Many employees are engaging in personal social media for work (PSMW), which involves posting work-related content from a user’s individual social-media account. Despite quantitative studies demonstrating the presence and outcomes of talking about work on social media, scholars know little about the process of using PSMW. To fill this gap, the current study uses social identity theory and boundary theory as conceptual frames to learn why and how people engage in PSMW. Through analyzing interview and observational data from employees’ social media across a variety of industries and work arrangements, we present a model of PSMW. Our findings contribute to scholarship in at least three ways. First, this study exposes the “work” behind PSMW through a pattern of Labored Worklife: a paradox of communicating both authentically and strategically. Second, our findings show PSMW as a distinctive, flexible way through which workers can traverse complicated work and non-work borders and communicate multiple (even conflicting) identities on social media. Third, this project suggests connections between PSMW and scholarship surrounding emotion at work.

中文翻译：

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个人社交媒体为工作服务的过程：揭开社交媒体背后的“工作”


许多员工正在使用个人工作社交媒体 (PSMW)，其中涉及从用户的个人社交媒体帐户发布与工作相关的内容。尽管定量研究证明了在社交媒体上谈论工作的存在和结果，但学者们对使用 PSMW 的过程知之甚少。为了填补这一空白，当前的研究使用社会认同理论和边界理论作为概念框架来了解人们参与 PSMW 的原因和方式。通过分析来自不同行业和工作安排的员工社交媒体的采访和观察数据，我们提出了 PSMW 模型。我们的研究结果至少在三个方面对学术做出了贡献。首先，这项研究通过劳累的工作生活模式揭示了 PSMW 背后的“工作”：真实和战略性沟通的悖论。其次，我们的研究结果表明，PSMW 是一种独特、灵活的方式，员工可以通过它跨越复杂的工作和非工作边界，并在社交媒体上交流多重（甚至是冲突的）身份。第三，该项目提出了 PSMW 与围绕工作情感的学术之间的联系。