Three-way interaction effect of social media usage, perceived task interdependence and perceived participative leadership on employee creativity

Purpose Despite the growing use of social media in many organizations, managers face the challenges of how to effectively manage social media usage (SMU) in the workplace to ensure employee creativity. This study combined task-technology fit theory and the interactional perspective of employee creativity to understand the three-way interaction of SMU, perceived task interdependence, and perceived participative leadership on employee creativity. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was designed to test our hypotheses. The sample consisted of employees who use social media in the workplace. A total of 402 valid questionnaires were used for the hierarchical regression analysis. Findings SMU had the strongest positive relationship with creativity when perceived task interdependence and perceived participative leadership were high. However, we did not find two-way interaction effects of SMU and perceived task interdependence on employee creativity. Originality/value Our findings are aligned with the emergent view that the benefits of SMU can be better realized when it coexists with a set of complementary team contextual factors. The current study helps extend the contingency perspective and related studies in social media literature and employee creativity research.