Barriers to Constructive Voice in Enterprise Social Media: A Qualitative SOR-Based Study

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Prof., Department of Leadership and Human Development, Faculty of Public Administration and Organizational Sciences, College of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Information Technology Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jipa.2025.404566.3809

Abstract

Objective
This exploratory study examines the factors and mechanisms that inhibit employees from using enterprise social media (ESM) to express constructive voice. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) model, the study focuses on explicating how platform features and norms—message visibility and persistence, audience-scope ambiguity, and notification load—connect to users’ cognitive–affective states (impression-management concern, privacy calculus, uncertainty, and socio-media fatigue) and to behavioral outcomes (an economy of caution, selective silence, and discontinuous use intention). Beyond identifying inhibitors, the study conceptualizes the “economy of caution” as a regulatory state of voice and provides a basis for practical recommendations aimed at sustaining participation.
Methods
A qualitative design using reflexive thematic analysis was employed. Purposive sampling yielded 47 semi-structured interviews with employees and managers from 11 organizations across diverse industries (information technology, finance, education, retail, and manufacturing). To reduce social desirability bias, third-person questioning was used. After transcription, data were coded through Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis process; ultimately, 126 initial codes were organized into 8 subthemes and 4 overarching themes. Research quality was strengthened in terms of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability through source and researcher triangulation, participant checking at the theme-summary level, thick contextual description, an auditable analytic trail, and reflexive memoing. Ethical considerations included informed consent, confidentiality, and participants’ right to withdraw at any stage.
Results
Four interrelated inhibitory themes were identified: (1) fear of judgment and impression-management pressure, leading to obsessive rewriting, neutralized tone, and self-censorship; (2) audience ambiguity and privacy concerns, intensified by content persistence/searchability and perceived surveillance, which raise the “mental cost of writing”; (3) ESM-induced fatigue and reduced focus due to notification overload and constant task-switching, fostering a “silent spectator” pattern; and (4) selective, risk-avoiding use, in which employees engage in cost–benefit calculus and turn to delayed posting, message hedging, channel switching, reading without replying, and, in some cases, quiet exit. These patterns align with the S–O–R logic: platform features and norms function as stimuli that shape internal appraisals and fatigue, which in turn produce regulatory responses and intentions to discontinue or reduce use. Psychological safety and team norms operate as contextual conditions that can dampen the economy of caution and help sustain participation.
Conclusion
Enterprise social media is double-edged: alongside opportunities for access and speed, the combination of high message visibility, persistence, audience ambiguity, and notification burden activates an economy of caution that undermines constructive voice. The sustainability of such voice depends less on usage intensity than on employees’ lived experiences of judgment anxiety, privacy concern, and fatigue. Accordingly, this study concludes with practical recommendations to clarify audience visibility and data lifecycles, manage notification load, strengthen psychological safety and team norms, and create visible pathways showing how voiced ideas lead to action. As a key theoretical contribution, this study formulates the “economy of caution” as a distinct regulatory state of voice and embeds it within the S–O–R framework by linking platform features to users’ cognitive–affective states and behavioral responses.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 
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Journal of Public Administration
Volume 18, Issue 1
2026
Pages 38-69

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