Social Media: A Model of Organizational Use, Perceived Risk, and Policy Implementation

• In Event: AIS Models

Abstract

Social media use within and outside the workplace is expanding rapidly; however, little is known about how organizations perceive and manage risk associated with social media. This paper examines the relationships among four aspects of social media in the workplace: (1) how organizations use social media, (2) the perceived level of risk associated with social media use, (3) policy implementation, and (4) training and technical controls. We use survey data from 103 audit, risk and financial professionals to estimate a model based on hypothesized relationships between these factors. These data indicate that the extent of social media use is positively associated with an increase in perceived level of risk and the extent to which an organization implements policies governing social media use. The perceived level of risk only partially mediates the relationship between social media use and policy implementation, suggesting that organizations may adopt such policies without using a formalized process for assessing social media risk. In addition, we find that the extent to which an organization has policies governing social media use is positively associated with the extent to which it has training and technical controls designed to address social media risk.

Authors

• Kristina Colleen Demek, University of Washington-Seattle

• Robyn L Raschke, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

• Diane J Janvrin, Iowa State University

• William N Dilla, Iowa State University