Confessions of an angry employee: The dark side of de-identified “confessions” on Facebook

• Main Authors: KRISHNA, Arunima, Soojin KIM
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Confessions; Employees’ communication behaviors; Facebook; Paracrisis; Social media; Uses and gratification theory; Business and Corporate Communications; Social Media
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4773; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5772/viewcontent/confessions_of_an_angry_employee.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Employees’ communication behaviors are an important area of research for public rela-tions. In this study, employees’ communication behaviors in a de-identified context havebeen studied from the perspective of online flaming by analyzing “confessions” posted on aFacebook confessions page. The theoretical perspectives of the uses and gratification theoryand employee communication behavior in public relations literature were adopted in thisstudy. Positive and negative “confessions” were analyzed to identify employees’ motiva-tions in posting them. While negative posts expressing anger and frustration at policies,personnel, and the management in general dominated the page, positive posts indicatedexpressions of pride, nostalgia, and gratitude for social support from co-workers. Petitionsfrom employees to change behaviors and policies were also found, and were examinedfrom the perspective of paracrises.