Hybrid Social Media Use and Guanxi Types: How Do Employees Use Social Media in the Chinese Workplace?

Abstract

We investigate how work-related and personal-related social media (SM) use contributes to Chinese employees’ guanxi identification and extra-role behaviors (ERB). Our findings indicate that work-related SM use is positively associated with team member guanxi identification, which further contributes to employees’ ERB targeting the team. Personal-related SM use is positively related to insider guanxi identification and further contributes to ERB targeting the individual. When team communication is highly dependent on SM, the positive effect of personal-related SM use on guanxi identification is weakened. The results contribute to a nuanced understanding of the crucial role of SM use in the Chinese workplace.