Understanding the Moderation Effects of Age and Gender on the Relationship between Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Social Media Use and Perceived Administration Burden: Evidence from China

This research uses a mixed-method research design to identify and measure the factors that have led to the perceived administrative burdens of Chinese street-level bureaucrats. We argue that as a communication tool, when social media is overly used among street-level bureaucrats when they implement a policy, their felt administrative burden will be increased. Using data from 20 in-depth interviews and a survey of 324 respondents who implemented the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) Policy in China in 2019, the Latent Moderated Structural Equation modeling results supported our hypotheses. We also find that gender and age have significant moderation effects on the relationship between social media and street-level bureaucrats. These findings imply that bureaucracies should pay attention to street-level bureaucrats’ social media use behavior and balance the benefits and costs.

Keywords: perceived administrative burden, targeted poverty alleviation policy in China, street-level bureaucrats, social media use.

China Media Research, 18(1), January 2022