Social media use and employee innovative performance: Work engagement as a mediator

Abstract

We examined the impact of social media use on employee innovative performance, and the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship. Our hypothesis was that social media use would have a positive influence on employee innovative performance and that work engagement would act as a mediator in this relationship. We employed structural equation modeling to investigate this mediating role with 298 employees of a large enterprise in China. Results of a time-lagged survey showed that both social media use and work engagement were significantly correlated with innovative performance, and work engagement partially mediated the social media use–innovative performance relationship. These findings shed light on how social media use affects employee innovative performance. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.