569096 research-article2015
HPQ0010.1177/1359105315569096Journal of Health PsychologyCharoensukmongkol
Article
Mindful Facebooking: The moderating role of mindfulness on the relationship between social media use intensity at work and burnout
Journal of Health Psychology 2016, Vol. 21(9) 1966–1980 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359105315569096 hpq.sagepub.com
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol
Abstract Research on the role of social media use in the workplace has gained more interest, yet little is known about personal characteristics that might influence the outcomes that employees experience when they use social media during work. This research aims to investigate the impact of the intensity of social media use at work on three aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. Results from partial least squares regression found that mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between the intensity of social media use at work on emotional exhaustion and lack of personal accomplishment. These findings suggest that using social media during work tends to increase burnout in employees who have a low level of mindfulness, but it lowers burnout in employees who have a high level of mindfulness.
Keywords burnout, mindfulness, social media
Introduction The topic about the impact of social media access in the workplace is an issue that has gained more interest among scholars and organizations. Despite negative consequences that organizations are concerned with when employees spend work time on social media (Gaudin, 2009), one stream of research found that using social media at work may not necessarily be counterproductive to work, but rather it helps increase job satisfaction and job performance (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). Nonetheless, little is known about some personal characteristics that might influence the
outcomes that occur from using social media during work hours. Given this gap in literature, this research aims to investigate the impact of the intensity International College of National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand Corresponding author: Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, International College of National Institute of Development Administration, 118 Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240, Thailand. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1967
Charoensukmongkol of social media use at work on three aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout is selected as the outcome variable because it is the problem that reduces employee motivation and causes detrimental impacts to organizations (Hakanen and Schaufeli, 2012; Leung et al., 2011; Yom, 2013). Nonetheless, whether using social media at work actually reduces or creates burnout is an issue that is still unclear. In this study, the author is also interested in exploring the moderating effect of mindfulness. Mindfulness represents the ability of an individual to bring a certain quality of attention to moment-by-moment experience in a nonjudgmental way (Brown and Ryan, 2003). It is a concept that has received more attention from scholars in several areas, as it has been found to promote psychological wellness and enhance performance (Leroy et al., 2013; Reb et al., 2015). In particular, the gist of this research is that the ability to be attentive to own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can help individuals to monitor their social media use. Also, the nonjudgmental aspect of mindfulness can help prevent them from getting carried away easily by favorable and unfavorable experience when using social media. Thus, the study postulates that using social media at work can benefit employees with a high level of mindfulness but can be harmful if employees lack mindfulness. Results from this study will provide extra contribution to literature about the impact of social media use in the workplace. The findings will offer additional insight about some personal characteristics that influence the outcomes of using social media during work.
The first aspect of burnout is emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is a form of mental fatigue that happens when employees feel that they lack the energy and motivation to perform their work (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2016). The second aspect of burnout is depersonalization. It is the feeling of cynicism that causes employees to develop excessively detached behavior toward others (Shih et al., 2013). The third aspect of burnout is lack of personal accomplishment. It is the loss of efficacy, which makes employees feel that their contribution is not worthwhile for the organization. Among these three components of burnout, many scholars argue that emotional exhaustion is the core component in the burnout process that will lead to other components (Boles et al., 1997; Maslach, 1982). In particular, Shih et al. (2013) stated that “the most obvious manifestation of the syndrome with emotional exhaustion as the trigger and depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment developing sequentially thereafter.” This sequence of burnout process was also empirically supported in several studies (Shih et al., 2013; Leiter and Meechan, 1986). Therefore, to be consistent with previous research, the following hypotheses are suggested:
Literature review
So far, there is no concrete empirical evidence to confirm whether using social media at work can make employees experience more or less burnout. On the positive side, studies have shown that using social media during work can help employees relax from the stress that they experience from work (Schümer and Buchwald, 2012). Theoretically, this positive contribution of social media can be explained
Burnout Burnout can be understood as a negative, jobrelated psychological state that occurs when employees experience stress for a prolonged period of time (Maslach et al., 2011). Maslach (1993) conceptualized burnout as a multidimensional construct consisting of three aspects.
Hypothesis 1: Emotional exhaustion positively relates with depersonalization. Hypothesis 2: Depersonalization positively relates with lack of personal accomplishment.
