Employee’s Unauthorized Disclosure of Organizational Information on Social Media: The Role of Emotions and Boundary Permeability

Advancements in social media have complicated issues of unauthorized disclosure of organizational information by adding new avenues for disclosure. In this short paper, we examine how emotions influence employee’s unauthorized disclosure of organizational information via social media. We find that emotions increase the permeability of the boundary between an individual’s professional and personal lives, and consequently make them more likely to disclose organizational information without authority on social media. Our initial findings suggest that positive emotions (i.e., satisfaction and excitement) arouse the intention to reveal more about success, accomplishments, and opportunities that could be classified as confidential or unauthorized disclosures. Negative emotions (i.e., anger and anxiety) can trigger an individual to use social media to vent or seek emotional support and potentially lead to unauthorized disclosures. Our future work will test a theoretical model that explains the emotional dimensions of individuals disclosing organizational information via social media without authority.