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Understanding the social media The social

media
interactivity paradox: the effects of interactivity
paradox
social media interactivity on
communication quality, work 1805
interruptions and job performance Received 15 December 2020
Revised 25 March 2021
12 August 2021
Xiangyu Liu Accepted 14 August 2021
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Bowen Zheng
Business School, Central South University, Changsha, China, and
Hefu Liu
International Institute of Finance, School of Management,
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

Abstract
Purpose – Although social media is widely used for organizational communication, studies have begun to
show its controversial effects on job performance in the workplace. To investigate these effects, this study
developed a conceptual framework for how social media interactivity affects communication quality and work
interruption, as well as how such effects impact job performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposed theoretical model was empirically validated through a
survey study of 556 employees in China.
Findings – The results verified a social media interactivity paradox that indicated social media interactivity
increased both communication quality and work interruptions. The results further showed that high levels of
social media dependency were a detriment to organizations.
Originality/value – This study verified the existence of a social media interactivity paradox in the use of
social media for workplace communication. Moreover, results revealed that the effect of social media
interactivity on organizational outcomes depends on its respective dimensions.
Keywords Social media, Empirical study, Work performance
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Social media’s increasing use and availability have resulted in a marked proliferation of its
application as a work-related information and communication technology (Wang and Yang,
2020). For example, O’connor et al. (2016) found 86% of employees have coworker friends on
social media, and it has been reported in China that more than 80% of WeChat users have
used it for work-related communication [1]. While social media has been shown to enable
highly interactive communication between employees in the workplace (Shao and Pan, 2019),
some studies have found it can cause problems via a “double-edged sword” effect (Sreejesh,
2020). Such studies suggest employees may experience a social media interactivity paradox,
whereby they struggle to balance maintaining interactive communication with others and
avoiding stressful interruptions (Carlson et al., 2016). Therefore, the current study aims to
explore whether and how it occurs in the workplace in order to guide the appropriate social
media use. Information Technology & People
Vol. 35 No. 7, 2022
pp. 1805-1828
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC: 71971202, © Emerald Publishing Limited
0959-3845
71921001) and Ningbo Commonweal Science and Technology Fund (202002N3138). DOI 10.1108/ITP-12-2020-0845
ITP Interactivity has been considered as a critical feature of social media and refers to a high level
35,7 of engagement and communication between communicators during the process of message
exchange, in which communicators perceive they are in the presence of a social other (Tan et al.,
2018). The controversial findings of social media interactivity in the workplace lead to a debate
that whether it should be allowed to use social media for work-related communication (Carlson
et al., 2016). However, social media interactivity has multiple dimensions, and each dimension
can have different – and even opposing – effects on communication outcomes (Lowry et al.,
1806 2009). As employee use of social media in the workplace continues to increase, it is imperative to
identify how it can simultaneously cause positive and negative organizational outcomes as an
information and communication technology. Identifying such outcomes can help effectively
train employees to use it to maximize productivity. Instead of advocating for use or no use, the
first goal of this study is to test the social media interactivity paradox by examining how the
dimensions of social media interactivity can impact communication quality as well as how
social-media-related work interruptions impact job performance. The results thus offer
important implications for employees and managers that can guide them in benefitting from
social media’s positive effects and help them avoid its negative effects.
Indeed, IS researchers have long investigated the effect of computer-mediated-
communication (CMC) tools on employee performance (Ou and Davison, 2016; Dennis et al.,
2008). As a newly adopted tool for communication, social media adds multiple CMC choices to
existing organizational communication tools, such as email (Song et al., 2019). Easy access to
social media has meant increased and habitual employee reliance on social media for work
(Wang et al., 2015). In the workplace, social media dependency refers to the degree of employees’
dependency on social media to attain work-related goals (Kim et al., 2019). Nevertheless, it is
important to note that social media is a personal CMC tool not originally designed for the
workplace. Of this, researchers have suggested that, although interactive media enables users
to perceive communication as more interactive, its positive effects can fade with regular use
(Voorveld et al., 2011). Dependence on social media can additionally exacerbate interruptions to
work (Guo et al., 2020). Yet, despite these risks, empirical studies on social media dependency in
organizational contexts in regard to organizational CMC management remain scarce. The
second goal of this study is thus to determine how social media dependency impacts the
relationship between communication quality, work interruption and job performance.
While previous studies have examined the positive or negative effects of workplace social
media use independently, this study takes an integrative approach to studying social media
communication to provide a comprehensive understanding. Through exploration of the social
media interactivity paradox and the role of social media dependence, the contribution of this
study is twofold. First, it extends existing understandings of social media communication in the
workplace via a social media interactivity paradox. Dedicated investigation of the paradox’s
antecedents can help stakeholders address the controversial use of social media use in the
workplace more effectively. Second, this study furthers extant knowledge of technology
dependency in organizations by examining the moderating effect of social media dependence
on the relationship between communication quality, work interruptions and performance.
Overall, the results provide key suggestions for managing social media use in the workplace to
strengthen its positive outcomes and weaken its negative ones.

2. Theoretical background and literature review

2.1 CMC interactivity theory and social media interactivity
IS researchers have long investigated the interactivity of CMC tools (Sreejesh, 2020 Larose
et al., 2014). At its core, CMC interactivity refers to interpersonal interactivity in the context of
computer-mediated communication (Lowry et al., 2009). Grounded in interpersonal
communication, CMC interactivity theory suggests that the more technologically mediated
communication resembles interpersonal communication, the more interactive the The social
communication (Heeter, 1989). As such, CMC technologies such as email and video media
conferencing are often judged by the level of enabled interactivity they provide. For example,
these technologies are evaluated for their ability to enable two-way or multiple-way
interactivity
communication (i.e. e-mail to a specific person vs a broadcasting message on a bulletin board) paradox
and for their capacity to convey rich social cues (i.e. text messages vs audio and video
messages). Designers of CMC technologies have similarly treated interpersonal interaction as
the benchmark for assessing CMC (Burgoon et al., 2002). The general consensus has been that 1807
a higher level of interactivity in CMC media can promote mutual understanding with others in
the workplace (Fan et al., 2017; Ariel and Avidar, 2015).
As an interactive technology, social media facilitates the forming and maintenance of
social relationships through electronic interpersonal communication (Larose et al., 2014). The
literature has generally supported the notion that social media encourages users to engage in
interactive behavior (Shao and Pan, 2019; Alalwan et al., 2017). Interactivity is a multifaceted
concept that has been extensively studied in academia. Scholars have categorized social
media interactivity in a variety of ways, such as user-to-user, user-to-systems and user-to-
information (Lin and Chang, 2018). For example, that brands use social media to interact with
consumers has been studied as a different category of social media interactivity than
consumer interaction with other consumers in social media communities (Alalwan et al.,
2017). Scholars have also conceptualized social media as bundles of technological tools, such
as instant messages, social networking sites and personal websites (Ellison et al., 2011). Given
the context of the current study (i.e. social media communication among employees for work
purposes), this study focuses on the human-to-human interactivity enabled by social media
services to understand how employees interact with others in the workplace using the service
of instant messages.