Intensity of social media use at work and burnout
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1968
Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)
by the job-demands-resources model, which posits that employees who experience unfavorable work conditions need to rely on some sort of support to buffer themselves from stress perception (Demerouti and Bakker, 2011; Ren et al., 2013). First, the opportunity to interact with family, friends, or contacts in their social media account can be considered a source of social support that can help alleviate emotional exhaustion (Nabi et al., 2013). In particular, Moqbel et al. (2013) argued that online interaction with family and friends can help lessen work–life conflict, which is a major source of work stress. Second, social media can reduce depersonalization because it serves as the alternative communication channel that employees can use to interact with others. In particular, employees who feel uncomfortable or lack motivation to have face-to-face contact can rely on online social media for communication. This role of social media is consistent with the social compensation hypothesis (Schouten et al., 2007), which predicts that “individuals who struggle to make social connections in faceto-face interactions will use the Internet as a place to enhance their interpersonal lives by forging social relationships online” (Gosling et al., 2011). It is also consistent with studies that show that people who are unwilling to communicate in real life tended to have a high tendency to use social media to socialize with others (Orr et al., 2009; Sheldon, 2008). Kalpidou et al. (2011) also found that social media can facilitate social adjustment. Third, it is possible that social support received from interacting with family and friends in social media can provide encouragement for employees. For example, Valkenburg et al. (2006) found that positive feedback that individuals receive in their social network site enhances their selfesteem and well-being. The contribution of social media in helping reduce burnout is also consistent with studies that confirmed the positive association between social media use at work and job satisfaction (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). Considering all theoretical and empirical support, the hypotheses proposed are as follows:
Hypothesis 3: The intensity of social media use at work reduces (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment. Despite the positive contributions of social media mentioned previously, it is also possible that using social media during work can adversely cause employees to experience more burnout. Therefore, competing hypotheses about the negative role of social media on burnout are proposed. In particular, using social media during work can cause distraction, and that can affect the ability of employees to focus on their work (Junco, 2012) and, as a result, can make employees experience work stress. Using social media can also lead to more depersonalization because online communication reduces interpersonal interactions that employees have with others. Thus, those who extensively use social media may lack motivation to interact with others in real life. Finally, it is also possible that using social media at work can cause employees to feel lack of personal accomplishment. For example, Valkenburg et al. (2006) suggested that people tended to experience lower self-esteem when they received negative feedbacks from friends in social media. Considering these negative outcomes caused by social media, the following are presented as competing hypotheses: Hypothesis 4: The intensity of social media use at work increases (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment.
The moderating role of mindfulness This research argues that whether using social media at work positively or negatively affects burnout depends on the level of mindfulness that employees possess. Fundamentally, the concept of mindfulness is rooted from the Buddhist meditation practice. Mindfulness is defined as the ability to “bring one’s complete attention to the experiences occurring in the present moment, in a nonjudgmental or accepting way” (Leroy et al.,
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1969
Charoensukmongkol 2013). In general, the ability to be aware of what we are experiencing moment-to-moment without being colored by our own judgment is the key element that allows us to understand the impermanent nature of thought, emotions, and sensations that come to us, so that we are not affected by them. The philosophy behind mindfulness is that attachments lead to sufferings; if we acknowledge what we are experiencing nonjudgmentally, those experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, will just come and go; they cannot affect us because our mind does not develop attachments to them. Literature has shown that mindfulness not only promotes psychological well-being (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Weinstein et al., 2009), but also benefits workrelated outcomes (Reb et al., 2013). For example, Hülsheger et al. (2013) found that mindful employees could effectively regulate negative emotions and that made them cope well with work stress. Leroy et al. (2013) found that mindfulness enhanced work engagement through authentic functioning. Charoensukmongkol (2014b) found that employees who engaged in mindfulness training tended to choose problemfocused copings rather than maladaptive copings to deal with work stress. Given the benefit of mindfulness that was found to enhance the ability of individuals to monitor their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and to manage them effectively, the author argues that it can moderate the impact that using social media at work has on burnout. Specifically, employees with a high level of mindfulness are proposed as the group that will obtain more benefits from using social media at work, while those who lack mindfulness tend to be the group that is negatively affected by social media use. Given that mindful employees tend to be aware of activities they are doing (Brown and Ryan, 2003), it is less likely for them to get carried away by social media. Mindfulness in this sense can make employees realize about the limit of using social media during work. Although they enjoy the social media experience, they do not attach to it. They will use it only to the level that makes them relax so that they can be productive at work. For this reason, their social media use at
