Despite the vast topics on social media ethical issue, I thought it would be useful for me and for you (Reminder: Internship in 6 months!) to look at social media used at work and the ethical issue. Especially when we are most probably going to work in industries such as marketing and advertising, entertainment, broadcast, etc. that requires hefty use of social media.
Wonder what is ethical and what is not? It seems like there is no definite answer to that. A study by Ethics Resource Center (ERC), 2013, on Generational Differences In Workplace Ethics of the American workforce, shows that different generations –Traditionalist, Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (Millennial) has contrasting views.
Source: Ethics Resource Center (ERC), 2013.
Source: Ethics Resource Center (ERC), 2013.
So after looking at the result, this illustration below came into my mind. As we can see from the results, Millennials are way more open to questionable behaviours. It may be alright to them to state their views because it is their freedom of speech and their open honesty but “On social media, anything you say or do can be used against you in the court of public opinion.” (Mintz, 2014 cited Jaylene)
Dear Millennials, is it that hard to not post whatever that will do injustice to you? I might be a tad conservative speaking as a Millennial myself, but losing a job, negative image and comments are not worth it for that one post. (I cannot deny maybe some like the spotlight.)
For those that prefer to not lose a job, below are simple pointers that I came up with that might help us refrain from getting into trouble at work because of the wrong use of social media.
- Know Your Company’s CultureCompany has responsibility in framing out the Do’s and Don’ts but we have the responsibility to know what are them. Go and find out what is acceptable in your everyday work place.
- Practise Self-ControlReally mad about your boss? Really mad about how your company works sometimes? You can still choose not to tweet about that! It is time we practise some self-control! As mentioned by Lynda Moultry Belcher, “While a company can give its employees rules, policies and other directions, it cannot guarantee that employees will exercise self-control when it comes to ethical decisions.” I cannot agree more to that.
- Treat Others How You Would Like To Be TreatedHave not we heard of this golden rule somewhere? No matter offline or online, we should all live by this rule because workplace environment can be made better. The difference in generation on workplace ethics should not be an excuse not to be courteous online. Remember, think before posting.
Lets cheers to better social media ethics and good luck to all on your internship experience 🙂
References
Animated GIF: Giphy
Belcher, LM. (2014). Two Challenges That Many Companies Face in the Area of Ethics. [online] Small Business – Chron.com. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/two-challenges-many-companies-face-area-ethics-23390.html [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Ethics Resource Center (ERC), (2013). Generational Differences In Workplace Ethics. [online] United States of America, pp.12-13. Available at: http://www.ethics.org/files/u5/2011GenDiffFinal_0.pdf [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Mintz, S. (2014). Reposted Jaylene, A. Sexual Discrimination and the use of Social Media in the Workplace. [Blog]Workplace ethics advice. Available at: http://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2014/09/sexual-discrimination-and-the-use-of-social-media-in-the-workplace.html [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].
Evelina lim 
Hi Evelina,
Nice reminder on our 6 months internship! As mentioned in my post, social media is the KEY to reach customers globally and as future marketers, it serves a purpose in learning ethical behaviors to apply at work Interesting way to use generation differences in viewing ethical behavior. In topic 1, we see how younger generation people could be more adaptable in using social media compared to older generation. They are ‘open-minded’ and think they should have freedom of speech.
I believe when in a fit of anger, people can be irrational and do crazy things, and then regretted later on. We see news on how many peoples got into trouble because of it. Self-control in my opinion is not easy and i think employees should be given an avenue to voice out their displeasure internally and employers should take this feedback seriously and take action.
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Hi Yiming,
Thanks for pointing out the fact that there are people who often are not able to control their emotions, thus might most probably do things in a fit of anger and regret afterwards. I understand that not all people can practise self-control and it is a good idea from to that companies should placed an avenue internally for employees to voice out their opinions. However, I do think this method is not easy. It may look very beneficial for the employees because they are given a say on their discontentment and company may be able to rectify the problem but there are a few factors to consider.
1) Employees might not like this idea- Why? Because some things they are unhappy about may be very minor and I believe most of the times, they are unhappy with the boss, their colleagues more than the company. I guess those that applaud to the idea will be those that have comments on the company’s way of doing things, or more major event such as bullying, etc.
2) Company need to consider who to look over this voice out avenue- Is it the HR department that will take care of such matter? How do take care of dispute that are very minor or major? If situation is not handled properly, it will still cause unhappiness and this time the unhappiness might be even greater than before.
3) More problems- This method may actually cause more problems if not consider properly on how to do it. This is because this will affect employee’s relationship with one another, individual’s reputation, and so on.
What do you think, yiming?
Thanks for your comment though! Really helpful 🙂
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Hi evelina,
I think it may sense in the factors you have raised to be worth considered for. Unhappiness with company could be easier to solve than people’s relationship with one another. Perhaps i would suggest being anonymous for the person who is raising the issue. If there is a need, both parties can be asked to voice out the issues face-to face in a compulsory mediating procedure, i think it is better to be frank with your thoughts than talking behind one’s back. Perhaps a qualified counselled can be engaged to specifically due with these issues.
Just my thoughts 🙂
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