Employee agility and enterprise social media: The Role of IT proficiency and work expertise

Abstract

Enterprise social media (ESM) is an emerging technology that is widely adopted by organizations as a digital platform for facilitating employee communication. However, very few studies explore ESM, and those that examine the technology show mixed findings about the outcomes of ESM in organizations. This study addresses this issue by investigating how ESM usage in organizations is related to employee agility. Two-wave research data are collected from 306 employees in different Chinese organizations that employ ESM in the workplace. Drawing on information processing theory, we propose the moderating role of information technology (IT) proficiency and work expertise in the relationship between ESM usage and employee agility. Findings confirm the positive relationship between ESM usage and employee agility, and work expertise strengthens the positive relationship between ESM usage and employee agility. However, IT proficiency is not a significant moderator in this study. Furthermore, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.