work can lower burnout. Conversely, when employees are not aware of what they are doing, they are more likely to get carried away easily when they use social media during work. In particular, using social media mindlessly can potentially lead to social media addiction (Andreassen et al., 2012). Those who lack mindfulness would have difficulty controlling their social media use behavior (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). This behavior can negatively affect personal life and work. For example, when they enjoy the social media experience, they feel less motivated to work and do not want to socialize with others outside the social media world. In fact, studies suggested that mindfulness training is regarded as an effective intervention that helps people lessen behavioral addiction (Shonin et al., 2014); thus, mindfulness can be a factor that might buffer employees from these negative outcomes. Finally, because mindfulness was found to help individuals effectively regulate negative thoughts and emotions (Hülsheger et al., 2013), mindful employees tend to be less affected by the negative feedbacks they received in their social media as suggested by Valkenburg et al. (2006). Given the prior arguments regarding the benefit of mindfulness, the author hypothesizes that for employees who have a high level of mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at work will lower burnout; on the other hand, for those with a low level of mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at work will cause more burnout. Therefore, the following hypotheses are presented: Hypothesis 5: Mindfulness moderates the relationship between the intensity of social media use at work and (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment.
Methods Samples and data collection Participants for this research are employees who work for companies in Bangkok, Thailand. There are 13 companies from three main
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1970
Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)
industries (including manufacturing, service, and health care) from which the data were collected. Supervisors in each firm were personally contacted by the author and were asked to allow their employees participate in the study. After those supervisors agreed, they were asked to indicate the number of employees who worked in their organization. In total, 279 sets of questionnaires were distributed to these companies. The respondents were informed that participation in the research is voluntary and anonymous. Of this amount, 211 surveys were completely filled and were collected back by the author in person, yielding a 76 percent response rate. Demographic and work-related information of the samples, as well as the devices that they mainly used to access social media sites at work, are summarized in Table 1.
Measures
Table 1. Demographic and work characteristics of samples. Gender
Age (in years) Educational level
Type of organization Salary
The intensity of social media use during work was measured using the modified version of the scale originally developed by Ellison et al. (2007). The original scale was designed specifically to measure perceptions people have regarding their personal levels of attachment to Facebook. The author made an adjustment by replacing “Facebook” with “social networking” and included Facebook and MySpace as examples to clarify the public type of social media. Sample items include “At work, social networking sites have become part of my daily routine” and “At work, I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged on to social networking sites for a while.” This scale has been used in previous research (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). All items were scored on five-point rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Mindfulness was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) developed by Gangadharbatla (2008). The scale consists of 15 questions. Sample items include “I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until sometime later” and “I break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.”
Job tenure (in years)
Male: 96 (45%) Female: 107 (50%) Missing data: 8 (5%) Mean: 32.55 Standard deviation: 16.66 Primary school: 1 (0.5%) Secondary school: 6 (3%) Vocational certificate: 1 (0.5%) High vocational certificate: 21 (10%) Diploma: 4 (2%) Bachelor degree: 134 (63%) Master degree: 33 (15%) Doctoral degree: 1 (0.5%) Missing data: 10 (5.5%) Manufacturing: 42 (20%) Service: 62 (30%) Health care: 107 (50%) Less than 10,000 baht: 9 (4%) 10,001–15,000 baht: 44 (21%) 15,001–20,000 baht: 44 (21%) 20,001–25,000 baht: 24 (11%) 25,001–30,000 baht: 24 (11%) 30,001–35,000 baht: 15 (7%) 35,001–40,000 baht: 15 (7%) 45,001–50,000 baht: 7 (3%) More than 50,001 baht: 12 (6%) Missing data: 17 (9%) Mean: 5.29 Standard deviation: 5.69
They were scored on a five-point frequency scale, ranging from 1 (almost always) to 5 (almost never); thereby making low score represents lack of mindfulness. Three aspects of burnout were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981). Emotional exhaustion consists of five items. Sample items include “I feel emotionally drained from my work” and “I feel used up at the end of the workday.” Depersonalization consists of five items. Sample items include “I’ve become more callous toward people since I took this job” and “I worry that this job is hardening me emotionally.” Lack of personal
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1971
Charoensukmongkol accomplishment consists of six items. Sample items include “In my opinion, I am good at my job,” and “I doubt the significance of my work (reversed).” All items were scored on five-point rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). All measurement items are shown in Appendix I. Demographic and job-related factors that might associate with burnout were included in the model as control variables. These factors are age, gender, education, job demands, job position, working class, salary, and job tenure. Age and job tenure were measured in years; gender was measured as a dummy variable (male was coded 1, female was coded 0); working class was measured as a dummy variable (white-collar employee was coded 1, blue-collar employee was coded 0); and education, job position, and salary were measured ordinally. The factor Job demands was measured using five items from the Job Content Questionnaire survey developed by Karasek et al. (1998). This construct was measured in terms of quantitative workload (e.g. work hard, work fast). They were measured using Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Data analysis Data analysis was performed using partial least squares (PLS) regression. PLS is a statistical technique that provides higher flexibility than covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) because it is not necessary that the data need to be normally distributed, plus PLS also allows smaller sample sizes in the analysis (Maslach, 1993). PLS regression was performed using WarpPLS version 3.0 developed by Kock (2012).