2.2 Grounding social media interactivity in CMC interactivity theory

As previously mentioned, interactivity is a multidimensional construct. Researchers have
specifically identified different dimensions in different contexts, such as cyber interactivity
(Mcmillan, 2002) and website interactivity (Voorveld et al., 2011). As more and more computer-
mediated communication literature considers social media as an interactive communication
tool, researchers have begun to study the dimensions of social media interactivity more closely.
CMC interactivity theory suggests that the level of social media interactivity depends on the
degree to which social media mediates communication to resemble interpersonal exchange
(Heeter, 1989) and has been the primary framework for studying the dimensions of social media
interactivity. Researchers have also suggested that it is necessary to study media interactivity
via an evolving perspective (Mcmillan, 2002). In applying these perspectives, existing literature
has identified four components of social media interactivity that resembles interpersonal
communication: synchronicity, dialogism, richness and mobility.
First, synchronicity and dialogism have long been recognized as key dimensions of
computer-mediated communication (Liu, 2003; Lowry et al., 2009). Researchers agree that
CMC interactivity should allow a two-way flow of information and that such an exchange
should happen quickly. In other words, when one communicator sends a piece of information,
they should be able to receive a quick response (Liu, 2003). Moreover, given the salience of
social media, Huang et al. (2018) have proposed a three-dimensional understanding of social
media interactivity with the added dimension of richness. Richness is defined as a CMC
technology’s capacity for enabling users to convey information and thereby facilitate the
acquisition of shared meaning and understanding. Furthermore, as social media users
increasingly turn to mobile social media communication, researchers have suggested that the
unique attribute that provides mobile communication with advantages over online
communication is mobility (Kim et al., 2010). Mobility refers to communicators’ ability to
ITP use mobile social media applications to more rapidly communicate with others in mobile
35,7 network areas. Mobility has thus been identified as a key factor in social media
communication (Lee and Cho, 2011; Tajudeen et al., 2018; Li et al., 2019). See Figure 1 for
an illustration of the four dimensions of social media interactivity in a typical social media
communication.
2.2.1 Synchronicity. CMC interactivity theory asserts that high CMC interpersonal
interactivity is contingent upon synchronicity (Lowry et al., 2009). Synchronicity refers to the
1808 extent to which employees work together with a common focus (Liu and Shrum, 2002). Social
media synchronicity allows users to receive feedback from others instantly, which closely
mirrors face-to-face interpersonal communication wherein speaking and hearing happen
simultaneously (Hrastinski, 2008). Additionally, in most social media systems, a special
moving icon shows, in real time, when users are typing or revising message. This real-time
chat style allows social media communication to closely resemble face-to-face conversation.
Existing research has posited that the time it takes communicators to receive and answer one
another will largely shape the quality of the communication process and will accordingly
impact communication quality (Park and Lee, 2019).
2.2.2 Dialogism. Dialogism refers to the concept of dialogic communication, which has
been widely acknowledged as an important component of interactivity feature (Lowry et al.,
2009). It has also been studied under taxonomies such as responsive communication,
bidirectional communication (Chou, 2003), two-way communication (Shao and Pan, 2019),
reciprocity dialogic communication (Wang and Yang, 2020). Although studied under
different terms, the sharing meaning is that the communication technology enables users to
participate in conversing with other users in a way the messages are bidirectional flow – the
receiver is also a sender and reacts to previous messages. The dialogic communication is in
contrast to the design of social network sites service, which encourages one-to-many forms of
broadcasting communication (Tsai and Men, 2018). The conversational design of social
media communication makes mediated communication close to interpersonal chats (Taylor
and Kent, 2014). Moreover, the dialogic communication enables communicators to engage in

Figure 1.
An example of social
media interactivity
reciprocal communication that is responsive to the communicating parties’ needs (Mcmillan The social
and Hwang, 2002), which helps distinguish social media interactive communication from one- media
way broadcasting communication where senders dominantly transmit messages.
2.2.3 Richness. Researchers have long believed the importance of nonverbal cues in CMC
interactivity
(Maity et al., 2018). According to media richness theory, communication media vary in their paradox
level of richness, which refers that the communication media could convey nonverbal cues
and a greater sense of presence (Shao and Pan, 2019). Social media communication allows
users to send nonlinguistic symbols, pictures, emoji, audio and videos that enable users to 1809
convey rich nonverbal cues. Park and Lee (2019) suggested that such richness features
provide social media users with a rich communication experience that enables mutual
understanding. Studies investigating the role of nonverbal cues in human-to-human
interaction suggested that rich mediated forms of communication can simulate the nonverbal
contextual information of face-to-face interaction (Kumar et al., 2006). Thus rich nonverbal
cues help blur the line between the real world and social media communication.
2.2.4 Mobility. With the increasing popularity of smartphones, mobile social media
applications (e.g. KaKaoTalk, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc.) have become some of the most
commonly used applications in the world and mobile communication has risen dramatically
as a result (Park and Lee, 2019). Researchers have therefore suggested the most significant
advantage of mobile technology to be mobility, or the ability to access social media
communication ubiquitously, on the move and via wireless networks as well as a variety of
mobile devices, such as mobile phones (Kim et al., 2010). Notably, Au and Kauffman (2008)
have asserted mobility to be independent of time and place and researchers have indicated
the importance of accounting for user migration from computers to mobile devices (Song and
Hollenbeck, 2015). As existing research has called for explicit focus on the role of mobility in
communication (Ishii, 2006; Ning et al., 2017), this study responds to that call and examines
the effect of mobility on social media interactivity paradox.

