Public employees’ use of social media : its impact on need satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation

Abstract

Although increasing numbers of employees working in public organizations are using social media for work purposes and numerous studies exist on how social media affect organizational outcomes, we have very limited knowledge of how using social media for work purposes affects employees’ work motivation. This paper fills this important gap by using self-determination theory (SDT) to analyze how the use of social media for work purposes is associated with government employees’ need satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation. According to regression results, employees’ use of social media is positively related to employees’ need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) and, accordingly, intrinsic work motivation. However, further analysis shows that too much use of social media has an averse effect. Theoretically, this study is one of the pioneer attempts to integrate e-governance with SDT. Practically, we encourage managers to use caution in promoting the use of social media for work purposes. Using social media two to three days a week may be the ideal range.