Dark side of enterprise social media usage: A literature review from the conflict-based perspective

Enterprise social media (ESM) is an emerging platform based on Web 2.0 that allows employees to communicate and collaborate. Despite its numerous opportunities and benefits, there is a growing awareness of the “dark side” of the improper use of ESM in organizations. However, the findings in this aspect remain fragmented in prior literature. Our study attempts to address this research gap by capturing the dark side of ESM’s misuse from a conflict-based perspective through a comprehensive literature review of existing literature. We systematically classify different conflicts in ESM’s use, their antecedents, and subsequent negative outcomes and propose specific measures to mitigate them. On these grounds, we develop a holistic conceptual framework to clarify the relationship between these research constructs. Our research indicates that the conflicts in ESM’s use are primarily caused by inappropriate use behavior, prompted by technical characteristics. In addition, we synthesize the negative outcomes of the conflicts with a focus on the individual level from both psychological and behavioral perspectives. Our paper identifies possible opportunities for future research and provides a useful basis to further investigate the dark side of ESM’s misuse. Employees and organizations can also use our conceptual framework to better understand the causes and consequences of conflicts in the use of ESM and develop corresponding measures to mitigate them.