In the era of digital transformation, enterprise social media (ESM) has become a core infrastructure for contemporary teamwork. However, less is known about how it functions when teams face adversity. This study investigates how ESM communication visibility influences team resilience in digitally mediated workplaces. Drawing on communication visibility theory and conservation of resources theory, the study unpacks how message transparency and network translucence contribute to the development of team resilience under adversity.
Time-lagged survey data were collected from 346 members of Chinese project teams across three stages. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping techniques were applied to test the hypotheses, along with a series of endogeneity and robustness checks.
Results show that message transparency enhances team resilience-adaptive capacity through knowledge integration, while network translucence enhances team resilience-efficacious belief through collective team identification. Both effects are fully mediated, with no direct impact on resilience outcomes. In addition, team reflexivity strengthens the positive effect of message transparency on knowledge integration, whereas information overload weakens the effect of network translucence on team identification.
This study enriches communication visibility theory by extending its scope from routine performance to resilience building under adversity and clarifying the differentiated mechanisms linked to distinct resilience dimensions. It also identifies boundary conditions that shape these effects, offering a more nuanced understanding of how ESM fosters resilient teams in volatile organizational landscapes.
