Strategic Studies of Culture

Strategic Studies of Culture

Exploring the role of social media in representing and controlling the political behavior of organizational managers: A contextual study in Yazd city

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Saeed Rastegari 1
SeyedAlireza Afshani 2
Alimohammad Mazidi-Sharafabadi 3
Mohammad Soltanifar 4
1 Ph.D. Student of Communication Sciences, Department of Communication Sciences, Maybod Branch, Islamic Azad University, Maybod, Iran.
2 Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran (Corresponding Author)
3 Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences, Department of Communication Sciences, Maybod Branch, Islamic Azad University, Maybod, Iran.
4 Professor of Communication Sciences, Department of Communication Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
10.22083/scsj.2025.525483.1288
Abstract
Introduction: In recent decades, political behavior has garnered increasing attention from scholars in management and sociology, particularly within public sector organizations. Political behavior-often rooted in power dynamics, social interactions, and personal or group interests-can significantly influence organizational decision-making and frequently occurs outside formal and legal frameworks. In contexts where formal oversight mechanisms are limited or ineffective, modern communication tools-especially social media-offer new avenues for public monitoring and the exertion of social pressure. With their multifaceted roles in information dissemination, civic engagement, and the representation of realities, social media have emerged as powerful tools for enhancing transparency, promoting accountability, and even regulating political behaviors within organizations. This study focuses on public sector organizations in Yazd, Iran, and employs a qualitative approach to investigate how social media can represent and regulate the political behaviors of organizational managers and employees. It seeks to answer the core research question: How do social media platforms contribute to the representation and control of political behavior among organizational actors?
Methods: This research adopts a qualitative approach grounded in the methodology of grounded theory. The aim was to generate a theory rooted in empirical data through a three-stage coding process-open, axial, and selective-and to present the findings within a paradigmatic model. The sampling process began with purposive sampling and continued through theoretical sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Participants were selected based on two criteria: a minimum of five years of work experience in public organizations in Yazd, and a willingness to participate in in-depth interviews. Theoretical saturation was reached after 17 in-depth interviews. Data collection and analysis were carried out iteratively and simultaneously. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and coded line by line. In the open coding phase, initial concepts were extracted and then merged into subcategories and core categories. During axial coding, a paradigmatic model was developed encompassing causal conditions, contextual and intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. Finally, in the selective coding phase, the core category and the emergent theory were formulated based on theoretical sensitivity. Ethical considerations-such as informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and the prevention of harm-were rigorously upheld. The validity of the findings was ensured through prolonged field engagement, participant validation, triangulation with credible sources, concurrent data analysis, and peer review of the codes.
Findings: The findings of this study yielded 12 main categories and one core category. The central phenomenon identified was the media-based deterrence of political behavior, which materializes within public organizations through the interaction of causal, contextual, and intervening factors. Key causal factors included public power-based surveillance, disclosure of organizational corruption, media empowerment, representation of financial misconduct, and dual-fronted resistance to political behavior. The creation of online infrastructures for countering political behavior emerged as a key enabler in this process. Strategic responses to facilitate deterrence mainly included public critique of organizational power groups and linguistic participation by citizens in rejecting political behavior. These strategies have fostered a form of media-driven order that promotes transparency, enhances accountability, and reduces instances of political behavior within administrative structures.
Conclusion: The study concludes that within the context of networked societies, social media function as a new form of panopticism, playing a central role in deterring political behavior by organizational managers. Unlike classical surveillance systems aimed at increasing employee productivity, social media expose managerial actions to public scrutiny, thereby compelling transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework, this form of grassroots surveillance represents a reverse disciplinary power-a bottom-up mechanism of control. Similarly, within the theoretical context of Manuel Castells, social media act as instruments of counter-power, enabling the free flow of information and enhancing users’ interactive capacities to reveal corruption, challenge power structures, and reject political behavior. This digital counter-power disrupts the monopoly of traditional organizational oversight, renders managerial actions visible, and reconfigures power relations within organizational settings. Thus, media-based deterrence constitutes not only a novel form of networked control but also signals a shift in power from formal bureaucracies to networked societal actors. Through linguistic participation, social critique, and transparency, these actors challenge the legitimacy of political behavior in organizations. As such, social media serve as strategic deterrents that contribute to reshaping organizational ethics and the distribution of power.
Keywords
Political Behavior
Media Deterrence
Authoritarian Surveillance
Organizational Corruption
Media Power
Subjects
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Strategic Studies of Culture
Volume 6, Issue 1 - Serial Number 21
Spring 2026
Pages 191-224