Sense of community, social support and social media use in the post-pandemic world of work

Abstract

Remote work has become integral to contemporary work life, necessitating a detailed examination of its effects on employees’ sense of community and support – key factors influencing knowledge sharing, team performance, and well-being at work. To this end, this study examines how the adjustments made to working arrangements and workplace communication during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have affected employees’ sense of community and social support at work. The study is based on a longitudinal dataset including 544 participants, with 4352 observations collected during eight time points between 2019 and 2022. The data were analysed using a linear multilevel hybrid regression model. The results show that although remote workers, especially those with high-intensity remote work, experience less social community and support from co-workers, frequent social media communication (both work-related and nonwork-related) can mitigate some of these effects. The results provide a novel understanding of the evolution and effects of remote work configurations and employees’ use of social media for professional and personal communication in the post-pandemic era. The findings also provide valuable insights for workplaces, highlighting the importance of establishing and maintaining social communities, and enabling forums for social support from colleagues and supervisors in remote work configurations.