Results The preliminary analysis was performed before PLS model estimation. First, the author performed the validity check for the intensity of social media use at work, job demands, and job performance, all of which were measured as reflective latent variables. Convergent validity
was conducted using factor loading estimation. Hair et al. (2009) suggested a minimum of .5 for good convergent validity. The analysis indicated that the factor loadings of all constructs, except for one indicator of mindfulness, meet this minimum requirement. Thus, the indicator that has low loading was removed from the model. Then, discriminant validity test was conducted by evaluating the average variance extracted (AVE) of the construct. In order to have good discriminant validity, Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggested that the square root of AVE of the construct must be greater than other correlations involved in that construct. Table 2 reports correlations among all variables as well as the square root of AVEs. Overall, the results from AVE analysis satisfy this condition. Next, the reliability analysis was performed by evaluating Cronbach’s alpha (α) coefficient and composite reliability coefficient. The results in Table 2 show that all reliability coefficients exceed .7 as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981). The model fit indices also suggest that the data fit the model well (average path coefficient (APC) = .11, p
HPQ0010.1177/1359105315569096Journal of Health PsychologyCharoensukmongkol
Article
Mindful Facebooking: The moderating role of mindfulness on the relationship between social media use intensity at work and burnout
Journal of Health Psychology 2016, Vol. 21(9) 1966–1980 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359105315569096 hpq.sagepub.com
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol
Abstract Research on the role of social media use in the workplace has gained more interest, yet little is known about personal characteristics that might influence the outcomes that employees experience when they use social media during work. This research aims to investigate the impact of the intensity of social media use at work on three aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. Results from partial least squares regression found that mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between the intensity of social media use at work on emotional exhaustion and lack of personal accomplishment. These findings suggest that using social media during work tends to increase burnout in employees who have a low level of mindfulness, but it lowers burnout in employees who have a high level of mindfulness.
Keywords burnout, mindfulness, social media
Introduction The topic about the impact of social media access in the workplace is an issue that has gained more interest among scholars and organizations. Despite negative consequences that organizations are concerned with when employees spend work time on social media (Gaudin, 2009), one stream of research found that using social media at work may not necessarily be counterproductive to work, but rather it helps increase job satisfaction and job performance (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). Nonetheless, little is known about some personal characteristics that might influence the
outcomes that occur from using social media during work hours. Given this gap in literature, this research aims to investigate the impact of the intensity International College of National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand Corresponding author: Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, International College of National Institute of Development Administration, 118 Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240, Thailand. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1967
Charoensukmongkol of social media use at work on three aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout is selected as the outcome variable because it is the problem that reduces employee motivation and causes detrimental impacts to organizations (Hakanen and Schaufeli, 2012; Leung et al., 2011; Yom, 2013). Nonetheless, whether using social media at work actually reduces or creates burnout is an issue that is still unclear. In this study, the author is also interested in exploring the moderating effect of mindfulness. Mindfulness represents the ability of an individual to bring a certain quality of attention to moment-by-moment experience in a nonjudgmental way (Brown and Ryan, 2003). It is a concept that has received more attention from scholars in several areas, as it has been found to promote psychological wellness and enhance performance (Leroy et al., 2013; Reb et al., 2015). In particular, the gist of this research is that the ability to be attentive to own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can help individuals to monitor their social media use. Also, the nonjudgmental aspect of mindfulness can help prevent them from getting carried away easily by favorable and unfavorable experience when using social media. Thus, the study postulates that using social media at work can benefit employees with a high level of mindfulness but can be harmful if employees lack mindfulness. Results from this study will provide extra contribution to literature about the impact of social media use in the workplace. The findings will offer additional insight about some personal characteristics that influence the outcomes of using social media during work.