2.3 Social media interactivity paradox

As existing studies have found both positive and negative effects of social media use for
work-related communication (Fonner and Roloff, 2012), this study proposes a social media
interactivity paradox, by which high levels of social media interactivity may improve
communication quality and, at the same time, enable increased interruptions to work and
productivity. Indeed, as a powerful CMC tool, social media has the potential to enhance
communication quality and contribute to organizational success. Communication quality
refers to an employee’s perception of communication effectiveness (Lowry et al., 2010). It is
usually measured in terms of timeliness, adequacy, accuracy, completion and interactivity
(Lowry et al., 2009). High-quality communication generates multiple perspectives, allowing
group members to achieve mutual understanding (Lowry et al., 2006). Social media can
thereby provide employees an efficient way to communicate with one other in the
development of mutual trust and social networks (Charoensukmongkol, 2015).
However, social media interactivity may come at the cost of unwanted, distracting
interruptions that have the potential to decrease job performance. Work interruption refers to
an employee’s perception of disturbance or the discontinuity of current work activity due to
unscheduled social media interaction (Ou and Davison, 2011). In general, employees have
been shown to react negatively to work interruptions, which increases their sense of time
pressure and impedes their accomplishment of tasks (Jett and George, 2003). Ou and Davison
(2011) have also found work interruptions resulting from social media use can be a major
barrier to company deployment. Given this, the popularity and common use of social media
communication among employees have been shown to multiply the level of interruptions in
the workplace (Carlson et al., 2016). For example, when employees receive a work-related
social media message, they may have to stop their current work to engage in social media
ITP communications with others. The nature of these communications requires employees to
35,7 return to social media communications several times to complete a discussion, which
fragments their concentration and time spent working. Such interruptions can have
significant negative impacts on productivity, as it takes time for employees to return to their
previous work. In particular, it has been found that interruptions can increase task
completion time by 3–27% (Bailey and Konstan, 2006). Social media communication in the
workplace can thus “break” employees’ focus and attention on their work (Speier et al., 2003).
1810
2.4 Social media dependency
IS researchers have explored technology dependence in a variety of contexts. For example,
Mafe and Blas (2006) examined key drivers of Internet dependency and its impact on
consumers’ willingness to purchase online. Technology dependency has also been studied in
online games (Xu et al., 2012) and social networking sites (Turel and Serenko, 2012). The
current study builds on the technology dependence stream of IS research to further examine
the role of social media dependency in the context of organizational communication. In such a
context, social media dependency refers to the degree to which employees depend on social
media to attain their work-related goals (Larose et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2019). For instance, a
high degree of social media dependency correlates to a greater perception of the importance of
social media in employees’ achievement of critical work-related goals.
The use of communication technologies in organizations has become notably complex and
fluid. Presently, it is common for employees to rely on multiple communication tools to
communicate and coordinate complex tasks, including emails, short messaging services and
video conferences. Additionally, studies have found that the growing familiarity with using
social media communication channels in the workplace has resulted in a growing dependency
on such modes of communication (Thomas and Akdere, 2013). Media systems dependency
theory suggests that heavy social media usage can reflect employees’ “goal-oriented
dependency,” or the extent to which social media can help achieve their work-related goals
(Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Carillo et al., 2017). However, high degrees of social media dependency
can also be problematic. For example, Wang et al. (2015) indicated such levels of dependency
can cause people to spend a majority of their time and energy engaging in social media usage
and thereby feel a superficial sense of fulfillment from their habitual activities. The current
study thus works to reveal how this paradoxical nature of social media connectivity affects
job performance in organizations with high degrees of social media dependence.

