PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore employees' perceptions of the quality of internal communication in German organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the paper aims to identify antecedents and outcomes of high-quality internal communication during the pandemic. In doing so, it draws important practical and theoretical implications for pandemic-era communication, particularly surrounding issues such as employees' needs and strategic approaches to communication during the pandemic, as well as the effects of successful internal (crisis) communication.Design/methodology/approachA representative survey was conducted on employees (n = 934) working at different types of organizations in Germany. After a dimensionality check was conducted through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the proposed hypotheses were tested by conducting a structural equation model (SEM) using the R package lavaan.FindingsThis study identifies several antecedents of high-quality internal communication during the Covid-19 crisis, such as the frequency of communication at the beginning and during the pandemic, the dissemination of substantial information, participative communication and a clear rejection of secrecy. Furthermore, the findings show that high-quality internal communication has a positive impact on the employee–organization relationship (EOR).Originality/valueThis study suggests that strategic alignment of internal communications during the Covid-19 pandemic is crucial: by considering a number of factors, organizations can positively influence employees' perceptions of the quality of their internal communication. In terms of theoretical implications, this study discusses how the concept of high-quality internal communication can be operationalized and explores the outcomes that this can generate.

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Employing a mobile experience sampling design, we investigated in the present study how different types of mobile social media use relate to young individuals’ momentary affective well-being and momentary loneliness. We differentiated between three types of social media use: Messaging, posting, and browsing. Moreover, we studied fear of missing out (FoMO) as a moderating variable. We collected data from 79 middle and late adolescents ( M age = 17.55 years, SD = 1.29; 59% girls) yielding 956 momentary assessments. The results showed that messaging and posting were positively related to affective well-being, while browsing was associated with higher levels of loneliness. Furthermore, some of the relations between social media use, affective well-being, and loneliness were also moderated by FoMO. Our results highlight the need to differentiate between different types of social media use, to include individual predispositions, and to apply methods that account for daily fluctuations in psychological well-being when studying the complex relationship between youth’s mobile social media use and well-being.

Populist politicians’ social media activity has often been associated with their electoral success. Yet, research on the driving forces of engagement on social media is scarce. Are populist politicians triggering more interaction than mainstream politicians, or is it rather the populist ideology they convey? To disentangle these different factors, we conducted a comparative content analysis of Twitter and Facebook communication of 13 leading candidates in Austria and the Netherlands during an election campaign. Findings show that it is rather styles conductive to populism (i.e. emotionality, first-person references) than the actual content of populist communication that trigger online behaviour. Importantly, irrespective of the content they convey, right-wing populist politicians are more successful in spreading their message via social media than mainstream politicians. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the role of online communication for populist politicians’ success in spreading their viewpoints across networked societies.

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