How Newcomers’ Work-Related Use of Enterprise Social Media Affects Their Thriving at Work—The Swift Guanxi Perspective

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between newcomers’ use of enterprise social media (ESM) and their thriving at work. Adopting the conception of swift guanxi, we propose a model to examine how newcomers’ work-related use of ESM influences their thriving at work through promoting swift guanxi (i.e., mutual understanding, reciprocal favors, and relationship harmony) between newcomers and veterans. A valid sample consisted of 77 new employee-veteran dyads in a large telecom company was used in Smart-PLS to test our research model. The results show that newcomers’ work-related use of ESM positively affects mutual understanding, reciprocal favor, and relationship harmony. Reciprocal favor and relationship harmony exert positive effects on learning and vitality. However, mutual understanding only has a positive effect on learning. Furthermore, swift guanxi mediates the relationships between newcomers’ work-related ESM usage and the two dimensions of thriving. The findings provide new insights for organizations to better manage the use of ESM to improve newcomers’ thriving at work.