skip to main content

Balancing work and life: Social media’s mediating role in enhancing employee performance

Doctor of Economics Study Program, Diponegoro University, Indonesia, Indonesia

Open Access Copyright 2025 Diponegoro International Journal of Business under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.

Citation Format:
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between work-life balance, social media usage, and employee performance, focusing on social media's mediation role. Drawing on Boundary Theory, which studies the blurring of work and personal boundaries, the study looks at how social media can help or hinder employee performance in the context of work-life balance. Data were gathered and analyzed to evaluate four hypotheses: Work-life balance improves employee performance; Work-life balance boosts social media usage; Social media usage improves employee performance; and Social media usage mediates the link between work-life balance and employee performance. The data confirm that work-life balance has a favorable relationship with both social media usage and employee performance, with social media acting as an effective mediator. These findings underscore social media's dual role as a productivity tool and facilitator of work-life balance. The study adds to the expanding corpus of research on digital technologies in the workplace, recommending that firms use social media to improve employee well-being and performance. Future research should look into the potential obstacles and long-term repercussions of social media use in various job settings.
Fulltext
Keywords: work-life balance; employee performance; social media usage; boundary theory; digital tools

Article Metrics:

  1. Aggarwal, A., Sadhna, P., Gupta, S., Mittal, A., & Rastogi, S. (2022). Gen Z entering the workforce: Restructuring HR policies and practices for fostering the task performance and organizational commitment. Journal of Public Affairs, 22(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2535
  2. Allen, T. D., Merlo, K., Lawrence, R. C., Slutsky, J., & Gray, C. E. (2021). Boundary Management and Work-Nonwork Balance While Working from Home. Applied Psychology, 70(1), 60–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12300
  3. Archer-Brown, C., Marder, B., Calvard, T., & Kowalski, T. (2018). Hybrid social media: employees’ use of a boundary-spanning technology. New Technology, Work and Employment, 33(1), 74–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12103
  4. Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands-Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
  5. Barhate, B., & Dirani, K. M. (2022). Career aspirations of generation Z: a systematic literature review. European Journal of Training and Development, 46(1–2), 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-07-2020-0124
  6. Brough, P., Timms, C., O’Driscoll, M. P., Kalliath, T., Siu, O. L., Sit, C., & Lo, D. (2014). Work–life balance: A longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand workers. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(19), 2724–2744. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.899262
  7. Cannizzo, F., Mauri, C., & Osbaldiston, N. (2019). Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia. Journal of Cultural Economy, 12(4), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1605400
  8. Cao, X., & Yu, L. (2019). Exploring the influence of excessive social media use at work: A three-dimension usage perspective. International Journal of Information Management, 46(November 2018), 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.11.019
  9. Catedrilla, J., Ebardo, R., Limpin, L., De La Cuesta, J., Ching, M. R., Trapero, H., & Leano, C. (2020). Loneliness, boredom and information anxiety on problematic use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. ICCE 2020 - 28th International Conference on Computers in Education, Proceedings, 2(December), 52–60
  10. Christian, M., Gularso, K., Samodra, G. S., Yuniarto, Y., Wibowo, S., Sunarno, S., & Syafani, F. (2023). The Mediating and Moderating Role of Work-life Balance on Performance of Distribution Center Employees. Journal of Distribution Science, 21(11), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.15722/jds.21.11.202311.55
  11. Chu, T. H. (2020). A meta-analytic review of the relationship between social media use and employee outcomes. Telematics and Informatics, 50(January), 101379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101379
  12. Ciolfi, L., Gray, B., & Pinatti de Carvalho, A. F. (2020). Making Home Work Places. Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: The International Venue on Practice-Centred Computing on the Design of Cooperation Technologies, 4(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.18420/ecscw2020
  13. Dittes, S., & Smolnik, S. (2019). Towards a digital work environment: the influence of collaboration and networking on employee performance within an enterprise social media platform. Journal of Business Economics, 89(8–9), 1215–1243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-019-00951-4
  14. Duan, S. X., Deng, H., & Wibowo, S. (2023). Exploring the impact of digital work on work–life balance and job performance: a technology affordance perspective. Information Technology and People, 36(5), 2009–2029. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-01-2021-0013
  15. Farivar, F., Esmaeelinezhad, O., & Richardson, J. (2022). Digital intrusions or distraction at work and work-Life conflict. New Technology, Work and Employment, 37(3), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12235
