Employee voice can threaten a company’s reputation when employees speak badly about their employer. This research focuses on identifying and quantifying the importance of antecedents of employees’ company-related bad mouthing in social media. Data for this study was collected through a qualitative interview study (N = 33) and a quantitative survey approach (N = 472). The hypothesized model is tested using structural equation modelling. Drawing on social identity theory and using the job demands-resources model as a theoretical lens, we found that job demands are positively associated with turnover intention, which in turn increases company-related bad mouthing in social media of employees. This study employed a cross-sectional survey design, which may be complemented by mono-organizational studies in the future. This study enriches the understanding of employees’ behavior in social media and provides implications for managers such that the strategy of reducing turnover intention is more successful to limit the amount of employees’ bad mouthing than enhancing employees’ commitment. This study is the first which links job demands and job resources with company-related bad mouthing of employees in social media. It proposes and tests antecedence of corporate reputation harming behavior of employees.

中文翻译：

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当员工随心所欲时：社交媒体中的坏话

当员工对雇主说坏话时，员工的声音会威胁到公司的声誉。这项研究的重点是识别和量化员工在社交媒体中与公司相关的坏话的前因的重要性。本研究的数据是通过定性访谈研究（N = 33）和定量调查方法（N = 472）收集的。假设模型使用结构方程模型进行测试。借鉴社会认同理论，以工作需求-资源模型为理论视角，我们发现工作需求与离职意愿呈正相关，进而增加员工在社交媒体上与公司相关的坏话。本研究采用横断面调查设计，未来可能会辅以单一组织研究。本研究丰富了对员工在社交媒体中的行为的理解，并为管理者提供了启示，即降低离职倾向的策略比提高员工的承诺更能成功地限制员工的坏话数量。这项研究是第一个将工作需求和工作资源与社交媒体上与公司相关的员工坏话联系起来的研究。它提出并测试了损害员工企业声誉的行为的前因。