Background
Should He Be Fired For That Facebook Post?
Business ethics are critical for the long term sustainability of the company (Crane & Matten, 2016). Organizations must set clear policies regarding business ethics in order to ensure that the business grows with a moral compass in place. The advent of social media is hardly uncommon. The extent of social media is massive and is largely used by businesses to set the right positioning in the minds of its consumers. However, the use of social media among employees can get extremely crucial. Employees are seen posting about their respective organizations on social media frequently. Depending upon the number of followers and privacy settings of the employee, any information shared can reach a large number of people. Therefore various businesses censor or attempt to monitor the content posted by employees on their respective social media profiles. In fact some organizations have an acceptable social media behavior policy in place which guides employees regarding the dos and don’ts of what can be posted on their social media profiles.
On the other hand, some organizations believe that a social media profile of an individual is their personal life and an organization must not interfere in the same (Montalvo, 2016). There is a consistent ongoing debate about if social media should monitor the social media content of their employees. Most of the organizations do not have a policy around social media. At the same time, it is important for organizations to put efforts in tracking the content posted by their employees only to ensure that it does not harm the organization’s goodwill.
Downcity Motor’s best sales employee, Kenton, has been bad mouthing the company on Facebook. He had done this in the past and had been warned against it. This time, he wrote a nasty post about their leading client ‘Mercedes’. The post was regarding the quality of table cloth and food at the launch party. No doubt the post was witty, sarcastic and uncalled for. But it is important to note, that posting on Facebook was not his first resort. He had mentioned the same to Susannah, the General Manager at the firm. Unfortunately, he had done a similar thing in the past. He was given a strict warning against it and he took down the post. This time though, Dell, the company president, is furious and needs the firm to take a strict action. He recommends that Kenton must be fired. On the other hand, Tyson, the sales manager is worried about hitting sales numbers without Kenton as he is the best sales person at the firm. The current dilemma faced by Susannah is the fate of Kenton. There are three options that lay ahead of her. These include ignoring the matter, firing Kenton and disciplining him (Harvard Business Review, 2015).
Case Study Scenario
The three alternative solutions presented to Susannah are as below:
Managing crisis communication through social media is very important (Ruggiero & Vos , 2014). The first option is to penalize him. Since, this is the second time that he has done such a thing, it is fair to penalize him. This may include asking him to go on a leave without pay for a couple of days or putting him under an improvement plan. This has several pros and cons. The first benefit is that Kenton will put the post down so that it does not reach any further. Secondly, Kenton would be a lot more careful while posting anything related to the organization in the future. Thirdly, Kenton might even change his privacy settings to ensure that his posts are not public.
But on the other hand, the organization does not has a legal authority to monitor his Facebook posts and therefore, he may refuse to take it down or worse continue to post even more derogatory things. If Kenton gets offended and decides to the leave the organization, then too it is going to be a massive loss for the firm.
This is an extreme step and one of the most effective if the aim is to set an example for others in the firm to be careful about what they post on social media. If Kenton is fired, there will be a fear in the minds of everyone else and they would be a lot more careful about what they post on their social media profiles. However, this alternative has a large number of cons. Firstly, the organization would lose its most performing employee. The sales manager would have to train someone entirely new and by the time that happens, the numbers would take a hit.
On the other hand, Kenton could also take the case to the court and then it would be a legal battle between the two. This is tiresome, ugly and can adversely impact the organization’s brand image. Therefore it is an extreme step.
The last resort that is due with the management is to simply ignore the issue and respect that fact that Kenton’s social media life is his personal space and the organization must not interfere with the same. This will they will be able to retain their best employee and save themselves from any ugly legal battles. Additionally, Kenton also posts a lot of positive things about the organization and depicts immense love for the organization on his Facebook wall. If the issue is ignored, the organization can hope that on the overall, Kenton and other employee’s social media profile reflect positively on the organization.
Alternative solutions
On the other hand, Kenton will not even learn his lesson, he may continue to post things about the organization as per his whims and fancies with little regard for the goodwill of the firm. This may even encourage other employees of the firm to use social media as a form to express their love or hate towards the organization and it might not be the best place for employees to do so.
Recommendations and Conclusion
After carefully analyzing the case, the first problem that can be identified is that of a lack of effective communication within the organization. Communication plays a significant role in developing an effective work culture (Cardon, 2014). Kenton had approached Susannah and shared his opinion about the quality of food and ambience at the launch. However, she turned a deaf ear to it. So the first thing that needs to be done is that Downcity Motors must ensure that employees are free to share their opinions and that their opinions are valued in the organization.
Secondly, since this is the second time Kenton has done such a thing, the issue cannot be ignore. Therefore he must be penalized. This must begin with conducting an official meeting where Kenton must be given counselling about his social media behaviour. The post must be taken down immediately. A strict warning must be given to Kenton that if such an instance occurs again, then he would be fired from the organization.
Thirdly, Kenton must be asked to extend an apology to the entire team. He must once again be urged to change the privacy settings of his Facebook account.
Lastly, an effective and thorough social media behavior policy must be introduced which must be effective immediately. This detailed policy must define an appropriate social media behavior. The consequences of not doing the same must also be highlighted clearly. Employees must also be discouraged to post anything derogatory about the organization on social media.
Anything that employees post on social media must be respected as their personal life but the moment employees post about the organization (during or after office hours), the issue becomes professional and it would be fair for the organization to interfere (Huang et. al., 2015). Therefore it is also important that the HR and the ethics officer of the firm are strict about what is being spoken about the firm by the employees on their social media platforms. Moreover, it is the culture of the organization that must instil a positive environment where employees do not need to write negative posts on either social media or anywhere else.
References
Cardon, P.W., 2014. Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Harvard Business Review, 2015. ‘Should he be fired for that Facebook post?’ Available at https://hbr.org/2015/12/case-study-should-he-be-fired-for-that-facebook-post. Accessed on 17 May, 2018.
Huang, Y., Singh, P.V. and Ghose, A., 2015. A structural model of employee behavioral dynamics in enterprise social media. Management Science, 61(12), pp.2825-2844.
Montalvo, R.E., 2016. Social media management. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 20(2), p.45.
Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K. and Nabeth, T., 2014. Social media in organizations: leveraging personal and collective knowledge processes. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 24(1), pp.74-93.
Ruggiero, A. and Vos, M., 2014. Social media monitoring for crisis communication: process, methods and trends in the scientific literature. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 4(1), p.105.
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