Social media as micro-encounters. Millennial preferences as moderators of digital public value creation

• Published date: 08 July 2019
• Date: 08 July 2019
• Pages: 562-580
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0059
• Author: Staci M. Zavattaro,Lori A. Brainard
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management

Social media as micro-encounters

Millennial preferences as moderators of digital

public value creation

Staci M. Zavattaro

School of Public Administration,

University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA, and

Lori A. Brainard

George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework for understanding how millennial social

media use preferences can help public administrators change their delivery ethos to foster meaningful

micro-encounters in digital spaces to then create public value. Ideally, these micro-encounters encourage

public values creation from both the user (government) and audience side. Traditional government social

media use often is one-way push without much care for dialogue and discussion. This revised framework

shifts that thinking from the social media creation phase, allowing public administrators to use the tools in a

more creative way.

Design/methodology/approach –The approach to the paper is theoretical, meaning the theoretical

framework brings together lines of scholarship that have previously run parallel: millennial social media use

preferences, government social media, and public values creation.

Findings –The theoretical framework offers propositions for future inquiry. The framework shows how

traditional public sector social media use fails when it comes to creating meaningful spaces for interaction,

which ideally is the purpose of social media.

Practical implications –The framework offered herein can help practitioners change the way they set up

and even currently use social media tools to engage with the public. Though the framework is based on

millennial social media preferences, any generation can benefit from a more open, inclusive platform that

strives to foster public values such as collaboration, dialogue and transparency.

Originality/value –The theoretical framework generated for this paper brings together usually separate

literatures to create a more holistic picture of social media use for public administrators.

Keywords Public administration, Millennials, Social media, Digital governance, Public values,

Government social media

Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction

The era of e-government has ushered in many changes to public administration.

Organizations began adopting digital government strategies to better connect with the

publics they serve (Gil-Garcia and Pardo, 2005; West, 2004). As the digital era has

progressed, social media became a critical part of the public administrator’s toolkit given the

ability to connect government-to-government and government-to-people (Mergel, 2013).

As social media became more prominent in public organizations, much of the original

research tried to figure out the how and why of digital adoption (Brainard, 2016;

Mergel, 2013; Zavattaro and Bryer, 2016). More recently, studies are moving beyond the how

and why into areas such as digital transformation, innovation, and coproduction through

social media (Criado et al., 2013; Mergel, 2018). What we see, then, is movement toward using

social media to ideally create public values such as transparency, innovation, agility,

responsiveness and more (Bannister and Connolly, 2014).

Social media can be understood as part of the smart technologies toolkit governments are

using to connectwith stakeholders. As Mergelet al. (2016) argue, big data are part of the smart

technologies movement because government agencies (if they are transparent), people, and

researchers, have access to larger scales of data now than in the past. Part of the big data

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 32 No. 5, 2019

pp. 562-580

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0059

Received 27 February 2018

Revised 4 October 2018

19 December 2018

Accepted 24 January 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

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IJPSM

32,5

umbrella includes data analytics, which relies on socially generated data via internet

platforms such as social media platforms or collaborative webpages (Mergel et al., 2016).

For example, Mergel and Desouza (2013) use Challenge.gov to show the power of smart

technologies to harness public opinion related to open innovation. A key part of open

innovation is the use of crowdsourcing technologies such as social media.Challenge.gov was

launched during President Obama’s administration to crowdsource ideas related to big

questions and problems facing government (Mergel and Desouza, 2013).

We see manifestationsof these smart technologiesin practice almost daily. For example,if

you own a smartphone it will suggest words or phrases to you as you type text messages.

Digital apps on cellphones, too, have artificial intelligence capabilities built in that can help

you, say, finda parking spot or report a pothole to the localgovernment. So-called smartcities

rely on information technologies to connect stakeholders and make itselfmore responsive to

changing demographics, infrastructures, policies and practices (Chourabi et al., 2012).

Social networking and sharing capabilities have given rise to crowdsourcing, so Park and

Johnston (2017) examined the role of these informal networks during disaster response.

Data analyticsand informatics allows even novicesto crunch data and share informationthat

has broad implications across boundaries (Park and Johnston, 2017).

While all the technological developments surrounding smart technologies and big data

are important for public administration and management, we also need to realize that

fundamentals are key. When it comes to social media as a smart technology that facilitates

big data and coproduction, straying too far from the basics can be alienating for users

(Zavattaro and Sementelli, 2014). As such, in this paper we focus on social media as a

smart technology to ideally foster public values through collaboration. Yet, a disconnect

still exists in the adoption stage when the logic of social media is not fully appreciated

(Brainard and McNutt, 2010). Often, the public value aspects of social media are not

considered when agencies think about adopting or adapting a social media strategy

(Mergel, 2013). Even today many public organizations hesitate to stray too far off message

(Zavattaro and Bryer, 2016).

We argue in this theoretical paper that thinking specifically about how to use social

media to create public values changes the logic of how governments use the digital

platforms. Governments can move beyond a simple push-style of social media use to one

that explicitly takes into account public values such as collaboration, transparency and

connectivity. To do so, we argue that public organizations can begin looking at how

millennials use social media.

It is often easy to dismiss the stereotypical millennial as unmotivated, narcissistic and/or

entitled. Providing a more complex understanding, Gagnier (2008) shared the results of a

survey asking millennial participants their views of democracy and their ability to

participate in democratic processes. A key finding was that millennials want to “generate

their own solutions”(Gagnier, 2008, p. 36) to society’s pressing problems and are more likely

to be involved when their peers lead the way. Knowing this, what would it look like if

instead of dismissing an entire generation, public administrators learned from millennials

how to transform service delivery, democratic interaction and, thereby, public value and

public values?

To achieve this, we offer a theoretical framework that weaves together millennial

technology preferences with the concepts of micro-encounters and public value/s, which in

turn would influence how social media success is measured. Our framework addresses a gap

in the literature, whereby more research is needed to understand how public administrators

use –and might use –social tools to interact and engage with citizens (Criado et al., 2017).

We argue that if we shift our thinking about the tools’purpose, then government social

media could become sites for micro-level interactions (understood as contact between

government professionals and community members, Stout and Love, 2017) that can enhance

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