Purpose

With the increasing prevalence of social media in everyday life, scholars have argued the need of exploring enterprise social media (ESM) for workplace outcomes. This study investigates the relationship between ESM use and organizational learning capability (OLC) by focusing on the mediating role of informal learning (INFL) and the moderating role of social capital (SC).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper developed and tested a mediated moderated model explaining the impact of ESM on OLC. The study used temporally separated data of 281 respondents collected in two waves from firms in India that use organizationally facilitated ESM platforms for internal workplace communication.

Findings

An analysis of temporally separated two-wave data indicates that INFL mediates the relationship between ESM use and OLC. Also, SC is found to moderate the effect of ESM use on INFL, and INFL mediated the moderation effect of SC on relationship between ESM use and OLC such that the relationship will be stronger when employees have a higher rather than lower level of SC.

Research limitations/implications

The study theoretically contributes and extends the literature on ESM and learning in organizations. The study provides important practical implications to support and institutionalize learning at work. The results of the study provide evidence that ESM are not just networking tools but a platform for learning. Findings of the study suggest that ESM can be one such tool to promote and capture employee INFL. The results also show that SC plays a critical role in predicting the extent to which employees learn informally using ESM, thereby building OLC. This result suggests that organizations should make conscious and concerted efforts to build employee SC. The above findings also have interesting implications for learning and development (L&D) and information technology (IT) managers who wish to implement technology for collaborative purposes.

Originality/value

Addressing the underlying processes that explain how ESM positively influence OLC was highlighted as a critical research gap that needs attention. The paper is novel in its approach as it provides empirical evidence for the relationship between ESM and its impact on employee outcomes, an area pertinent in today's digital economy, however, received sparse attention by management scholars so far. It also provides empirical grounds toward a meaningful shift in the social media discourse – transition from being traditionally viewed primarily as “a networking platform” to “a learning platform.”

中文翻译：

---

企业社交媒体与组织学习能力：社会资本与非正式学习的中介调节作用

目的

随着社交媒体在日常生活中的日益普及，学者们认为有必要探索企业社交媒体 (ESM) 以获得工作成果。本研究通过关注非正式学习 (INFL) 的中介作用和社会资本 (SC) 的调节作用，调查 ESM 使用与组织学习能力 (OLC) 之间的关系。

设计/方法/途径

该论文开发并测试了一个中介调节模型，该模型解释了 ESM 对 OLC 的影响。该研究使用了 281 名受访者的时间分离数据，这些数据分两波从印度公司收集，这些公司使用组织促进的 ESM 平台进行内部工作场所沟通。

发现

对时间分离的两波数据的分析表明，INFL 调节 ESM 使用和 OLC 之间的关系。此外，发现 SC 可以调节 ESM 使用对 INFL 的影响，INFL 调节 SC 对 ESM 使用和 OLC 之间关系的调节作用，因此当员工的 SC 水平较高而不是较低时，这种关系会更强。

研究局限性/影响

该研究在理论上贡献并扩展了关于 ESM 和组织学习的文献。该研究为支持和制度化工作中的学习提供了重要的实践意义。研究结果证明，ESM 不仅是网络工具，还是学习平台。研究结果表明，ESM 可以成为促进和吸引员工 INFL 的此类工具之一。结果还表明，SC 在预测员工使用 ESM 进行非正式学习的程度从而构建 OLC 方面起着关键作用。这一结果表明，组织应该有意识地、齐心协力地建立员工 SC。上述发现对于希望为协作目的实施技术的学习与发展 (L&D) 和信息技术 (IT) 经理也具有有趣的意义。

原创性/价值

解决解释 ESM 如何积极影响 OLC 的潜在过程被强调为需要关注的关键研究差距。这篇论文的方法很新颖，因为它为 ESM 及其对员工成果的影响之间的关系提供了实证证据，这是当今数字经济中的一个相关领域，然而，迄今为止，管理学者很少关注这一点。它还为社交媒体话语的有意义转变提供了实证依据——从传统上主要被视为“网络平台”转变为“学习平台”。