According to Yu et al. (2018), exploring the effects of social media overload on job performance, employees who display excessive social media use have motives prone to significant stressors, leading to social media exhaustion. Researchers discovered three types of social media overload: communication, information, and social overload (Farhoomand et al., 2002). Social media exhaustion was shown to have a different correlation to reduced individual job performance (Yu et al., 2018). But there are positive benefits for social media usage in the workplace, such as individuals who use social media to connect with colleagues regarding work-related inquires and networking purposes (Yu et al., 2018). Individuals addicted to social media but use it for productive reasons have a significant increase in work productivity (Ahn & Shin, 2013).
The research methodology correlates with the research question: can employees remain productive while addicted to social media? This would be the case study research method. The case study research method focuses on one specific topic and includes multiple data sources to highlight a clear understanding of the research question (Burkholder et al., 2016). A case studys primary focus is to identify the case and its boundaries over a specific period (Burkholder et al., 2016). Researchers in the article Yu et al. (2018) reviewed the effects of excessive social media use in the workplace, which focused on that one topic for some time (Burkholder et al., 2016). Researchers were able to identify the case and review the research questions efforts or boundaries (Burkholder et al., 2016).
References:
Ahn, D., & Shin, D. H. (2013). Is the social use of media for seeking connectedness or for avoiding social isolation? Mechanisms underlying media use and subjective well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 24532462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.022
Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., & Crawford, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). The scholar-practitioners guide to research design. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Publishing.
Farhoomand, Ali & Drury, Donald. (2002). Managerial information overload. Commun. ACM. 45. 127-131. doi: 10.1145/570907.570909.
Yu, L., Cao, X., Liu, Z. and Wang, J. (2018), “Excessive social media use at work: Exploring the effects of social media overload on job performance”, Information Technology & People, Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 1091-1112. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-10-2016-0237