3. Hypotheses development
3.1 Social media interactivity and interactivity paradox
Media synchronicity theory proposed that communication will be improved if the selected
media supports the synchronicity (Dennis et al., 2008) because a response that occurs with
minimum delay is thought to help increase interpersonal interactivity (Kumar et al., 2006).
The synchronicity of social media interactivity enables employees to communicate
information quickly to complete a task or reach members who may be unavailable
through other media (Zhang et al., 2017). When timely responses are anticipated, employees
tend to be engaged in more active and open communication (Hsu et al., 2011). Thus
synchronicity makes social media an efficient way for organizational communication.
Moreover, synchronicity of social media communication leads employees to feel others are
present, thus it would encourage communication. On the contrary, if synchronicity is low and
there are delays in communication, the communication flow will be hindered (Yadav and
Varadarajan, 2005) and employees’ attention will be distracted elsewhere (Park and Lee,
2019). Thus it is proposed that:
 H1a. Synchronicity is positively related to communication quality. The social
However, when users could send and receive messages without delay, the synchronicity media
feature also leads to work interruptions. Social media users typically receive messages with a interactivity
sound or picture to notify the recipient about the message. The synchronicity of the social paradox
media communication demands the recipients’ immediate attention. Thus employees may
have to stop the work in hand and respond to messages, which interrupts their originally
established workflow. Usually social media messages are unexpected and users are not 1811
warned before messages arrive. Therefore, users have to maintain a state of permanent
alertness to keep connected with others (Chang and Ian, 2014). As a result, employees cannot
fully concentrate on their current task. Moreover, the synchronicity feature of social media
also facilitates employees to have unplanned conversations, which also interrupt their
working process. Therefore, it is proposed that:
H1b. Synchronicity is positively related to work interruption.
According to Lowry et al. (2009), an essential component of human-to-human interpersonal
interaction is dialogic communication where participants in a communication exchanges are
senders and receivers. Such conversation design makes every previous message turns
become part of the conversation and the frame of reference for the whole conversation.
Different from reactive communication (such as comments on a news website), which is very
specific and brings the interaction to an end, the dialogic communication is more interactive
and encourages the continuation of the conversation. The dialogic communication also leads
users to feel intimate when communicating with others (Wang and Yang, 2020). Thus it
facilitates employees’ interactions with others and helps accumulate social capitals in the
workplace. Moreover, different from the design of one-to-many forms of broadcasting
communication, dialogic communication enables users a more personal and private
communication environment (Tsai and Men, 2018). The perception of a more private
environment enabled by dialogic communication design is thus likely to enhance more active
and meaningful conversations with colleagues (Tsai and Men, 2018). Thus it is proposed that:
H2a. Dialogic communication is positively related to communication quality.
In addition, dialogic communication enables senders to respond to not only to the last turn
message but also to previous turns. Thus it encourages the continuation of an interaction
even the recipient responds later (Liu, 2003). For example, when employees receive several
social media messages from a colleague, they have to respond to each message. And it would
take more rounds of dialogue to complete the discussion. Therefore, the attribute of two-way
dialogic communication extends the communication, which increases work interruptions
among employees. Thus it is proposed that:
H2b. Dialogic communication is positively related to work interruptions.
To achieve optimal communication quality, participants must mutually confirm the meaning
of the communicated information to ensure shared understanding (Park and Lee, 2019). Rich
social media interactivity equips users with novel ways to express, learn and engage in social
interactions by sending vivid pictures, emojis and videos in real time. Studies based on media
richness theory have specifically demonstrated that rich nonverbal cues help people achieve
better interactions with others (Anandarajan et al., 2010). Similarly, a study based in CMC
interactivity theory found multiple cues not only increased communication quality, but also
created a heightened sense of interpersonal connectedness, which in turn improved group
interaction and openness (Lowry et al., 2009). Rich nonverbal cues have further been shown to
aid in the creation of psychological closeness and physical and social presence (Dennis et al.,
2008). Thus we propose:
ITP H3a. Richness will be positively related to communication quality.
35,7 However, richness may also distract employees from their work. When employees work on a
straightforward task, the availability of visual, nonverbal information distracts employees
from their work. For example, when employees receive an emoji from collogues via social
media, they must first translate the emoji to ensure they comprehend it the same way as the
sender. Notably, recent research has shown people differ in their familiarity with, use and
1812 valence of emojis (Jones et al., 2020). To respond with an appropriate emoji, then, they must
perform quick mental calculations to respond with an appropriate emoji. This richness in
social media communication thus requires employees to expend more cognitive effort to
process and address such distractions and interruptions. Research additionally suggests that
environments with limited social cues cause communication to be more task-oriented and
depersonalized (Burgoon et al., 2002). When discussing work-related topics in such
circumstances, factual information is more important, which can render nonverbal
information nonessential to communication (Charoensukmongkol, 2015). The presence of
overly rich cues (e.g. visual cues) can thereby result in disproportionately greater concerns
about personal feelings and current moods, which can hinder task completion. We therefore
propose:
H3b. Richness will be positively related to work interruptions.
The mobility of social media interactivity gives users more opportunities to interact with
others in real time, regardless of time and location (Tan et al., 2018). Using mobile social media
applications, employees can send and respond to messages even when it is not convenient to
do so. In this way, mobility facilitates continued interactions. Moreover, smartphones are
integrative in that they are a highly personal device that is often conceptualized as an
extension of self (Clayton et al., 2015). As such, social media communication provides a
personal, interactive, portable and user-controlled communication environment (Fu et al.,
2013), the mobility of which can encourage employees to engage in quality communications.
Therefore, we propose:
H4a. Mobility will be positively related to communication quality.
Yet, social media mobility can also increase work interruptions as it enables users to be
contacted anytime and anywhere (Au and Kauffman, 2008). For instance, employees can
receive work-related messages during meetings. In this regard, mobility extends employees’
reachability through the removal of temporal and spatial barriers (Jett and George, 2003). In
such cases, employees must feel pressure to respond to work-related communications, even
when traveling. This kind of increased access has been shown to result in more time and
energy spent working or thinking about working, which can in turn cause employees to
perceive high levels of interruption associated with emotional exhaustion (Barber and
Santuzzi, 2015). As the ubiquity of mobile devices enables interruptions anywhere and at any
time, we propose:
H4b. Mobility will be positively related to work interruptions.

3.2 Interactivity paradox and performance

Through social media communication, employees not only share their work updates with
others, but also get information about other members’ work. By that employees can keep
updating the progress of a task or a project. Thus social media communication helps
employees stay informed of current progress and find appropriate strategies to improve
the work, which in turn helps team members complete work efficiently and effectively
(Carlson et al., 2016). Social media communication provides opportunities for employees
to understand each other and build common ground. Good quality of communication
helps motivate collaboration and decrease conflict in a team (Liu et al., 2014a), which The social
finally contributes to performance. The more accurate, complete, timely, adequate and media
effective the employees’ interaction, the more information can be shared, mutual
understanding and trust achieved and higher levels of performance accomplished. Thus
interactivity
it is proposed that: paradox
H5. Communication quality is positively related to job performance.
Importantly, studies have found workplace interruptions to be significantly correlated to 1813
decreases in task performance (Mcfarlane, 2002; Rennecker and Godwin, 2005). The
consequences of interruption include errors, stress and reduced performance. For example,
Mcfarlane and Latorella (2002) discovered most workers were more prone to making errors
when exposed to distractions related to communicating and collaborating with coworkers
and Speier et al. (2003) echoed that “an interruption breaks a decision maker’s attention on a
primary task” (p. 773). Previous studies have also indicated interruptions negatively impact
employees’ psychological states, such that the resumption time for interrupted tasks
increases (Zijlstra et al., 1999). When interruptions inhibit focus, slow task completion and
thereby generate stress, employees may yield fewer contributions to organizations (Chang
and Ian, 2014). Frequent interruptions can increase the cognitive burden on employees’
attention and memory and prevent them from maintaining focus on multiple tasks (Gillie and
Broadbent, 1989). Based on the above, we propose:
H6. Perceived interruptions will be negatively related to job performance.

