Development of Instrument to Measure WhatsApp Usage among Malaysian Employees

Authors

  • Che Su Mustaffa , Nuredayu Omar , Zuraidah Abu Talib

Abstract

The use of social media and instant messaging applications like WhatsApp has become a major medium for
communication within the organization. This situation occurred because the staff felt that they could interact quickly
and get immediate feedback through the medium. The use of WhatsApp applications is seen as an alternative to the
formal communication medium within the organization. Given the limited number of instruments designed to
measure social media usage, it is considered appropriate that WhatsApp measurement instruments in the context of
an organization are also created. Therefore, this paper is intended to discuss the development of WhatsApp usage
instruments among organizational staff. The methods used to design such instruments are a combination of
qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were analysed using factor analysis. This study produced 90 items to
measure WhatsApp usage among organizational staff consisting of five variables namely WhatsApp Usage, Trust in
Information, Relationship Impact of WhatsApp, WhatsApp Usage Ethics and WhatsApp Usage Competency. The
results of this study contribute to knowledge related to organizational communication, instrumentation development
and social media

Published

2020-03-31

Issue

Section

Articles