The first aspect of burnout is emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is a form of mental fatigue that happens when employees feel that they lack the energy and motivation to perform their work (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2016). The second aspect of burnout is depersonalization. It is the feeling of cynicism that causes employees to develop excessively detached behavior toward others (Shih et al., 2013). The third aspect of burnout is lack of personal accomplishment. It is the loss of efficacy, which makes employees feel that their contribution is not worthwhile for the organization. Among these three components of burnout, many scholars argue that emotional exhaustion is the core component in the burnout process that will lead to other components (Boles et al., 1997; Maslach, 1982). In particular, Shih et al. (2013) stated that “the most obvious manifestation of the syndrome with emotional exhaustion as the trigger and depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment developing sequentially thereafter.” This sequence of burnout process was also empirically supported in several studies (Shih et al., 2013; Leiter and Meechan, 1986). Therefore, to be consistent with previous research, the following hypotheses are suggested:
Literature review
So far, there is no concrete empirical evidence to confirm whether using social media at work can make employees experience more or less burnout. On the positive side, studies have shown that using social media during work can help employees relax from the stress that they experience from work (Schümer and Buchwald, 2012). Theoretically, this positive contribution of social media can be explained
Burnout Burnout can be understood as a negative, jobrelated psychological state that occurs when employees experience stress for a prolonged period of time (Maslach et al., 2011). Maslach (1993) conceptualized burnout as a multidimensional construct consisting of three aspects.
Hypothesis 1: Emotional exhaustion positively relates with depersonalization. Hypothesis 2: Depersonalization positively relates with lack of personal accomplishment.
Intensity of social media use at work and burnout
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1968
Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)
by the job-demands-resources model, which posits that employees who experience unfavorable work conditions need to rely on some sort of support to buffer themselves from stress perception (Demerouti and Bakker, 2011; Ren et al., 2013). First, the opportunity to interact with family, friends, or contacts in their social media account can be considered a source of social support that can help alleviate emotional exhaustion (Nabi et al., 2013). In particular, Moqbel et al. (2013) argued that online interaction with family and friends can help lessen work–life conflict, which is a major source of work stress. Second, social media can reduce depersonalization because it serves as the alternative communication channel that employees can use to interact with others. In particular, employees who feel uncomfortable or lack motivation to have face-to-face contact can rely on online social media for communication. This role of social media is consistent with the social compensation hypothesis (Schouten et al., 2007), which predicts that “individuals who struggle to make social connections in faceto-face interactions will use the Internet as a place to enhance their interpersonal lives by forging social relationships online” (Gosling et al., 2011). It is also consistent with studies that show that people who are unwilling to communicate in real life tended to have a high tendency to use social media to socialize with others (Orr et al., 2009; Sheldon, 2008). Kalpidou et al. (2011) also found that social media can facilitate social adjustment. Third, it is possible that social support received from interacting with family and friends in social media can provide encouragement for employees. For example, Valkenburg et al. (2006) found that positive feedback that individuals receive in their social network site enhances their selfesteem and well-being. The contribution of social media in helping reduce burnout is also consistent with studies that confirmed the positive association between social media use at work and job satisfaction (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). Considering all theoretical and empirical support, the hypotheses proposed are as follows:
Hypothesis 3: The intensity of social media use at work reduces (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment. Despite the positive contributions of social media mentioned previously, it is also possible that using social media during work can adversely cause employees to experience more burnout. Therefore, competing hypotheses about the negative role of social media on burnout are proposed. In particular, using social media during work can cause distraction, and that can affect the ability of employees to focus on their work (Junco, 2012) and, as a result, can make employees experience work stress. Using social media can also lead to more depersonalization because online communication reduces interpersonal interactions that employees have with others. Thus, those who extensively use social media may lack motivation to interact with others in real life. Finally, it is also possible that using social media at work can cause employees to feel lack of personal accomplishment. For example, Valkenburg et al. (2006) suggested that people tended to experience lower self-esteem when they received negative feedbacks from friends in social media. Considering these negative outcomes caused by social media, the following are presented as competing hypotheses: Hypothesis 4: The intensity of social media use at work increases (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment.