3.3 The moderating role of social media dependency

Despite the high level of interactivity enabled by social media communication, it should be
noted that social media is not specifically designed for organizational communication.
Social media was initially created and used to facilitate connections with family and friends
(Penguin Intelligence, 2017). Its proliferation has since caused it to function as a vital means
of maintaining work connections (Zhang et al., 2017). Of this phenomenon, previous
research has suggested social media applications, as interpersonal communication tools,
help facilitate personal and working relationships among colleagues (Sheer and Rice, 2017).
This is likely because social media’s usage as a supplementary tool in the social context of
communication contributes to feelings of proximity and familiarity, which leads employees
to perceive a sense of working as a group (Charoensukmongkol, 2015; Thomas and
Akdere, 2013).
Yet, as mentioned in the preceding sections, social media dependence in the workplace
can exert negative effects on employee productivity (Wang et al., 2015). These days,
organizational communication is becoming more complex and varied than ever before,
requiring accordingly complex cooperation among employees to achieve success. As
such, effective and efficient organizational communication demands high levels of
information communication technologies for the creation, modification, transmission and
storage of information and knowledge (Widjaja et al., 2020). As indicated above, such
demands move beyond the original design of social media as a personal communication
tool. Thus, in cases where employees are highly dependent on social media to attain work-
related goals, the shortcomings of social media as an organizational communication tool
may be salient. Social media, for instance, poses security risks for organizations (Kumar
and Somani, 2018). Moreover, when work-related communication is dependent on
personal social media, such social contexts can further impede the efficiency of work
processes (Kandlousi et al., 2010). As a result, employees’ increasing reliance on social
media for organizational work can weaken the positive effect of communication quality
on job performance. We thus propose:
ITP H7. The positive relationship between communication quality and performance will
35,7 weaken with high levels of social media dependency, such that the relationship will
less positive for those with high levels of social media dependency as opposed to
those with low levels of dependency.
The interruptions that result from social media communication can significantly worsen
performance with dependent social media use. Social media dependency in the workplace can
1814 thereby make boundary management a challenge for employees. A recent workplace study, for
instance, found social media caused work–life conflicts and interruptions that increased
exhaustion (Baccarella et al., 2018). Constant interruptions that ask for immediate responses not
only fragment attention – they also make it harder for individuals to return to their primary
tasks. They have been associated with higher physical and cognitive burnout, health-related
absenteeism and poorer sleep quality. Furthermore, when an organization is highly dependent
on social media for workplace communication, employees may feel pressure to conform to the
organization’s media communication preferences (Guo et al., 2010). For example, employees
may feel the need to engage in compulsive social media use by constantly checking it to avoid
missing important messages. This can additionally exacerbate the negative impact of work
interruptions on job performance. As such, we propose:
H8. The negative relationship between perceived interruptions and performance will be
strengthened when social media dependence is high, such that the relationship will
be more negative for those with high levels of social media dependency as opposed to
those with low levels.
Figure 2 presents the research model for this study.

4. Methodology
4.1 Procedures
This study employed the survey method to test the research hypotheses. The data were
collected in a state-owned company in China AEG. AEG is an investment and operation
organization responsible for the fund raising, investment management of provincial power
and asset management projects. It has net assets of more than 30bn yuan and more than 6,000
employees. Before the survey, a few employees were interviewed to know more about the
communications among employees. According to the interviews, employees in AEG have
multiple CMC tools, and they reported they mostly use public social media tools such as
WeChat for organizational communication with managers and colleagues. Therefore, it can

Figure 2.
The research model
be concluded that the employees in the company were appropriate as subjects for this study. The social
The survey was promoted through a senior manager from the company. The hyperlink of the media
survey was sent out to employees working in several teams. At the beginning of the survey,
the respondents are told that their answers will be anonymous and there are no right or
interactivity
wrong answers so that they should answer questions as honestly as possible. Such a design paradox
approach helped us relieve the problems associated with common method biases.
1815
4.2 Participants
Over a period of one week, the study collected 556 valid data points. The response rate was
66.3%, and it was determined that nonresponse bias was not a concern in this study. Table 1
provides the demographic characteristics. A test for nonresponse bias, following the
suggestions by Armstrong and Overton (1977), used two-tailed t-tests to compare responses
between the early (first 25%) and late (last 25%) respondents for all constructs including the
control variables. No significant differences were found, which suggests that nonresponse
bias is not a problem in this study.

4.3 Measures
As most of the constructs used in this study are well established, we adopted previously
validated measures where appropriate. Participants were first asked to evaluate social media
interactivity. Synchronicity and dialogism were measured based on scales adopted from
Lowry et al. (2009). Richness was measured based on scales adopted from Shao and Pan
(2019). Mobility was measured based on scales adopted from Kim et al. (2010).
Communication quality and work interruptions were then measured using scales from Ou
and Davison (2016) and Ou and Davison (2011). Social media dependency was measured
using scales from Carlson et al. (2016). Job performance was measured using scales from
Janssen and Van Yperen (2004). All questionnaire items used a five-point Likert scale ranging
from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” This study also controlled for gender, age,
education level, team size, work position and work experience because these variables may be
related to job performance (Janssen and Van Yperen, 2004). Appendix lists all measurement
items and their sources.

5. Results
5.1 Common method bias
Data for the current study were collected from a single source using a self-report form. Given
the potential for common method bias, Harman’s single-factor test was employed to verify

Categories Items % Categories Items %

Gender Male 77.9 Position Manager 16.2

Female 22.1 Nonmanager employee 83.8
Age range 18–25 8.6 Team size 1–5 11.3
26–30 11.2 6–10 33.6
31–40 15.3 11–15 35.6
41–50 44.2 >16 19.4
51–60 20.7 <1 year 5.6
Education level Pre-college 30.2 Work experience 1 ≤ Years < 3 5.0
College 36.0 3 ≤ Years < 5 4.3 Table 1.
Bachelor 32.0 ≥5 85.1 Demographic
Master or above 1.8 characteristics
ITP bias and ensure the validity of the results (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). The results indicated
35,7 all items could be categorized into eight constructs with eigenvalues greater than 1.0,
accounting for 84.39% of the variance. The first construct accounted for 14.89% of the
variance, which was not the majority of the total variance, thereby suggesting common
method bias was small. To further assess common method bias, a marker variable test was
conducted. According to Lindell and Whitney (2001), if a variable is theoretically unrelated to
a study’s substantive variables, it can be used as a marker. Specifically, it indicates that any
1816 observed relationships between it and the other variables are presumably due to common
method variance.
In the current study, employees’ perceived voice climate was used as a marker variable
measured by a scale adopted from Frazier and Bowler (2015). Some sample items included:
“The members of my work group are encouraged to develop and make recommendations
concerning issues that affect this work group,” “The members of my work group are
encouraged to speak up in this group with ideas for new projects or changes in procedures” and
“The members of my work group are encouraged to communicates his/her opinions about work
issues to others in the group, even if his/her opinion is different and others in the group disagree
with him/her.” The results found no relation between any observed variables, suggesting the
study effectively controlled the possible contaminating effect of method biases and that such
biases were not a serious concern (Podsakoff et al., 2003).

