Enterprise social media and cyber-slacking: an integrated perspective

While the sizable body of research focuses on various psychological effects of enterprise social media (ESM), research connecting the link between ESM and cyber-slacking is still very sparse. Drawing from theories of affordance and social bonding, we propose that the negative relationship between four genres of ESM (i.e., visibility, association, editability, and persistence) and cyber-slacking is mediated by social bounding at the workplace. Using a sample of 277 respondents, we found four genres of ESM technology (except for persistence affordance) relates to social bonding at the workplace, which in turn reduces the level of cyber-slacking behavior. Our findings suggest that ESM, being a potential tool for employee engagement, may offset employees’ tendency to involve in cyber-slacking.