schmidt/13/a90/891•https://twitter.com/iopsychology