5.2 Measurement model

This study used SPSS and Mplus to calculate construct validity and reliability. First, the
study used Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability to assess the reliability of each
construct, as suggested by Liu et al. (2013). As Table 2 shows, the Cronbach’s alpha values
ranged from 0.80 to 0.95, all above the benchmark value of 0.70. The values of composite
reliability ranged from 0.88 to 0.96, well above the benchmark value of 0.70. The results
indicated adequate reliability of the measures. Second, the individual item loadings and
average variance extracted (AVE) scores were used to test the convergent validity. The
loadings varied from 0.74 to 0.94, at a significance level of 0.001. The AVE scores for every
constructs ranged from 0.67 to 0.89, all above the recommended benchmark of 0.500 (Fornell
and Larcker, 1981). The results indicated that all measurement items achieved adequate
convergent validity.
Furthermore, as Table 3 shows, the square root of the AVE for each construct, presented
on the diagonal, was greater than the correlations between constructs. This result indicates
that none of the constructs shared more variance with another construct than with its own
measures. Therefore, the measurement achieved adequate discriminant validity (Helm and
Tolsdorf, 2013). Hence, it is concluded that the measurement model of this study possessed
adequate reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Construct Loading Composite reliability Cronbach’s alpha AVE

Synchronicity 0.84–0.92 0.92 0.87 0.79

Dialogism 0.91–0.94 0.93 0.90 0.78
Richness 0.85–0.92 0.92 0.86 0.89
Mobility 0.74–0.90 0.88 0.80 0.71
Table 2. Communication quality 0.92–0.94 0.96 0.95 0.86
Results of Perceived interruptions 0.83–0.87 0.89 0.81 0.73
confirmatory factor Social media dependency 0.74–0.87 0.89 0.83 0.67
analysis Job performance 0.92–0.94 0.95 0.92 0.86
Latent construct Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The social
media
1. SY 3.78 0.48 0.94 interactivity
2. TW 4.04 0.60 0.19 0.94
3. RN 3.75 0.61 0.23 0.46 0.94 paradox
4. MB 3.74 0.83 0.48 0.28 0.26 0.92
5. CQ 3.90 0.69 0.24 0.46*** 0.52*** 0.54*** 0.96
6. WI 3.31 0.68 0.18* 0.07 0.08*** 0.24*** 0.08 0.93 1817
7. SMD 3.60 0.60 0.57 0.17 0.14 0.38 0.20 0.13 0.90
***
8. JP 4.05 0.42 0.17 0.11 0.13 0.16 0.20 0.10*** 0.30 0.96 Table 3.
Note(s): SY 5 synchronicity; TW 5 dialogism; RN 5 richness; MB 5 mobility; CQ 5 communication quality; Means, standard
WI 5 work interruptions; SMD 5 social media dependency; JP 5 job performance deviation and
*
p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001 correlations

5.3 Structural model

Mplus 7.0 was used to test the hypotheses. Table 4 and Figure 3 report the results of the
structural model and hypotheses. The results showed a good fit between the model and the
data set (χ 2 5 401.30 on 175 df, RMSEA 5 0.06, CFI 5 0.95, TLI 5 0.94, SRMR 5 0.04). First,
the Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI) (Tucker and Lewis, 1973) and Comparative Fit Index (CFI)
(Bentler, 1990) were examined to compare the fit of a hypothesized model with that of a
baseline model. Xia and Yang (2019) recommend that CFI and TLI > 0.90 indicates an
acceptable fit. The CFI and TLI values of this study were 0.95 and 0.94, so fit is considered
adequate in this study. Second, the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) was
used to assess how far a hypothesized model is from a perfect model (Steiger, 1990). An
RMSEA < 0.08 suggests a reasonable model–data fit, better is <0.05 suggested by (Steiger,
1990). The RMSEA value of this study is 0.06, which is adequate. The above model fit indices
are widely applied to assess model–data fit (Xia and Yang, 2019).
5.3.1 Interactivity feature and connectivity paradox. The results showed that dialogism
(β 5 0.203, p < 0.001), richness (β 5 0.328, p < 0.001) and mobility (β 5 0.428, p < 0.001) each
had significantly positive influences on communication quality. Thus H2a, H3a, H4a were
supported. Also, synchronicity (β 5 0.113, p < 0.05) and mobility (β 5 0.216, p < 0.001) each

Hypotheses Results

H1a: Synchronicity is positively related to communication quality Not

supported
H1b: Synchronicity is positively related to work interruption Supported
H2a: Dialogism is positively related to communication quality Supported
H2b: Dialogism is positively related to work interruptions Not
supported
H3a: Richness is positively related to communication quality Supported
H3b: Richness is positively related to work interruptions Not
supported
H4a: Mobility is positively related to communication quality Supported
H4b: Mobility is positively related to work interruptions Supported
H5: Communication quality is positively related to job performance Supported
H6: Perceived interruptions is negatively related to job performance Supported
H7: The positive relationship between communication quality and job performance is weaken Supported
when social media is highly dependent used Table 4.
H8: The negative relationship between perceived interruptions and job performance is Supported Results of hypotheses
strengthened when social media is highly dependent used testing
ITP
35,7

