Investigating the Impact of Enterprise Social Media on Job Satisfaction of Chinese Employees in Public Sector: Empirical Study on DingTalk

Over past decades, the digital wave of various technology tools, such as enterprise social media (ESM), has disrupted the routine practices, structures, and relationships of contemporary organisations in China in novel ways. The emerging ESM, such as DingTalk, now prevails and is adopted by hundreds of millions of users in enterprises in China. Especially during the pandemic, in the past three years, remote working with DingTalk has led to the innovative evolution of routine works and accelerated the informatisation progress of public institutions. However, besides the many benefits brought by the excellent tool, many concerns such as technostress, overload, groupthink, and privacy invasion deserve more attention from scholars. Thus, this study investigates on the essence of the DingTalk phenomenon and how it influences people in terms of constructive impacts and destructive issues within various public institutions in China. Furthermore, this study establishes a theoretical framework to clarify relationships between the job satisfaction of public employees and DingTalk usage, from the perspectives of technology affordances, determinants of JS, JD-R theory, and sociomateriality theory. Fitting with the research paradigm of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research applied pragmatic mixed methods with a social constructionist stance to guide the study. Thus, 25 in-depth interviews with public employees in diverse job positions were conducted in six chosen state institutions to find out their lived working attitudes, behaviours, and experiences during using DingTalk. Additionally, based on the qualitative findings, the 460 localised questionnaire with validated scales were conducted online to test four relational hypotheses, as a supplementary description for a rich picture of the DingTalk phenomenon. Although there are numerous researches on the employees’ job satisfaction (JS), ESM technology, and their associations in Western enterprises, inadequate empirical exploration of relationship between Chinese employees’ JS and usage of DingTalk in the public sector is discussed. By addressing some research gaps, this study contributes to academic research and practical management in three aspects. Firstly, the exploration of the DingTalk phenomenon can benefit public sector in China, in view of self-management technology, leadership, and innovative technology implementation, with descriptive evidences and referenced reasons of diverse perspectives from DingTalk practitioners. Secondly, extending the knowledge from traditional job satisfaction research studies and related theories, the presented theoretical framework identifies significant determinants of the JS of public employees, examines the mediator of DingTalk usage and moderators on the wellbeing of employees, and specifies bilateral influences of technology affordances. Furthermore, practical managerial strategies are recommended to improve the use or design of ESM tools, to benefit from technological advances, and prompt constructive impacts on individuals and organisations.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

dba

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Zeng, Xiaohui

• HD28 Rheoli. Rheoli Diwydiannol
• T Technoleg (Cyffredinol)

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:3128