Discuss about the Social Networking for Organizations.
Social Networking is a part of life for today’s youth population. They like to share the happenings in their life through online medium. Seldom, they are unable to distinguish between the professional and personal life and end up sharing some critical piece of information online, that they are ideally not supposed to share. This is a huge issue for the company as the shared information can tarnish the image of the company and can also lead to monetary loss. The argument chosen for this essay is the companies have all the rights to access to the social networking pages of their employee just to ensure that the employee is not sharing any information that is not appropriate to be shared. The discussion will be throughout in support of this argument only.
The ethical dilemma here is that the employee is not wrong when he/she says that the social networking platform is their own personal space and they have all the rights to mention whatever they feel is appropriate. On the other hand, the company is also correct that the details of the company are very confidential and should not be shared with the outside world, some of the details may carry some sensitive data that can actually spill out the USP of the company and unnecessary creates a ruckus in the market overall. Hence, in some context going by the deontological principle of ethics it can be well hypothesized that the point raised by the company is not wrong overall. The employee is working for the company and as per the ethics of duty, he should not be doing any such act that gives a wrong impression about the company and also there should not be any interpretation shown by an employee on the social platform that gives competitor any kind of advantage (lacewing, 2012). The personal space does exist but it is something that is related to personal life and professional life should not be fixed with it. This simple logic explains the ethical dilemma.
The utilitarian concept speaks that the ethical decision must be such that it brings in maximum harmony and minimum entropy in the system. By this principle the logic is all more mixed and ambivalent. The harmony is not achieved if both go by their happiness quotient and also going by the quotient of making other party happy is also not the solution, since it will develop more entropy at one end by unable to meet the final objective. Ultimately employee feels that their personal space must not be touched and the company feels that the personal space should not interfere with the company’s health and hence it becomes all more relevant to maintain a check over the employee’s activities. If the utilitarian ethics are to be practices then both party must do what they feel is right and the other party must not get impact by the action as well (Eggleston, 2012). Under that situation, it is best if the employee maintains a private profile for the social networking account and hence share their thoughts and point of views with only close friends and known to and not with the people who may take some unnecessary advantage of the information shared. This way the ethical dilemma is sorted.
The concept of stakeholder says that there are people who are linked with the company directly or indirectly. There is some kind of effect that is seen on stakeholders as the company booms or as it dooms and hence the analysis of the stakeholders is very critical and need to be taken care with immense priority. The stakeholders are the one who decides the subsequent health of the company beyond a certain point. The market reactions, the share prices and the investors decision is all decided by the stakeholders of the company and hence the stakeholders are the most important indicator of the health of the company and they more or less decide over the past, present and future of the company and how the company will be seen in the upcoming future (Jemilo, 2010).
Going by the context of social networking, the stakeholders are seldom easy to identify and sometimes it is almost impossible to identify them, and if the information is shared loosely by an employee that is an indicator of company’s health then this thing can become very devastating for the company and this is the very reason why company wishes to maintain a track of the activities of the employees.
There are multiple internal dynamics that runs in the company. Some of which is permanent and important in nature and some is very futile and extremely temporary in nature. These are internal and crucial for the company as any information can goes in the market in a negative manner and hence make the entire market perception negative about the company. This can lead to huge repercussions like Share Price Crash, Delay in merger and delay in investment by stakeholders and things like that. This is a very critical and important dynamic that is very sensitive for the company and they cannot risk it at all. Hence, it becomes imperative for the company to ensure that there is no leak point that is there in the system from where the information can go out. One of the potential point is the social networking sites used by the employees and hence in order to play safe it is seldom okay to keep a track of that (Annansingh, 2010). There may be some ethical considerations that may be showcased by a few proponents, but it is ultimately the company’s perpetuity that matters here and the company is trying to safeguard that. No company is nagging about other issues, it is just those issues that are relevant for the company and hence there is no explanation that the companies owes to anyone.
The younger generation is the generation which has seen freedom in every aspect and are not bounded by any kind of constraint, they are groomed to live life on their own terms and going by the psychology of the generation, they don’t like to be guided by anyone and they can work only in complete freedom environment. This is why there is a huge difference in the working style for this generation than the previous generation. They are more vocal and upfront towards anything they find appropriate or inappropriate. The underlying concept is that this change has led to some innovative changes in the system and the concept like Company Rating and Work from Home are a result of these changes only (Pickens, 2010). However, there is a limit to everything and the same principle is applicable here as well.
The workmanship is more to do with the commitment toward the work and in both the generation the commitment towards the work has remained the same. There is a higher affinity of the previous generation towards the company, which the generation today is not that committed towards. They are more concerned with the work and they are committed to whatever they are doing as a part of work. There is no correlation between the work freedom and work commitment. The same is said about the fact that the productivity has increased over time as there are smarter ways of working that have come up in the recent times (Tolbize, 2008). The workmanship has been up for those who wants to work all the time and not want to waste their time.
The information sharing is any day not a correct thing to do both by ethical principle and by stakeholder theory. The information is seldom the business critical information and can also be some kind of trade secret of the company and that is bound to be protected and as a core stakeholder of the company it is the duty of the people to safeguard that. Even though it could be their own opinion of the company but it has to be thoroughly checked and even then there is a close group where it should be shared in an undocumented and unavailable manner. Sharing the data that is visible to all is not a good thing to do and it can lead to strict actions by the company against the employees.
