The effect of Facebook use on office workers’ job performance and the moderating effects of task equivocality and interdependence

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs office workers’ use of social networking sites (SNSs) has increased, so has research interest in the effect of SNS use on job performance. The present study employs data collected from South Korean office workers to examine how the use of the SNS Facebook affects job performance and to investigate the moderating effects of task characteristics (task equivocality and task interdependence). The results show that Facebook use for work has a positive effect on job performance, although the time spent on Facebook use does not have a significant effect on job performance. Moreover, task interdependence is associated with a decrease in the effect of Facebook use for work on job performance. In other words, task interdependence has a negative moderating effect on the impact of Facebook use for work on job performance. The reason is that Facebook is particularly advantageous for enhancing performance in tasks where the level of interdependence is low because it is a medium with relatively low synchrony and is unsuitable for one-to-one relationship building. This study has implications for companies that are concerned about formulating policies related to employees’ use of SNSs.