  16. Farivar, F., & Richardson, J. (2021). Workplace digitalisation and work-nonwork satisfaction: the role of spillover social media. Behaviour and Information Technology, 40(8), 747–758. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1723702
  17. Ferreira, A., & Du Plessis, T. (2009). Effect of online social networking on employee productivity. SA Journal of Information Management, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v11i1.397
  18. Gardner, D. M., Lauricella, T., Ryan, A. M., Wadlington, P., & Elizondo, F. (2021). Managing boundaries between work and non-work domains: Personality and job characteristics and adopted style. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 94(1), 132–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12339
  19. Hair, J. ., Black, W. ., Babin, B. ., & Anderson, R. . (2019). Multivariate Data Analysis. In Cengage (Vol. 50, Issue 181). https://doi.org/10.2307/2007941
  20. Imtiaz, A., & Hossain, M. (2019). Balancing Between Work and Life: Determinants and Dynamics. Journal of Economics and Business, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.31014/aior.1992.02.02.86
  21. Lazăr, M. A. (2023). Adapting to VUCA: An Exploratory Study on Talent Resilience in the IT Industry and Generation Z Workforce. Review of International Comparative Management, 24(Vol. 24 No. 5 / 2023), 792–814. https://doi.org/10.24818/rmci.2023.7.792
  22. Miner, J. B. (1988). Development and application of the rated ranking technique in performance appraisal. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 61(4), 291–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1988.tb00468.x
  23. Nawaz, S. (2024). Distinguishing between effectual, ineffectual, and problematic smartphone use: A comprehensive review and conceptual pathways model for future research. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 14(May), 100424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100424
  24. Pevekar, K. S., Kotkunde, S., & Padma, K. (2023). Cross sectional study of Association between Social - media Use and mental health. Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research, 14(5), 2106–2113
  25. Rincy, V. M., & Panchanatham, N. (2010). Development of a Psychometric Instrument To Measure Work Life Balance. Continenal Journal of Social Sciences, 3, 50–58
  26. Roopavathi, S., & Kishore, K. (2021). ISSN NO : 0022-1945 The Impact Of Work Life Balance On Volume XII , Issue X , October / 2020 Page No : 31. Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research, XII(April), 31–37
  27. Sabar, S., Dzulkalnine, N., & Khir, M. M. (2024). The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health of Young Adults: A Literature Review. Information Management and Business Review, 16(35), 447–460
  28. Saim, M. A. S., Wan Rashid, W. E., & Ma’on, S. N. (2021). The Relationship Between Technostress Creator and Work-Life Balance at Selected Private Sector in Selangor. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(6). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v11-i6/10389
  29. Sánchez-Hernández, M. I., Stankevičiūté, Ž., Adamonienė, R., & Blašková, M. (2022). Editorial: Managing and mitigating suffering at work. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1033440
  30. Sanz-Vergel, A. I., Nielsen, K., Rodríguez-Muñoz, A., & Antino, M. (2024). What happens at work does not always stay at work: Daily job crafting and detachment among colleagues. Applied Psychology, 73(2), 776–800. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12499
  31. Shim, A. (2021). Juggling it all : A discourse analysis of the Korean work-life balance policy through gender lens (Issue December)
  32. Soomro, A. A., Breitenecker, R. J., & Shah, S. A. M. (2018). Relation of work-life balance, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict with the employee performance-moderating role of job satisfaction. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 7(1), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAJBS-02-2017-0018
  33. Tamunomiebi, M. D., & Oyibo, C. (2020). Work-Life Balance and Employee Performance: A Literature Review. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 5(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejbmr.2020.5.2.196
  34. Vithayathil, J., Dadgar, M., & Osiri, J. K. (2020). Does social media use at work lower productivity? International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 19(1), 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJITM.2020.104504
  35. Washington, M. L. (2021). The Mediated Effect of Social Media Technology Addiction on Productivity © Society for Business and Management Dynamics © Society for Business and Management Dynamics. Business Management Dynamics, 10(12), 1–16
  36. Wu, C., Zhang, Y., Huang, S., & Yuan, Q. (2021). Does enterprise social media usage make the employee more productive? A meta-analysis. Telematics and Informatics, 60(163), 101578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101578
  37. Yemoh, M., & Amitai, I. (2022). The cost of workplace distractions to labor productivity; personal use of social media and hand-held devices during working hours. International Journal of Advanced Scientific Innovation, 04(05), 5
  38. Zivnuska, S., Carlson, J. R., Carlson, D. S., Harris, R. B., & Harris, K. J. (2019). Social media addiction and social media reactions: The implications for job performance. Journal of Social Psychology, 159(6), 746–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2019.1578725

Last update:

No citation recorded.

Last update:

No citation recorded.