Social Media And Organizations For Balancing Act

A Balancing Act

Discuss about the Social Media and Organizations for Balancing Act.

Social media has become a boon to the younger generation as the activity of networking has become relative easy. Information can be sent to any one and every one in split seconds and the number people data reaches to is in millions (Peters, 2013). However, every power has a con. Similarly data shared on social media can be used against the user itself. But is the data private the user is a dilemma. The issue has particularly been debated in organizational setups with the question whether companies can use this information (Van, 2013). The below report argues about three main questions under this subject. How should the organizational policy on social media be, is it okay for the company to use social media information of the employee and how can the organization benefit with social media. The arguments are made with the help of ethical theories, knowledge management, pluralism etc.

Social media has become an important part of life in the technologically advanced world. It has invaded both the personal and professional life of every individual and hence it is no wonder that several employees are mixing up these two aspects (Rokka, 2014). Most of the times it happens that work related posts, organization related issues are put up on the social media, leading to a dispute between the employer and the employee. The concept of privacy has become diluted especially on the data available on the internet. This has led to dilemma whether the employee posts on social media should have some kind of restriction with respect to the employer data (Wilson, 2016). The challenge has raised the need to put up policies against the employees posting organization related data on the social media.

By the principle of Utilitarianism a normative ethics theory, the best action is that which results in maximum utility (Barrow, 2015). By setting policies and restricting work related posts on social media the company can not only protect information but also can ensure that the reputation of the company is intact which in turn benefits the employees. It also ensures that the stakeholders’ information is safe. However, balancing freedom of speech and the extent to which this freedom is allowed is an artistic work. It takes great understanding of the employees and the culture of the company to come up with competent policies. Just for the purpose of Utilitarianism, an employer cannot restrict freedom on social media.

Should Employers Glean?

One other issue by providing access to the social media in an organizational setup is that the time spent on networking may substantially increase which in turn would reduce the time spent on working. That is the chances of decrease in productivity are high. In such cases, employees are either not allowed to login to social media from the company network or their usage is to be monitored. Monitoring usage will again raise the same issue of privacy (An, 2014). The concept of psychological contract between the employee and the employer comes in to consideration which states that apart from the actual work contract that is signed between the employer and the employee the same parties have a psychological non-verbal contract that is more at a conscious level. Like the employer would let the employee work by himself, provide adequate wages etc., while the employee maintains high production and both the parties would respect and trust each other. With the inclusion of social media, this contract is hurt when the employee reduces his productivity or posts inappropriate organizational comments on social media, while restricting the freedom of the employee would be a contract breech from the employers end. However, there is no firm limits for this contract. Hence a policy finds a midpoint amongst these would be ideal (Paris, 2013).

There was a time when organizations believed that shareholders where the key members of the organization and everything should be done to ensure that they are happy. However, the evolved organization structure today believes that merely making the stakeholder beneficial is not enough for a company to progress but rather it is necessary to take care of the interests of all its stakeholders both internal and external. This theory is called the stakeholder theory and is proposed by R. Edward Freeman (Harrison, 2013). The major internal stakeholders for a company are the employees and hence as per this theory the company is responsible to maintain a healthy environment in the company. One argument could be to provide complete freedom to the employee. However to keep an employee satisfied, unrestricted social media is not the only solution. Also, employees getting on social media with work related issues will not solve the issues but would aggravate it. Companies have grievance handling cells that take care of employee issues.

Hence it is indeed true that policies put up by employers should not restrict the employee freedom of speech and at the same time employees should not be given the power to ruin the reputation of the company. Indeed, coming up with appropriate policies is a balancing act between the employees not being upset that they do not have the freedom of speech and the consequence the employer has to face if the same is given.

Using Social Media for the Benefit of the Company

The current generation uses the social media as a journal where current moods, status, locations and images are shared and saved on the internet. Several employee take their frustration out on the social media through irrational posts as a mode of communication. The argument behind these actions is the liberty of speech where the employee is allowed to speak what they feel. Commenting on an organization is not offence as people know that it is an individual opinion. However, the same does not stand true vice versa. There is a lot of discussion on the idea if an organization has to judge an employee based on his or her social records. The concept is in discussion as the scanning someone social media is invading their privacy.

Social media consists of abundant data regarding an employee. The people they engage with, the places they visit, the food they eat, their thoughts and moods and so on. If a trained psychologist is given this information, the innate characters of a human being can be understood. This can be considered an invasion of privacy as the company would be judging the character by actually looking deep into the person’s personality. On the other hand, when an organization, particularly a manager or a colleague who is present in the friend list of the employee views this information it cannot be considered an invasion of privacy. Note that the employee has willfully put up the picture knowing full well that the data will be updated and accessible to everyone permitted (Bulander, 2013). Situations like this cannot be considered as an invasion of privacy. When data is available, the employee has given permission to access the same and the data is not being used for any illegal methods scoping the information to understand the honesty and the actual nature of the employee cannot be called inappropriate (Drouin, 2015).

