Social media use for work during non-work hours and work engagement: Effects of work-family conflict and public service motivation

Social media is widely used for work by civil servants in China at present. In Chinese cultural context, social media use for work during non-work hours (SMUNW) has many different effects on civil servants from those in Western countries. However, we have little understanding about how social media use for work during non-work hours could affect the psychological state of civil servants at work. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory and work-family border theory, this study utilized a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between SMUNW and employee work engagement. Based on data collected from 423 Chinese civil servants, the results demonstrated that SMUNW was negatively associated with work engagement. The work-family conflict played a mediating role between SMUNW and work engagement and public service motivation (PSM) moderated the negative effect between work-family conflict and work engagement. More importantly, our findings showed that the indirect relationship between SMUNW and work engagement through work-family conflict was more pronounced for civil servants with higher PSM rather than lower. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.