Emotional exhaustion weakens the relationship between social media use and knowledge sharing behavior

Purpose: Knowledge sharing behavior is crucial for ensuring organizational success, fueling innovation, solving problems, and informing decision-making. While social media platforms offer powerful tools for employees to share knowledge, the intricate relationship between social media use and knowledge sharing behavior remains unclear. Few studies have examined the influencing mechanisms of emotional exhaustion on the above relationships, especially through self-determination perspective. Design/methodology/approach: As knowledge is inherently private to the individual, grounded in self-determination theory, this study employed a moderated mediation analysis to explore the internal mechanisms of social media use on employee knowledge sharing behavior. The survey of 356 full-time employees was collected from a large environmental protection group in China. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap tests. Findings: The results show that social media use positively affects employee knowledge sharing behavior; knowledge sharing intention partially positively mediates the influence of social media use on knowledge sharing behavior; emotional exhaustion negatively moderates the relationship between social media use and knowledge sharing intention. Contribution of research: The study identifies how two styles of social media use - work-related purpose and social-related purpose – affect knowledge sharing behavior. It significantly advances the understanding of social media use on knowledge sharing behavior from self-determination perspective. Practical implications: This study has several important practical implications for organizations seeking to facilitate employee knowledge sharing behavior through social media use. Organizations should improve employees' knowledge sharing intention and avoid emotional exhaustion.