Social media use and belongingness: How is following leaders and colleagues on social media related to employees’ feeling of belongingness to the organization?

Humans are perceived to be strongly dependent on the group members (Over,\n2016), and psychology scholars state that humans have a fundamental need to be\nsocially connected to others (Maslow, 1968). Further, the research on\nbelongingness provides evidence that humans have a fundamental need to belong\nand a motivation to fulfil this need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Nonetheless, there\nis a lack of research and literature on the sense of belongingness concerning\norganizational employees in particular.\nIn this study, we investigate whether there is a relationship between following\nleaders or colleagues on social media and employees’ feeling of belongingness to\nthe organization, as well as what factors could have moderating effects on the\nrelationship. We propose six models that guide our research, and to explore the\nrelationships we use data collected from an online survey with 69 participants. The\nparticipants work in a well-known Norwegian food-producing company where the\nCEO is known to be active on social media. The data analysis shows that the\nrelationship between following leaders on social media and employees’ feeling of\nbelongingness to the company is non-significant. Likewise, the data analysis shows\nthat the moderating effects are not significant either.\nHowever, two of the propositions are partially supported by the data, and the\ndescriptive analysis has led to important findings being established. The study\ncontributes to the gap in the current literature by exploring how following\ncolleagues on social media can be a predictor of employees’ feeling of\nbelongingness to the workplace, that has not been previously examined.\nFurthermore, our findings suggest that the number of colleagues followed on social\nmedia is positively associated with employees’ feeling of belongingness. Moreover,\nthe study highlights the importance of having an active official company’s social\nmedia profile and promoting it among employees, since following it is positively\ncorrelated with following colleagues on social media, which relevance and\nimportance are described in the paper. Ultimately, practical implications,\nlimitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.