The moderating role of mindfulness This research argues that whether using social media at work positively or negatively affects burnout depends on the level of mindfulness that employees possess. Fundamentally, the concept of mindfulness is rooted from the Buddhist meditation practice. Mindfulness is defined as the ability to “bring one’s complete attention to the experiences occurring in the present moment, in a nonjudgmental or accepting way” (Leroy et al.,
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1969
Charoensukmongkol 2013). In general, the ability to be aware of what we are experiencing moment-to-moment without being colored by our own judgment is the key element that allows us to understand the impermanent nature of thought, emotions, and sensations that come to us, so that we are not affected by them. The philosophy behind mindfulness is that attachments lead to sufferings; if we acknowledge what we are experiencing nonjudgmentally, those experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, will just come and go; they cannot affect us because our mind does not develop attachments to them. Literature has shown that mindfulness not only promotes psychological well-being (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Weinstein et al., 2009), but also benefits workrelated outcomes (Reb et al., 2013). For example, Hülsheger et al. (2013) found that mindful employees could effectively regulate negative emotions and that made them cope well with work stress. Leroy et al. (2013) found that mindfulness enhanced work engagement through authentic functioning. Charoensukmongkol (2014b) found that employees who engaged in mindfulness training tended to choose problemfocused copings rather than maladaptive copings to deal with work stress. Given the benefit of mindfulness that was found to enhance the ability of individuals to monitor their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and to manage them effectively, the author argues that it can moderate the impact that using social media at work has on burnout. Specifically, employees with a high level of mindfulness are proposed as the group that will obtain more benefits from using social media at work, while those who lack mindfulness tend to be the group that is negatively affected by social media use. Given that mindful employees tend to be aware of activities they are doing (Brown and Ryan, 2003), it is less likely for them to get carried away by social media. Mindfulness in this sense can make employees realize about the limit of using social media during work. Although they enjoy the social media experience, they do not attach to it. They will use it only to the level that makes them relax so that they can be productive at work. For this reason, their social media use at
work can lower burnout. Conversely, when employees are not aware of what they are doing, they are more likely to get carried away easily when they use social media during work. In particular, using social media mindlessly can potentially lead to social media addiction (Andreassen et al., 2012). Those who lack mindfulness would have difficulty controlling their social media use behavior (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). This behavior can negatively affect personal life and work. For example, when they enjoy the social media experience, they feel less motivated to work and do not want to socialize with others outside the social media world. In fact, studies suggested that mindfulness training is regarded as an effective intervention that helps people lessen behavioral addiction (Shonin et al., 2014); thus, mindfulness can be a factor that might buffer employees from these negative outcomes. Finally, because mindfulness was found to help individuals effectively regulate negative thoughts and emotions (Hülsheger et al., 2013), mindful employees tend to be less affected by the negative feedbacks they received in their social media as suggested by Valkenburg et al. (2006). Given the prior arguments regarding the benefit of mindfulness, the author hypothesizes that for employees who have a high level of mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at work will lower burnout; on the other hand, for those with a low level of mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at work will cause more burnout. Therefore, the following hypotheses are presented: Hypothesis 5: Mindfulness moderates the relationship between the intensity of social media use at work and (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal accomplishment.
Methods Samples and data collection Participants for this research are employees who work for companies in Bangkok, Thailand. There are 13 companies from three main
Downloaded from hpq.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on December 12, 2016
1970
Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)
industries (including manufacturing, service, and health care) from which the data were collected. Supervisors in each firm were personally contacted by the author and were asked to allow their employees participate in the study. After those supervisors agreed, they were asked to indicate the number of employees who worked in their organization. In total, 279 sets of questionnaires were distributed to these companies. The respondents were informed that participation in the research is voluntary and anonymous. Of this amount, 211 surveys were completely filled and were collected back by the author in person, yielding a 76 percent response rate. Demographic and work-related information of the samples, as well as the devices that they mainly used to access social media sites at work, are summarized in Table 1.
