Theories from the literatureThere are many different, sometimes contradictory theories relating to the topic of social media governance bydifferent corporations.The first theory I will mention is a theory which is called the amplificationhypothesis, which states thenwhen certainty is expressed, theattitude of the person is fixed. Another theoryrelating to corporate governance of employee social media is conversion theorywhich means that the minority in a group can have a disproportionate effect on influencingthose in the majority (). This is particularly important if businesses have adisgruntled employee who vents their frustration on social media and this canthen lead to other employees shifting their viewpoints to matching those of thedisgruntled employee which can have a snowballing effect meaning that swathesof employees can become demotivated relatively quickly. A third theoryrelating to corporate governance of social media is reciprocity norm which isdefined by Ipfs as “the expectation that peoplewill respond favourably to each other by returning benefits for benefits, andresponding with either indifference or hostility to harms.” ().
This isparticularly relevant to issue at hand as perceived organisational support(POS) is one of two ways in which reciprocity norm is measured. POS is the amountof which employees believe that the company that they work for values thecontributions that they themselves make towards the company and cares about theemployees’ general wellbeing.The theory ofsocial influence is another theory which is incredibly important to companies’attitudes towards the governance of employees’ social media. The theory ofsocial influence states that we are strongly influenced by external peoplebased upon the perception of the persons relationship towards the influencer(). By an extension of logic this means that the employer must have a closerelationship with the employee as this means that the employee will conform andcomply to the culture of the organisation. This can be used as a tool by theorganisations which are able to influence the attitudes of the employee, improvingemployee motivation ().Another theorywhich is linked to the social media governance in the workplace is calledultimate terms. The ultimate terms theory means that certain words carry morepersuasive power that other words.
If used correctly in a negative way it canmean a damage to the organisations reputation and as such employers would wantto take steps in order to prevent the public perception of the company turningnegative. A way that they can do this is the limiting of certain posts by employeesto social media. This theory can also be employed by the organisation itself inan effort to convince people of the quality of the company which strengthensthe company’s reputation, this is achieved through the use of “charismatic”terns ().
Maslow’s hierarchyof needs pyramid shows the scale of needs required by individuals. The scaleincreases from basic needs on the bottom, to psychological needs in the middleand self-fulfilment needs on the top. The pyramid itself is not directly linkedtowards organisational control of social media, however, employers can use itin order to tailor direct messages towards their employees which, when used in tandemwith the reciprocity norm mentioned above can mean that employees believe thatthe company that they work for values the contributions of the employee. Thiswill then mean that the employee is more motivated and a better worker.