It should be made clear during the induction program as well that the social pages of the people will be checked and if they wish to stop the people from viewing their pages then they must maintain them in private mode so that an outsider could not come and view the thoughts. The thoughts are meant to be shared with a close group and even then there are some critical information that should not be shared with the people in any case (CCCI, 2012). There should be a limited access that should be allowed to the companies and that will ensure that the degree of information sharing is not surpassing the tolerant requirement of the company. The information or any thought against the culture should not be made public by the employee may be directly or indirectly.
Employer has a lot of stakeholders to give answers to and moreover employer is the one who is giving job opportunity and money to the employer. The employer must maintain the decorum and in case there are any concern which he or she has against the company the same must be brought in front of the employer directly and not through some random internet page that is accessible to everyone. The employer if they are maintaining a check around the online activities is not to intrude the private life of the employee and anyhow if the page is open for public then the employer can be stray visitor as well and in that context if they find something not suitable for public sharing then the same may be brought in front of the employee directly for clarification.
One of the solution is already shared that encourages company to ensure that they have shared the code of conduct check list already to the employees. This is to ensure that the employee agrees to the fact they will not share any company specific information around the culture, financial, marketing, clients etc. with anyone online or offline. There must be a disciplinary guidelines that must be set in place to ensure that the people are well aware of the repercussion and post that also if the employee is sharing some inappropriate content with the mass public over the internet, then the employer will have all right to take the disciplinary action against the defaulter.
Through Strategic HRM, the employees are treated as the owner of the company, the leader which must have some vision for the company and should work for the progression and health of the company. With this thought in mind if the HRM is done at a strategic level that there is a strong correlation and bond that exist between the Human Resource Management Department and the Employees then there are lesser chances for people writing negative things about the company online, rather they might end up writing positive things about them and that turns the situation in their favor overall (Hayes, 2011).
Through strategic HRM the situation and environment is maintained between the employer and the employee that employee feels that it is his responsibility to ensure that the image of the company is not tarnished. It is viewed as a fact that instead his own image is at stake if he writes anything wrong about the company due to the strategic partnership that is established between them, which is overall a very positive inclusion program by the company and that can ensure that the relational bond will ensure the positivity to prevail in the social environment overall. The partnership can be established other ways also.
The psychological contract can be established between the Company and the employee and that can be done through the strategic initiatives by the HR people. The employees can be made to realize that the company takes a lot of pain for them and also thinks about their progression and growth. The bond will not be formed just by murmuring words and not actually doing things. The onus has to be taken for the wholesome growth of the company. Taking care of the things that the employee is trying to achieve through the work done by them and hence making a system such that the people are able to realize the important role that the company is playing in their life and that leads to the formation of the needed psychological contract. It is not a simple thing and can actually lead to a whole lot of benefits for the employees and the employer in their social life as well. If the people feel in psychological contract with the people at large then through every medium there is a chance that their social presence will be positive and hence lead to the gateway for development of the employer and employee’s image in the online environment.
The Human Capital Management is more towards investment on the people so that they remain loyal to the company. A mode of strategizing the aspiration of the employee with the goals and vision of the company and ensure that the people are seen as a capital investment by the company and hence some returns will be gained from them in the form of loyalty and productivity, which otherwise just by plain vocal praises is very hard to achieve. The Human Capital Management also entails the rewards and recognition program by the company and if that is managed well there is by all means the loyalty is established strongly and will ensure that the online life of the employee will showcase that. It is the most potent way of ensuring that the people don’t write anything negative about the company by being double sure that there is nothing negative to write overall. The aspirations and commitment and respected and in due of course of time people are given the authority to build their career the way they want to and that is something which will always fetch some superlative results for the company. The win – win situation achieved by this strategy is pretty good as it will ensure that people are genuinely happy and hence they will take care of the company’s image.
Conclusion
The Knowledge Management is the respect for the people for the work that they have done. The management of that is done through the knowledge repository that is maintained by the company. The company can also use the online portals like LinkedIn and share the work done by the employee to the world by tagging them appropriately and ensuring that it will struck the right connect with the people. People will surely add value to the work if they see appropriate returns and if that is guaranteed then there is no way results will not be promising for both the parties. It is one of the latest mode of building the trust and connect and it seems to be working well with the latest generation and that will also establish the case of win – win situation online.
References:
Annansingh, F. (2010). Exploring the Risks of Knowledge Leakage: An Information Systems Case Study Approach . Plymouth: Plymouth University .
CCCI. (2012). The Risky Business of Information Sharing. London: CCCI Publications.
Eggleston, B. (2012). Utilitarianism. Kansas: Elsevier Inc.
Hayes, M. (2011). Startegic Human Resource Manangement. New Delhi: SodhGanga Publications.
Jemilo, D. (2010). The Stakeholder Management Framework. New York: Scaled Agile, Inc.
lacewing, M. (2012). Kant’s deontological ethics. London: Routledge.
Pickens, J. (2010). Attitude and Perception. Paris: Health Admin Publications.
Tolbize, A. (2008). Generational differences in the workplace. Minnesota: Univeristy of Minnesota.
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