Enterprise Social Media and Employee Agility: The Role of Task Context and Personal Motivation

Organizations increasingly use social media platforms to improve internal communication, content creation, and knowledge sharing among employees. This study seeks to explore whether task characteristics (complexity and interdependence) influence the relationship between the usage of enterprise social media (ESM) and employee agility. The regulatory focus theory is used to explain the influence of employees’ promotion and prevention focus on the relationship between the usage of ESM platforms and task characteristics, as well as employee agility. All assumptions were tested using 318 cases from Chinese companies using the PROCESS Macro tool. Both task complexity and task interdependence mediate the relationship of ESM platforms and employee agility. Promotion focus moderates the relationship of ESM platforms and task characteristics and the indirect connection of ESM platforms and employee agility through task characteristics, but prevention focus weakens these relationships.