Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Social Networking
Social Networking
Social Networking
Introduction
The purpose of this research is to review the rising use of social
networks by people while on the job. The popularity of social networks
and their increasing use in the workplace present some concerns for
employers, but all indications are that employers cannot hope to prevent
social network use during work hours. As an alternative to an attempt to
prohibit their use, this research leads to the recommendation that
businesses make use of social networks instead. A possible use would
be as a tool of communication between management and employees to
ensure that employees are productive but not overworked. Another
possible use is as a marketing tool.
Social networking is an interconnected system through which
alliances are formed, help is obtained, information is transmitted, and
actions taken to achieve certain results. If businesses need to work with
social networking websites, as seems likely, they should have a policy
on social networking in the workplace. This recommendation is based
on the assumptions that use of social networking in the workplace
continues to increase and that internet security will never be perfect in
filtering personal or business information on social networks. The
extent of this problem is ongoing and impossible to predict.
The Major Social Networking Websites
There are four major social networking sites in common use. Facebook,
introduced in February 2004, is one of the most popular social
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current and upcoming projects that their favorite celebrities and sports
professionals are engaged in.
There are negatives from the employee standpoint as well.
A situation that has been arising for the working professional is going
onto Facebook to see what their friends are doing, only to see that their
boss or colleague has messaged them about an urgent work matter
(Available all the time, 2009). Using these sites has blurred the lines
between work and private time. If the employer requests interaction
with, or wishes to friend an employee, how does an employee not
accept that without an issue of etiquette arising, especially if employer
and employee are friendly toward one another in the office.
This raises the related question of whether it is appropriate for
a co-worker to reach out to another co-worker on a social networking
forum to talk about work matters. According to Rothbard, on the one
hand, it enables flexibility. In some ways, it makes you more effective.
But it can also lead to a lot of burnout. In the long term, it may lead to
conflict about how you feel towards your other life roles and your ability
to be fully present in any one domain (Available all the time, 2009).
This burnout would be defined as exhaustion of physical or emotional
strength usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.
If an employee is in constant contact with superiors and coworkers through social networking sites, the employee may eventually
feel like there is no line between work life and a personal life because
he or she has become available all the time. Blackberrys, for example,
are often provided to employees to check their email on the go, or to
check their twitter and face book accounts. This can create exhaustion
in the employee who can never have a clean line drawn between work
and play, especially if that employee has friended the boss. There are
two sides to this; on the one hand, it enables flexibility. In some ways,
it makes you more effective. But it can also lead to a lot of burnout
(Are you practicing, 2009).
In the case where an employer and employee are social
network friends, nothing is kept secret. The employer will be able to
see how his or her employee behaves outside the office, which can be
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Legal Issues
There are also many legal issues that surround social networking sites.
The main issue is privacy of employees content on work computers.
The main piece of legislation that deals with expectancy of workplace
privacy is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, (Nord,
McCubbins, and Nord, 2006). The ECPA introduces three exceptions that
release liability for companies that use spying software to record and
prosecute online activity during work hours (Nord et al., 2006).
The first exception is the provider exception which says
if an employer actually owns and is providing the telephone, email,
or Internet services to the employees being monitored an employer is
released of liability. The second exception named referred to as
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References
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Available all the time: etiquette for the social networking age.
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Breslin, T. (2009, September). When social networking enters the workplace.
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