TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding social media governance
T2 - seizing opportunities, staying out of trouble
AU - van den Berg, Annelieke C.
AU - Verhoeven, Joost W.M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Purpose: The rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has provided employees with means to share work-related information. Increasingly, social media governance policies are implemented to negotiate the risks and opportunities of such behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the motivations behind managers’ attempts to govern these behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten communication managers of various organizations. Higgins’ regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) was used to examine whether managers adopted a prevention or promotion focus to social media, and whether regulatory focus affected the measures taken toward social media governance. Findings: Prevention and promotion foci were both observed among managers, and differed per communication model. Managers who employed dialogic models of communication were primarily promotion-focused and emphasized opportunities to improve stakeholder relations, while managers who employed one-way models were primarily prevention-focused and highlighted the risks of social media (e.g. the risk of employees publishing messages that contradict corporate communication and confuse stakeholders). Social media governance differed depending on regulatory focus. In the prevention scheme managers usually attempted to regain control by restricting social media to private use only, while in the promotion focus managers trained and facilitated employees for work-related social media use, to various extends. Originality/value: By examining the interplay of regulatory focus, communication models and governance, this paper sheds light on the rationale behind social media governance policies that are implemented in organizations.
AB - Purpose: The rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has provided employees with means to share work-related information. Increasingly, social media governance policies are implemented to negotiate the risks and opportunities of such behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the motivations behind managers’ attempts to govern these behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten communication managers of various organizations. Higgins’ regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) was used to examine whether managers adopted a prevention or promotion focus to social media, and whether regulatory focus affected the measures taken toward social media governance. Findings: Prevention and promotion foci were both observed among managers, and differed per communication model. Managers who employed dialogic models of communication were primarily promotion-focused and emphasized opportunities to improve stakeholder relations, while managers who employed one-way models were primarily prevention-focused and highlighted the risks of social media (e.g. the risk of employees publishing messages that contradict corporate communication and confuse stakeholders). Social media governance differed depending on regulatory focus. In the prevention scheme managers usually attempted to regain control by restricting social media to private use only, while in the promotion focus managers trained and facilitated employees for work-related social media use, to various extends. Originality/value: By examining the interplay of regulatory focus, communication models and governance, this paper sheds light on the rationale behind social media governance policies that are implemented in organizations.
KW - Employee communication
KW - Reputation management
KW - Social media governance
KW - Strategic communication management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85009165620&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/CCIJ-06-2015-0035
DO - 10.1108/CCIJ-06-2015-0035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85009165620
SN - 1356-3289
VL - 22
SP - 149
EP - 164
JO - Corporate Communications
JF - Corporate Communications
IS - 1
ER -