1818

Figure 3.
Mplus analysis of
model results
Note(s): *p < 0.05 (|t| > 1.96), **p < 0.01 (|t| > 2.58), ***p < 0.001 (|t| > 3.29)

had significantly positive influences on work interruption. Thus H1b, H4b were supported.
No significant influence is found between dialogism and work interruption, suggesting that
dialogism leads to less interruptions than expected. Thus H2b was not supported. Similarly,
H1a was not supported. Although not significant, it should be noted that the relationship
between synchronicity and communication quality was negative, which suggested that
synchronicity even decreases communication quality. Especially, it should be noted that
richness (β 5 0.194, p < 0.001) was found to have a significantly negative influences on
work interruptions, which is opposite with H3b. It suggested that when employees use rich
nonverbal cues during communication, it would help decrease work interruptions.
To better understand the effect of social media interactivity features on connectivity
paradox, the path coefficients were compared adopting the method suggested by Liu et al.
(2014b). Table 5 shows that synchronicity leads to more work interruptions than
communication quality (p < 0.001). Meanwhile, dialogism leads to more communication
quality than work interruptions (p < 0.001). Particularly, richness helps to increase
communication quality and decrease work interruptions (p < 0.001). While mobility leads to
both communication quality and work interruptions, it had a stronger positive effect on
communication quality than work interruptions (p < 0.001). Figure 4 helps to demonstrate the
results, which suggested that each dimension of social media interactivity plays a different
role in the interactivity paradox.
5.3.2 Connectivity paradox and job performance. The findings revealed a significant
relationship between communication quality and job performance, suggesting H5 was
supported (β 5 0.43, p < 0.001). As expected, work interruption was found to be significantly
negative in relation to job performance (β 5 0.15, p < 0.05). Thus, H6 was also supported.
5.3.3 The moderating effects of social media dependency. Figures 5 and 6 show the results
of the moderating effects of social media dependency on the relationship between the

T-values

Synchronicity → CQ vs Synchronicity → WI 62.4836***

Dialogism → CQ vs Dialogism → WI 40.4864***
Richness → CQ vs Richness → WI 181.5393***
Table 5. Mobility → CQ vs Mobility → WI 70.8012***
Comparison of path Note(s): ***p < 0.001
coefficiencies CQ 5 communication quality; WI 5 work interruptions
 The social
media
interactivity
paradox

1819
Figure 4.
The effect of social
media interactivity on
communication quality
and work interruptions

5
4.5
Job performance

4
3.5 β = 0.03
3
2.5 β = 0.10***
2
1.5
1
Low Communication quality High Communication quality Figure 5.
Moderating effect of
Low social media dependency social media
dependency on the
High social media dependency relationship between
communication quality
Note(s): *p < 0.05 (|t| > 1.96), **p < 0.01 (|t| > 2.58), and job performance
***p < 0.001 (|t| > 3.29)

5
4.5
Job performance

4
3.5 β=
3
2.5 β = 0.02
2
1.5
1
Low Work interruptions High Work interruptions
Figure 6.
Moderating effect of
Low social media dependency social media
dependency on the
High social media dependency
relationship between
work interruptions and
Note(s): *p < 0.05 (|t| > 1.96), **p < 0.01 (|t| > 2.58), job performance
***p < 0.001 (|t| > 3.29)
ITP connectivity paradox and job performance in this study. First, the results indicated that
35,7 the positive relationship between communication quality and job performance was
weakened when employees were highly dependent on social media for communication
(β 5 0.12, p < 0.05). As such, H7 was supported. As Figure 5 shows, job performance
rapidly increases as communication quality increases when social media dependency
is low.
Second, the results further revealed that the negative relationship between work
1820 interruption and job performance became significantly more negative when employees were
highly dependent on social media for communication in the workplace (β 5 0.15, p < 0.05).
Therefore, H8 was supported. As Figure 5 shows, job performance rapidly decreases as work
interruptions increase when social media dependency is high.

6. Discussion
This study proposed a social media interactivity paradox whereby social media interactivity
leads to distinct positive and negative organizational outcomes when social media is used for
work-related communications. Our findings verify the paradox and have important
implications for social media research and organizations using social media for
communication. First, the results theoretically verified that social media interactivity both
benefits work performance by increasing communication quality and inhibits job
performance by causing work interruptions. These insights may help explain the
inconsistent results identified in studies linking the social media use to job performance.
Second, based on CMC interactivity theory, this study verified the social media interactivity
paradox by examining how the dimensions of social media interactivity – including
synchronicity, dialogism, richness and mobility – affect communication quality and work
interruptions. Specifically, the results challenge previous interactivity studies alleging higher
levels of interactivity in communication technologies can promote social interaction and mutual
understanding, while lower levels may reduce social interaction and mutual understanding
(Fan et al., 2017). In addition, the findings demonstrate that the impact of social media
interactivity on organizational outcomes depends on its respective dimensions. The
synchronicity of social media interactivity produced work interruptions without benefiting
communication quality. Contrarily, dialogism led to increased communication quality without
causing work interruptions. Richness helped increase communication quality and decrease
work interruptions. While mobility led to both communication quality and work interruptions,
it had a stronger positive effect on communication quality than work interruptions. The third
key finding of this study is that high levels of social media dependency proved detrimental to
organizations. This is because social media dependency weakened both the positive
relationship between communication quality and performance and strengthened the
negative effect of work interruptions on performance.
We also acknowledge that some relationships were not supported in the proposed model.
First, for instance, H1a was not supported, suggesting synchronicity is not positively related
to communication quality. Previous studies based on media synchronicity theory have
suggested high level of synchronicity benefits organizational communication. However, our
results indicated synchronicity led to work interruptions instead. In other words, this current
study inferred that synchronicity can cause employees to feel persistent pressure to respond
immediately, as is similarly expected in face-to-face conversations. Barber and Santuzzi
(2015) have referred to this as tele-pressure.
Second, the results show H2b was not supported, thereby suggesting dialogism was not
positively related to work interruptions. The study speculated that, compared with one-way
broadcasting communication, dialogism may support two-way communication and facilitate
communicators’ engagement in reciprocal communication, which makes each party more
responsive to the others’ needs (Lowry et al., 2009). Consequently, this relieves employees’ the The social
sense of work interruptions. Third, H3b was not supported, suggesting richness in media
communication does not lead to work interruptions. Our study speculated that richness in
nonverbal cues, such as voice, may help cultivate a sense of intimacy and social presence
interactivity
(Lowry et al., 2009) that can relieve perceived interruptions. paradox

