Expectation dissonance: the role of perceived negativity bias in enterprise social media in explaining accountability and support
研究企业社交媒体中员工感知的负面偏见如何影响问责感和支持感，发现未满足的沟通期望会加剧负面感知，导致员工感到不安全并害怕被问责。
Purpose Enterprise social media (ESM) are expressive spaces where users exchange emotional workplace communication. While some studies have explored how positive emotions may be contagious, little research explored the notion that negative communication may accumulate on enterprise social media. This study explores perceived negativity bias and its correlates in the context of ESM. Design/methodology/approach This study relies on survey data collected from 599 employees of a global organization. The response rate was 18.7%. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results contribute to research on ESM by demonstrating that perceived negativity bias is positively related to feelings of accountability and negatively associated with social support. Furthermore, the results indicate that unmet communication expectations on ESM can have implications for perceived social support beyond online contexts and accountability through perceived negativity bias. Research limitations/implications The findings demonstrate how employees' unmet expectations about ESM use increase feelings that a digital environment is disproportionately negative, which may create an “unsafe” space for employees and a fear of being held accountable for their contributions. This study highlights how the Expectation-Disconfirmation Theory provides a fruitful framework for studying enterprise social technologies. Originality/value This study suggests that work is not merely a rational endeavor, and that emotions and personal feelings (including negative ones) may shape workplace communication on ESM. We contribute to research on ESM use by using the Expectation-Disconfirmation Theory as a lens to study antecedents and implications of perceived negativity bias.