Many Companies Say It’s Okay to Monitor Workers’ Social Networking

May 25th, 2009 • Posted in: News

Companies cite need to protect corporate image; not surprisingly, most workers don’t agree

NEW YORK
The boss wants to keep an eye on the image you project on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. That’s the message from a new Deloitte survey that underscores the practical and ethical dilemmas faced by workers who want to communicate freely on their own time and companies that have spent fortunes to burnish their image and want to protect it, reports BusinessWeek.

Sixty percent of the executives interviewed by Deloitte said they believed they had a right to monitor how employees portray themselves and their organizations. But more than half of the employees questioned say their social communication is none of their employer’s business, according to a summary of the study in Bizjournals.com.

A variety of news media worldwide localized the results of the survey and examined the often-uncomfortable mix of social media and employment. The Sydney Morning Herald, for example, profiled a worker who bemoaned her love life in Facebook only to find that her venting had become the hot topic in the boardroom of her marketing company.

The Financial Times notes that the dilemma recently played out among media employees themselves after Dow Jones imposed ethics restrictions on how workers at the Wall Street Journal and other publications could use Facebook and Twitter.

Prohibitions against “friending” confidential sources and promoting one’s own work were among the strictures, according to an Editor & Publisher column that reprinted an internal Wall Street Journal email.

Editor’s Note: Deloitte is a corporate sponsor of Ethics Newsline®.

Sources: BusinessWeek, May 21 — Bizjournals.com, May 19 — Sydney Morning Herald, May 18 — Financial Times, May 18 — Editor & Publisher, May 14.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 6 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 23 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 12 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 10, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 3, 2007 — 2009 Deloitte “Ethics & Workplace Survey,” undated.

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One Response »

1. Ethics Newsline® » News » New Media Developments Venture into Uncharted Ethical Territory on June 8th, 2009 at 7:15 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, May 25 — Related Newsline story, May 18 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 27 [...]

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