Social Media and Employee Performance: Employee Engagement and Task Completion as Mechanisms Connecting Social Media to Performance

Abstract

This study examines the complex relationship between workplace social media usage and employee performance through testing employee engagement and task completions as parallel mediators while also assessing whether employee engagement moderates the social media usage and  employee performance relationship. Moving beyond the common “beneficial versus harmful” debate the study adopts a mechanism-based perspective grounded primarily in the Job Demands-Resources model and Social Exchange Theory. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted among teaching and non-teaching employees of higher education institutions in Punjab, India, yielding 707 valid responses. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated strong reliability and convergent validity for all constructs with excellent measurement model fit. Structural equation modelling results showed that social media usage was positively associated with employee engagement and tasks completed. Both employee engagement and tasks completed are positively predicted performance of the employees at HEIs. However, High social media usage retained a significant negative direct effect on employee performance. Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed significant positive indirect effects through employee engagement with a positive total indirect effect indicating competitive (inconsistent) mediation. In contrast, the interaction was not significant suggesting that employee engagement functions as a mediator and direct predictor but not as a moderator. The findings highlight social media’s dual role in organizations, it can enhance performance through engagement and task execution while simultaneously undermining performance via direct disruptive effects. These results support balanced, role-sensitive social media policies in higher education institutions.