Reflection Summary on Topic 4

This topic by far has been the most challenging one due to the many areas that can be potentially discussed as well as the challenge of identifying what is ethically right or wrong. I discussed on individual’s use of social media at work and I brought up the argument of what is seen ethical, or rather, acceptable behavior from the different generations.

One major issue highlighted by Sara was employee’s ability to expose business information with just a click of a button. An avenue to rant discontentment using social media might very well leak out company’s trade secret to its competitors. She also propose that organisation should put in place a social media policy.

Yiming expressed in his comment that Millennials are young, ‘open-minded’ and think they should have freedom of speech. For people that are not able to control their emotions and practise self-control, Yiming also suggested that company should have an avenue for employees to voice out their discontentment. I thought this is rather a good idea but also thought there are quite a few factors to consider if not the implementation might backfire! Check out my reply to him.

I also realised that some individuals upload content on social media without realizing that it may do harm to their reputation and affect their job prospect. A great example of Stancy Snyder mentioned by Torws made me believe that we should be responsible of what we upload not solely for the benefit of ourselves but also for the company that we are representing. As much as we emphasise on the idea of authentic online profile, there are things we should keep it private and not display online. Check out my discussion with Torws.

This topic made me realise that other than being authentic, sometimes, we should be clever not to upload certain type of contents that might cause great controversial issues. With the help of company’s social media policy, we can also get a clearer idea of what we can place on social media to the best of our advantage.

 

Social Media At Work: Lets Think Before We Post

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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].