Measures
Table 1. Demographic and work characteristics of samples. Gender
Age (in years) Educational level
Type of organization Salary
The intensity of social media use during work was measured using the modified version of the scale originally developed by Ellison et al. (2007). The original scale was designed specifically to measure perceptions people have regarding their personal levels of attachment to Facebook. The author made an adjustment by replacing “Facebook” with “social networking” and included Facebook and MySpace as examples to clarify the public type of social media. Sample items include “At work, social networking sites have become part of my daily routine” and “At work, I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged on to social networking sites for a while.” This scale has been used in previous research (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel et al., 2013). All items were scored on five-point rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Mindfulness was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) developed by Gangadharbatla (2008). The scale consists of 15 questions. Sample items include “I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until sometime later” and “I break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.”
Job tenure (in years)
Male: 96 (45%) Female: 107 (50%) Missing data: 8 (5%) Mean: 32.55 Standard deviation: 16.66 Primary school: 1 (0.5%) Secondary school: 6 (3%) Vocational certificate: 1 (0.5%) High vocational certificate: 21 (10%) Diploma: 4 (2%) Bachelor degree: 134 (63%) Master degree: 33 (15%) Doctoral degree: 1 (0.5%) Missing data: 10 (5.5%) Manufacturing: 42 (20%) Service: 62 (30%) Health care: 107 (50%) Less than 10,000 baht: 9 (4%) 10,001–15,000 baht: 44 (21%) 15,001–20,000 baht: 44 (21%) 20,001–25,000 baht: 24 (11%) 25,001–30,000 baht: 24 (11%) 30,001–35,000 baht: 15 (7%) 35,001–40,000 baht: 15 (7%) 45,001–50,000 baht: 7 (3%) More than 50,001 baht: 12 (6%) Missing data: 17 (9%) Mean: 5.29 Standard deviation: 5.69
They were scored on a five-point frequency scale, ranging from 1 (almost always) to 5 (almost never); thereby making low score represents lack of mindfulness. Three aspects of burnout were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981). Emotional exhaustion consists of five items. Sample items include “I feel emotionally drained from my work” and “I feel used up at the end of the workday.” Depersonalization consists of five items. Sample items include “I’ve become more callous toward people since I took this job” and “I worry that this job is hardening me emotionally.” Lack of personal
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Charoensukmongkol accomplishment consists of six items. Sample items include “In my opinion, I am good at my job,” and “I doubt the significance of my work (reversed).” All items were scored on five-point rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). All measurement items are shown in Appendix I. Demographic and job-related factors that might associate with burnout were included in the model as control variables. These factors are age, gender, education, job demands, job position, working class, salary, and job tenure. Age and job tenure were measured in years; gender was measured as a dummy variable (male was coded 1, female was coded 0); working class was measured as a dummy variable (white-collar employee was coded 1, blue-collar employee was coded 0); and education, job position, and salary were measured ordinally. The factor Job demands was measured using five items from the Job Content Questionnaire survey developed by Karasek et al. (1998). This construct was measured in terms of quantitative workload (e.g. work hard, work fast). They were measured using Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Data analysis Data analysis was performed using partial least squares (PLS) regression. PLS is a statistical technique that provides higher flexibility than covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) because it is not necessary that the data need to be normally distributed, plus PLS also allows smaller sample sizes in the analysis (Maslach, 1993). PLS regression was performed using WarpPLS version 3.0 developed by Kock (2012).
Results The preliminary analysis was performed before PLS model estimation. First, the author performed the validity check for the intensity of social media use at work, job demands, and job performance, all of which were measured as reflective latent variables. Convergent validity
was conducted using factor loading estimation. Hair et al. (2009) suggested a minimum of .5 for good convergent validity. The analysis indicated that the factor loadings of all constructs, except for one indicator of mindfulness, meet this minimum requirement. Thus, the indicator that has low loading was removed from the model. Then, discriminant validity test was conducted by evaluating the average variance extracted (AVE) of the construct. In order to have good discriminant validity, Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggested that the square root of AVE of the construct must be greater than other correlations involved in that construct. Table 2 reports correlations among all variables as well as the square root of AVEs. Overall, the results from AVE analysis satisfy this condition. Next, the reliability analysis was performed by evaluating Cronbach’s alpha (α) coefficient and composite reliability coefficient. The results in Table 2 show that all reliability coefficients exceed .7 as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981). The model fit indices also suggest that the data fit the model well (average path coefficient (APC) = .11, p