6.1 Theoretical implications 1821

Overall, this study has important theoretical implications. First, it verified a social media
interactivity paradox that holds social media interactivity increases both communication
quality and work interruptions. Previous studies have yielded inconsistent findings of social
media use in workplace communication. Some researchers, for instance, have affirmed
interactivity is a desirable attribute and that it can positively affect brand loyalty. At the same
time, other scholars have found few as well as negative effect of interactivity (Fonner and
Roloff, 2012; Ou and Davison, 2011). Given this, our study provides a theoretical explanation
for these controversial findings by verifying existence of the social media interactivity
paradox. As previously mentioned, the interactivity paradox posits that social-media-
enabled interactivity simultaneously facilitates job performance by affording quality
communication while simultaneously decreasing job performance through the provision of
stressful interruptions.
Second, in applying a theoretical conceptualization of social media interactivity, this study
reveals the mechanism behind the social media interactivity paradox by testing how the
dimensions of social media interactivity influence communication quality and work
interruptions. The results indicated synchronicity, dialogism, richness and mobility led to
different levels of communication quality and work interruptions. While existing social media
research generally agrees on social media’s utility as an interactive tool for organizational
communication, a lack of deep understanding persists regarding the mechanism behind how
social media yields interactive communication. This can complicate efforts to identify which
interactive elements evoke variations in employees’ experiences with and performances of
communication. Our findings thus highlight the value of investigating the effects of social
media interactivity dimensions separately.
Third, by investigating the moderating effect of social media dependency, the present
study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how social media can affect
organizational outcomes. As employees are becoming increasingly more dependent on social
media for organizational communication, the need to understand the role of social media
dependence on organizational outcomes grows. As such, we suggest that high levels of social
media dependency both weaken the positive effects of social media interactivity on job
performance and strengthen the negative ones.

6.2 Managerial implications

Given the above, this study has important managerial implications for organizations
adopting social media as a workplace communication tool. First, the social media interactivity
paradox indicates that social media connectivity is both advantageous and detrimental for
employee performance because it enables high-quality communication while simultaneously
inviting unwanted work interruptions. Organizations should thus be aware that social media
interactivity helps increase communication quality, but that it also intensifies interruptions
among employees.
Second, as social media has become an important tool for organizational communication,
understanding how to use it appropriately is the key to achieving successful social media
communication. For instance, this study revealed synchronicity is a major antecedent of work
interruptions. Therefore, to alleviate the negative effects of work interruptions, organizations
ITP are advised to make it acceptable to respond to work-related social media messages an hour
35,7 after such messages are received. In addition, dialogism and richness can increase social
media communication quality. We thus encourage that organizational communication
consists of more one-to-one dialogue communications rather than one-to-many broadcasting
commutations. Employees are also advised to engage rich nonverbal cues, such as emoji and
meme use. Last, mobility both increases communication quality and interruptions with a
stronger positive effect on communication quality. Thus although mobile social media
1822 communication is encouraged, employees should be aware of the double-edged sword effect.
Third, although social media can facilitate interactivity in work-related communication,
the positive effect of social media interactivity on communication quality is likely to decrease
in instances of high social media dependency. Given this, managers are advised to mitigate
social media dependency and to design organizational communication tools with this in mind.

7. Limitations and directions for future research

While this study provides several guidelines for the use of social media in organizational
communication, it also has limitations for future research can address. First, the data were
collected from social media users in China. Whether these results can be replicated in other
cultural contexts requires further investigation. We therefore encourage researchers to
examine this issue in the context of other cultures and regions. Second, we used employees’
self-reported data to measure job performance, which may be subject to bias. As a result,
further studies might investigate alternative ways of measuring performance.
In sum, this study contributes critical potential directions for future research. Specifically,
our results indicated that richness of social media interactivity helped decrease work
interruptions. They provide grounds for speculating that richness in nonverbal cues may
help employees develop a sense of intimacy in ways that alleviate perceived interruptions.
More empirical studies are needed to verify the guess and reveal the mechanism of how the
richness of social media communication affects employees’ perceived interruptions. And
finally, future researchers are encouraged to explore how organizations can actively take
steps to relieve the negative effects of the social media interactivity paradox.

Note
1. Penguin Intelligence (2017). WeChat users and ecosystem report.

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Corresponding author
Bowen Zheng can be contacted at: bowenzheng@csu.edu.cn
ITP Appendix
35,7

Sources

Synchronicity
1. Getting other people’s response by social media is very fast Lowry et al. (2009)
1828 2. Through the use of social media, I am able to obtain other people’s feedback that I
need without delay
3. When communicating with others using social media, I feel I am getting nearly
instantaneous responses from other people
Dialogism
1. The social media effectively gathered communicators’ feedback Lowry et al. (2009)
2. The social media communication environment facilitated two-way
communication between communicators
3. The social media communication made me feel communicators wanted to listen
to me
Richness
1. I can use various media (text, picture, video) to send dynamic information using Shao and Pan (2019)
social media
2. I can use small video to sharing information with others using social media
3. I can express my arguments using various emoji packages using social media
Mobility
1. Social media can be accessed in a way that is independent of time Kim et al. (2010)
2. Social media can be accessed in a way that is independent of place
3. I can access social media anytime while travelling
Communication quality
1. I feel that work-related communication with colleagues using social media is Ou and Davison (2016)
accurate
2. I feel that work-related communication with colleagues using social media is
adequate
3. I feel that work-related communication with colleagues using social media is
complete
4. I feel that work-related communication with colleagues using social media is
effective
Work interruptions
1. My work is always interrupted by work-related social media messages Ou and Davison (2011)
2. I felt work-related social media messages are quite disturbing
3. Using social media for work purpose inhibits my concentration on work
Social media dependency
1. Using social media is part of part of my daily work routine in our organization Carlson et al. (2016)
2. In our organization work-related communication largely relies on social media
3. When communicating with colleagues in our organization, social media is a first
choice for me
4. I feel colleagues in our organization spend a significant amount of time on social
media for work related communication
Job performance
1. I always complete the duties specified in my job description Janssen and Van Yperen
2. I always meet all the formal performance requirements of my job (2004)
Table A1. 3. I always fulfill all responsibilities required by my job
Measurement items Note(s): All items use five-point Likert-type scales anchored at 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)