When Employees Speak as They Like: Bad Mouthing in Social Media
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
When Employees Speak as They Like: Bad Mouthing in Social Media Stefan Ivens1 · Mario Schaarschmidt1 · Raoul Könsgen1
© Reputation Institute and Springer Nature Limited 2019
Abstract Employee voice can threaten a company’s reputation when employees speak badly about their employer. This research focuses on identifying and quantifying the importance of antecedents of employees’ company-related bad mouthing in social media. Data for this study was collected through a qualitative interview study (N = 33) and a quantitative survey approach (N = 472). The hypothesized model is tested using structural equation modelling. Drawing on social identity theory and using the job demands-resources model as a theoretical lens, we found that job demands are positively associated with turnover intention, which in turn increases company-related bad mouthing in social media of employees. This study employed a cross-sectional survey design, which may be complemented by mono-organizational studies in the future. This study enriches the understanding of employees’ behavior in social media and provides implications for managers such that the strategy of reducing turnover intention is more successful to limit the amount of employees’ bad mouthing than enhancing employees’ commitment. This study is the first which links job demands and job resources with company-related bad mouthing of employees in social media. It proposes and tests antecedence of corporate reputation harming behavior of employees. Keywords Social media · Employee behavior · Company-related bad mouthing · Job demands-resources model
Introduction Various authors have noted social media’s double-edged character (e.g., VanMeter et al. 2015; Van Zoonen et al. 2016; Van Zoonen and Treem 2019). With social media, customers can support products and services by giving favorable ratings that drive future sales, but simultaneously may spread their dissatisfaction with the company with the online world—leading to unwanted outcomes such as damaged reputation or brand equity and reduced profitability (Schaarschmidt and Könsgen 2019; Walsh et al. 2018; Wetzer et al. 2007). Consequently, researchers such as Wæraas and Dahle (2019) state that “reputation management is people management”. However, while the negative consequences of social media for companies have been acknowledged for customer activities, surprisingly little research addresses negative outcomes of social media use by own employees (MeliánGonzález and Bulchand-Gidumal 2017).
* Mario Schaarschmidt mario.schaarschmidt@uni‑koblenz.de 1
Institute for Management, University of Koblenz-Landau, Universitätsstrasse 1, 56070 Koblenz, Germany
Dangerous for firms, in terms of long-term reputation risks, are negative online ratings (along with detailed reports) of own employees at company review sites such as Glassdoor or Kununu (Könsgen et al. 2018). Here, employees post (often anonymously) about former and current employers. Company review sites are an important vehicle to attract new talents as they help
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