Adam and Eve and that Darned Apple!

Sadly the world is not the Garden of Eden.  There are a lot of good things in the world but there are also bad things.  Human behaviour shows both sides.  Do we know the difference between right and wrong? Why are we surrounded by a quagmire of social, ethical and legal issues on a daily basis?

So, has this quagmire been avoided in the digital age? Alas not, with all our advances in social technologies, we still sadly have the negative side, like that rotten apple has spoiled the barrel of apples in the digital age. Some of the social technology escapades are just simple blunders and can be laughed at but there is a deep dark seedy side that can be seen with people’s use of social technologies and social media.  What we have in the physical life, even though we may choose to ignore it, also exists into the virtual world – from cyberbullying to sexual predators.

Can there be policing of the internet and social media? In Australia, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is a government regulatory body whose role is to regulate the internet.  But can anybody really do this task, as it is both a global and a personal problem at an ethical and legal level?  They highlight some of the illegal social networking activities that need to be avoided by both organisations and people in general.  But Richard Bean, the deputy chairman of ACMA, admits in the article which discusses whether social media can be effectively regulated, that the authority has ''few formal powers in relation to the online world'' and those that exist relate primarily to illegal content, such as images of child abuse.  David Rolph, a media law specialist at the University of Sydney, in the same article explains that ''If you regulate for specific technologies, different ones will proliferate and your technologically specific policy or legislation will be useless.

So where does this leave us, as both companies and employees are making mistakes? Forbes talks about 5 deadly sins that companies need to avoid with social technologies.  What does this misuse of social technologies mean for organisations and employees?  The rise of e-misconduct in the workplace is rampant and one such case is that of Linfox and Stutsel.

The Case ….

Linfox is an Australian logistics and supply chain organisation which was established in 1956.  It is the largest privately owned supply chain company in Asia Pacific that employs over 23,000 in 10 countries. Linfox specialises in complex supply chain design, IT systems integration, distributed operations, linehaul, freight forwarding and warehouse management.

Strutsel, an employee of Linfox as a truck driver from 1989 to 2011, posted on Facebook comments about two of his managers.  The comments were deemed as racially derogatory, sexually harassing and threatening violence.  His employment was terminated.  Strustel lodged an unfair dismissal claim with Fair Work Australia.  

Linfox did not have any social media policy in place to deal with these issues. The Commissioner of the case emphasised the importance of such a policy. Linfox could not defend itself.  Strustel was awarded the case and Linfox had to reinstate him, including payments of lost wages as compensation.

Risks Vs Benefits of Enterprise 2.0

Do the risks outweigh the benefits of social technologies? Dawson (2009) looks at the key risks and concerns associated with Enterprise 2.0:

Some of these came true for Linfox, who had a loss of control of information with the negative comments on their workers. Through inappropriate staff behaviour their reputation was muddied and with the publication of the case and the prominence that it got as they had to reinstate the employee, tarnished it even more.

The legal risks of social networking for business can be categorises into internal and external risk for an organisation. These risks are -

• Confidential information
• Wrongful dismissal 
• Statutory risks - Trademark infringement, copyright, privacy, discrimination, misleading and deceptive conduct, defamation and negligent misstatements
• Occupation and organisation specific risks
• Reputation risk

Linfox legally were held for wrongful dismissal but were they are also breaking the statutory risks for discrimination and defamation of the two real victims in this case?

Will a SMP solve the Problem?

So what about Social Media Policies (SMP)? Can rules and policies be written in stone like The Ten Commandments? Do they mean anything and are they adhered to? Dundas Lawyers discuss whether organisations need social media policies? And Paul O’Halloran of Rigby Cooke Lawyers writes about what an SMP needs to contain to be legally defensible.

Strangely enough there was another case involving Linfox but this time Linfox proved the value of workplace social media policies. The case concerned a Mr Pearson who refused to sign the company’s social media policy as he said it was infringing on his freedom of speech outside work. The company dismissed him and he brought an unfair dismissal claim against them. This case shows that the boundaries are blurred with the use of social media in a person’s work and private life. The ruling on this case was in favour of the company as their social media policy applied to inside and outside the workplace and Mr Pearson lost his case.

There needs to be a balance between rules and technology advancement that are empowering users as the McKinsey Global Institute 2012 - The Social Economy report (p.119) discusses “the implications of social technologies and that policy makers will need to find ways to protect the rights of individuals, groups and organisations in ways that do not undermine the essential strengths of social technologies“.

Are our Ethics being attacked by a Serpent?

With creating a SMP, ethics need to be considered from both a personal and corporate viewpoint.  Rogerson and Fidler's 8 Ethical Principles

• Honour
• Honest Bias
• Professional Adequacy
• Due Care
• Fairness
• Consideration of Social Cost
• Effective and Efficient Action

need to be included in these polices and they should be done in conjunction with the employer and the employee in order to meet the ethical challenges of social media.  Effective communication and training on these policies with the monitoring of social technologies are needed to ensure compliance and understanding.

The cog of our responsibilities are changing and increasing from being just a citizen to a corporate citizen working for enterprises and increasingly becoming that digital corporate citizen as social technologies usage increases in both our work and personal lives.

References

Dawson, R., Hough, J., Hill, J., Winterford, B., & Alexandrov, D. (2008). Implementing enterprise 2.0.

                San Francisco; Sydney: Advanced Human Technologies.

Rogerson, S., & Fidler, C. (n.d.). A practical perspective on information ethics. Retrieved from                     
                 https://www.academia.edu/322961/A_Practical_Perspective_of_Information_Ethics.