FP210_13

Should Companies Monitor their Employees’ Social Media?

Ethical issues in business refer to the moral principles that arise in the business environment. The widespread use of social media has made it useful for the employer’s to a better insight of who they plan to hire, Jobvite’s survey of human resource professionals shows over 50% of employer’s using more than one social networking sites to evaluate applicants (Gunkel, D., J, n.d.). It matters how employees conduct their online activities in both the professional and private environment.

One of the ethical issues that arise due to the misuse of social media by employees of a company is the integrity risk. Integrity risk refers to the threat to the reputation of the company. When the integrity of a company is ruined, the business of that company is adversely affected as customers are very sensitive to the image of the company they are dealing with. The employees posts can ruin the reputation of the company for instance when an employee complains about work on social media, those who come across the post can change their perception toward the company. While the decision to post a comment, video or a blog is personal, the consequences can be harmful to both the reputation of the individual and the company. This creates the need for a company to manage how its employees use social media in order to reduce its exposure to integrity risk. (Reddy, 2017).

The ethical dilemma that arises when a company attempts to manage the use of social media by regulating what its employees posts is that it denies the employees the freedom of expression. While it is important to monitor how a company’s employees use their social media in order to protect its reputation, it is ethical to grant the workers of a company the rights to freely express themselves. There have been instances where an employee loses their job or even suffered worse consequences due to what they posted on social media. These has led many people to ask whether it is ethical for a company to punish its employees due to what they post on their personal social media accounts. (Kumar, 2015).

References

Gunkel, D. J. (n.d.). Social Media: Changing the rules of business ethics. Retrieved September 23, 2017, from http://newsroom.niu.edu/2015/03/17/social-media-changing-the-rules-of-business-ethics/

Debate.org. (017). Should employers monitor their employees’ social media? Retrieved September 23, 2017, from http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-employers-monitor-their-employees-social-media