Examining Employees’ Perceptions of Facebook Post(s)-based Terminations Based on Skarlicki and Kulik’s Model of Facebook Firing: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Abstract

The purpose of this empirical study is to identify employees’ perceptions of Facebook post(s)-based terminations (FPTs) in the UK based on Skarlicki and Kulik’s (2005) model of Facebook firing. This study considered three such perceptions of FPTs as independent variables: perceived non-job-related post(s) (PNJRPs) (considered as a single independent variable), perceived intentional sabotage (PIS), and perceived organizational justice (POJ). On the other hand, this study considered three dependent variables perceived by employees as the consequences of such FPTs: fairness perception (FP), privacy perception (PP), and trust perception (TP). We purposively selected 472 employees from the UK as our survey respondents and utilized a covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses using AMOS 29. The study identified that PNJRPs, as a single independent variable, has significant negative relationships with FP and TP, while the variable (PNJRPs) has an insignificant relationship with PP. PIS has significant positive relationships with all three dependent variables. Finally, POJ was found to have significant positive relationships with all three dependent variables. This research can contribute to a crucial internal emphasis on Facebook-based dismissals to evaluate how employees perceive such a practice. Additionally, this study can provide insights to the policymakers and HR professionals about employees’ responses to the application of Facebook-based terminations considering fairness, privacy, and trust perceptions. We believe that academics as well as policymakers/HR professionals can benefit alike from this initial effort in studying FPTs and subsequent employee responses.