Causes of Posting Strategic Organizational Information on Social Media by Employees: A Case of One State Agency in Kenya

Abstract

This article explains why employees post strategic organizational information on social media. Social media though has come with better ways of conducting business in organizations, has also brought in challenges. Employees have the potential to generate content pertaining to the organization’s business strategy and post it online using their internet-enabled phones or iphones which reside outside organizations’ control. Such content goes viral before being noticed by management and could injure reputation. When reputation is affected, employees concerned face disciplinary action which may result in dismissal or impeding career progression yet establishing organizations and careers requires huge resources and when any organization goes under many stakeholders lose their source of livelihood. In addition unemployment rate becomes a challenge to the government. While organizations use social media to enhance their activities, previous studies demonstrated how organizations and employees suffered from the effect of social media content they post. The aim of this study was to find out why employees post strategic organizational information on social media. The research approach was qualitative with case study being the research method. Employees and managers constituted the population of this study in one state agency in Kenya. The sampling technique was purposive; sample size was twenty two participants. Seventeen employees based at Eldoret branch and the management drawn as follows from the Head Office Nairobi: Two Human resource managers (Admin & Training), Information Communication Technology (ICT) manager, Corporate Communication Manager and Manager in-charge of consumer protection. Data was generated using interview schedules and analyzed thematically. The study established that posting of strategic organizational information through social media was driven by the environment and personality.

Keywords: causes, strategic information, social media.