Confessions of an Angry Employee: The Dark Side of De-identified "Confessions" on Facebook
Abstract
Employees' communication behaviors are an important area of research for public relations. In this study, employees' communication behaviors in a de-identified context have been studied from the perspective of online flaming by analyzing "confessions" posted on a Facebook confessions page. The theoretical perspectives of Blumler and Katz's (1974) Uses and Gratification Theory and Kim and Rhee's (2011) employee communication behavior were adopted in this study. Positive and negative "confessions" were analyzed to identify employees' motivations in posting them. While negative posts expressing anger and frustration at policies, personnel, and the management in general dominated the page, positive posts indicated expressions of pride, nostalgia, and gratitude for social support from coworkers. Petitions from employees to change behaviors and policies were also found.