On the other hand recruiting a member based on social media cannot be considered completely correct. The concept of work life balance comes in to scope here. What an employee does outside work cannot be used as a mode for rejected an employee or undermining the same. Recruitment and interview process has to be done solely based on the capabilities and skills of the employee (Stoughton, 2015). Scanning social media in an attempt to avoid illegally involved employees can be considered as good logic but using the same for rejecting employees because of their personal habits is not considered right (Slovensky, 2012). What the employee does outside the organization in their own time cannot be used as a filter in recruitment. Also, organizations inform the employee regarding the background check that would be done before hiring an employee. The clause generally consists of the concept of searching through the internet which is informed to the employee.  

Background checks when informed and done are correct however going through an employee’s profile without their consent invasion of privacy no matter what the purpose is (Stoughton, 2013). On the other hand, managers and employees who are a part of the friends list of the employee are given access by the employee and they going through the profiles cannot be considered as an invasion.

Several organizations around the world today have realized the importance of social media. It is one of the most powerful networking tools and is currently in vogue amongst all the employees. Organizations today are seeing social media as opportunity to grow rather than a threat to their reputation (Leonardi, 2013). Any form of communication when used effectively can result in substantial results. Social media can be helpful to connect employees of all levels in an organization which is generally not possible in a conventional setup. With HRM evolving to strategic HRM where the recruitment, training and appraisal are all done based on the organizational objectives, social media has the ability to act as a robust integrator (Treem, 2013).

Several companies such as Microsoft, Delottie etc have all established an internal social media platform that can be accessed by all the employees of the company with their work login. These platforms are similar to Facebook, where several internal organizational groups are formed and information and updates are shared across. The employees can also chat with employees of other departments thereby bridging the gap between them. This platform in particular encourages the concepts of knowledge management where information can be shared easily through social media. Finding and communicating with relevant mentors or experts in the company helps lower level employees to fulfill their quest for knowledge (Razmerita, 2014). Also, groups are formed based on technology or department and links of resourceful information, articles, videos etc can be shared to help employees be updated with latest developments in the business or learn new things with ease.

For an organization to really grow, the growth of its employees is crucial. Through Strategic HRM employees are aligned to the organizational goals (Cascio, 2015). This inculcates the concept of unitarism where all the employees work towards the welfare of the company. For example, when a CSR event is being conducted in the company, the information, planning and several other activities can be shared over the internal media and sometimes on the external social media as well to keep the employees appraised and involved in the activities (Colleoni, 2013). On the other hand, though an employee may belong to one department or one technology they may look for opportunities to learn new things or see what other departments have to offer. In a conventional company setup, to search for the challenges an employee may have to go through the HR or another department’s manager. This is a tedious task. With the help of an internal communication network, employees can easily identify the possible opportunities and directly communicate to the anchors to work on them.

There is always an issue with freedom of communication. The employees should know how to talk, when to talk, what to put on an internal networking site and the way of communication with higher employees. Given that the employees have free access to all other employees including high level mangers it is crucial that the employee realizes how to handle communications especially with seniors (Schaupp, 2016). It is true that the boundaries between two levels of employees are nullified in the new organizational setup, but it is also true that seniors should be treated with respect especially when looking for opportunities to learn and grow through them. For the same purpose organizations have policies in place to let the employees know how to communicate and clearly define what matters are not to be dealt online.

Social media is also a key in improving the publicity of the organization. Making announcements on external social media and involving employees in such activities will not only build the reputation of the company but also of the employee (Gonzalez, 2013). Congratulating a top runner on social media will be a pride for the employee. Employers also turn up to social networking sites such as LinkedIn where professionals put up their profiles. This is helpful for recruiting and finding SME to hire on contract basis there by having in hand the profiles of eligible candidates which makes the process of scanning portfolios simpler.

Conclusion

Social Media has become an inevitable inclusion in the life of the younger generation and the privacy of social media information is in question, especially when work related data and opinions are given over social media. To curb any negative effects that may rise due to the same organizations need to develop policies that sensibly restricts its employees from posting inappropriate data. The data on social media can be accessed by the organizations only after consent from the employee. Companies can make use of the networking technology to increase the productivity of the employee through internal discussions and blogging for knowledge management.

References

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