(Hawking, 2014)
Evolving social attitudes along with the advancement of technology have since transform social media original intention for ‘social’ use into a multi-use tool for individuals, businesses and educational purposes. In today’s post, I will be focusing on the ethical issues raised by business use of social media.
There is a plethora of ethical concerns for businesses when it comes to social media. Arguably one of the greatest causes of ethical issues in the business use of social media is the use of it in recruitment practices. As mentioned before in Topic 2 and 3 on how employers today use social media channel to screen applicants. This use of social media by businesses raises ethical considerations around privacy and fairness.
Is it ethical to judge an employee’s ability to conduct their job based on information about their personal life?
Further to this, a research study by DLA Piper reported that one third of employers have disciplined staff for inappropriate comments on a social media site about the company (DLA Piper, 2011), but do companies have the right to do this, especially if it is in the employees’ personal domain?
This will bring us to my next point on reputation risk. Since companies can be liable for material published by their employees on blogs and social networks either on behalf of the company or through their own personal account, any adverse content can be seen as an integrity risk for the company. One business example which received wide media attention was the case of Justine Sacco #HasJustineLandedYet. Shortly before boarding a flight to Africa, Justine posted an incredibly controversial tweet which later gained a huge amount of attention through multiple retweets. Inevitably she ended up being fired from her job after damaging not only her own integrity, but the reputation of the company. Same could be apply for education as mention about Stacy Snyder in my previous post.
From these example, it is important to put in place clear cut guidelines to ensure ethical standards are met. This suggestion could be supported with this article by Institute of Business Ethics, where they mention the need for companies to invoke a social media policy that provides guidance to employees when using social media in the context of using a company account and a personal account (Institute of Business Ethics, 2011).
I believe that if there is a proper managing of social media accounts, this platform could truly be a powerful tool to market the company or their campaign. Not convinced? Check out this interesting pun exchange between @TeaAndCopy and Sainsbury’s on Twitter.
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Reference
DLA Piper, (2011). KNOWING YOUR TWEET FROM YOUR TREND: KEEPING PACE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORKPLACE. [online] Available at: http://www.dlapipershiftinglandscapes.com/export/sites/shifting-landscapes/downloads/Shifting_Landscapes_-_Social_Media.pdf [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Hawking, T. (2014). No, the Internet Isn’t Killing Free Speech. [online] Flavorwire. Available at: http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/freedom-of-speech-megaphone.jpg [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Institute of Business Ethics, (2011). Business Ethics Briefing. [online] Available at: http://www.ibe.org.uk/userassets/briefings/ibe_briefing_22_the_ethical_challenges_of_social_media.pdf [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Kaufman, G. (2007). Woman Denied Degree Over ‘Drunken Pirate’ MySpace Photo Sues School. [online] MTV News. Available at: http://www.mtv.com/news/1558467/woman-denied-degree-over-drunken-pirate-myspace-photo-sues-school/ [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Nisen, M. (2013). IAC PR Director Lands In South Africa After Racist Tweet, And It’s A Mess. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/justine-sacco-landing-live-tweeting-2013-12?IR=T& [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Stainthorpe, C. (2014). Sainsbury’s Fish Jokes: Don’t Mis-Hake them for Good Customer Service – being CustomerSure – Proven advice from Business Rockstars. [online] being CustomerSure – Proven advice from Business Rockstars. Available at: http://www.customersure.com/blog/sainsburys-social-media-jokes-customer-service/ [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
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