Investigating the Impact of Social Media Use by Employees on Their Job Performance with the Mediating Role of Creativity

Objective
Attention to creativity is always the concern of managers as it affects the performance of employees in the organization. The influence of social media has made it possible for users to communicate with others regardless of time and place, thus blurring the line between their work and life. On the other hand, excessive use of smartphones and social media has significant negative consequences for employee well-being and productivity. For example, exhaustion, absenteeism, distraction, and information overload, stress, reduced attention and concentration, and weakened decision-making ability can be seen as consequences of excessive use of social media. Paying attention to the phenomenon of using social media is very important for organizations. Past studies have identified various positive and negative aspects in this case. It has been emphasized in some articles, employees and managers should understand the dark side of this phenomenon and employees are suggested to adjust their behavior to avoid negative performance consequences. And also one of the positive aspects of using social media is that it can positively affect the relationships and performance of employees, and the rational and planned use of social media can even improve the creativity and performance of employees. Therefore, more research in this field is necessary to clarify these positive and negative aspects. In previous research studies, the impact of social media on motivation, well-being, stress, etc. has been explored, but there is not much research to investigate the effect of social media on creativity and job performance. The purpose of this research is to study and investigate the effect of using social media in the workplace on the creativity of employees and their job performance.
 
Research Methodology
In terms of the objective, this is applied research and the studied population included all the employees of Iran Telecommunication Company. A standard questionnaire with 21 items was used to measure the variables. In this research, data has been collected by field method. In this research, due to the fact that the structural equation technique is used for data analysis, the formula 5q≤n≤15q is used to determine the sample size. Using the available sampling method, 218 questionnaires were finally analyzed. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between the components of the model.Lisrel software was used to analyze the hypotheses.  After adjusting the indicators of each variable in the questionnaire, the questions have been valued using a 5-point Likert scale. To check the validity of the research questionnaire, the validity of the questionnaire has been checked and confirmed by asking experts. In general, in order to measure the validity of the research questionnaire, At first, the initial questionnaire was presented to the experts, and then their corrective comments were applied, and the final questionnaire was prepared for distribution on a wider scale. In this research, Cronbach's alpha test was used to check reliability. In this research, in order to measure reliability in the early stages of the research, information was collected from 30 questionnaires, then SPSS software was used to determine the reliability, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient obtained for the questions of each variable was more than 0.7; Therefore, the research questionnaire has sufficient validity.
Findings
The current research was conducted with the aim of studying and investigating the effect of using social media in the workplace on creativity and job performance. In this research, seven hypotheses were studied and investigated. The findings indicate that social use of social media at work, cognitive use of social media at work, and pleasure-seeking use have a positive relationship with employees' creativity. Employees' creativity also has a positive relationship with employees' job performance. Also, employees' creativity plays a mediating role in the relationship between the use of social media at work and employees' job performance. The formation of creative ideas and innovation happens due to continuous interaction with the environment; Therefore, social networks enable companies to exchange information, problem-solving ideas, identify new opportunities, and find new markets. This study also empirically proves that the more logical and proportionate use of social networks and knowledge sharing, the higher the creativity will be; Therefore, organizations that implement knowledge sharing through social media can be more successful in creativity. In today's era, the competitive advantage of an organization relies on the knowledge of the organization, the method of knowledge application, the speed and degree of adaptation of knowledge to the changing environment, and the speed of acquiring new knowledge. Effective and practical use of social media platforms allows them to gain more benefits as well as better performance; Because by sharing knowledge and information, they eliminate repetitive ideas and promote new ways of thinking in solving problems and issues.
Discussion & Conclusion
In this research, an attempt was made to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of social media use, creativity, and job performance. The dimensions of social media use (pleasure, cognitive, social) were used in the workplace instead of the general concept of social media. The findings showed that all three dimensions of social media uses have an impact on employees' creativity. Therefore, it is necessary to use social media in organizations, especially in work environments where creativity and innovation are very important.  It is necessary to monitor and apply policies that reduce its negative effects because some studies have also pointed out the negative aspects of using social media. Therefore, in future research, it is necessary to address this important issue of how to use social media optimally. Also, because today there are various domestic and foreign social media, it is very important to present the typology of the use of these media and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them for the use of employees. This research fills the research gap between social media dimensions and employee creativity and performance to some extent and helps to enrich the literature in this field. It is suggested that managers consider monitoring and supporting policies to help employees manage personal and work relationships during work hours.