Case Study: Social Media Policies, Concerted Activity and HR Management

In the last few years, companies have begun initiating and implementing Social Media policies for their employees to follow. These policies range from encouraging employees to utilize Social Media for marketing purposes, to restricting the use of employees of Social Media in order to ensure they do not hurt the company image. As these policies become more and more wide-spread, both the Society for Human Resource Management and the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) has become concerned about the limits on speech and activity which employers are imposing on their workers. Further, in some states, laws are being passed to protect employees and potential employees from being required to disclose Social Media passwords during job interviews or after hire. Finally, many ethical concerns are being raised about the use of Social Media as a method of doing quick, informal background checks on potential hires or current employees.
For your homework this week, research the following questions and provide your findings in answers which are long enough to sufficiently answer the questions. (About 2-3 good paragraphs each.) Provide citations in APA style for each of your answers. Use APA formatting in your Word Document which you submit to the dropbox. Save your file with your last name in the file name, please. Let your Professor know if you have questions

Questions to research and answer:

1. The NLRB has made findings regarding the use of employee posts on Social Media sites to discipline or terminate those employees. Typically these cases occur when an employee posts "negative" information about their current employer or boss. Sometimes these are "public" and other times the employer uses "spies" or "fake friending" to see the Facebook page of the employee.

Find at least one case or article online regarding this topic, and briefly explain the facts of the case, and the determination of the NLRB as to whether the employee was properly or improperly disciplined or terminated as a result of their use of Social Media to complain about, criticize, or publicly bash their company or boss. Provide the citation to the article you discover. (Use the term "concerted activity" in your query or search to help you find one of these cases.)

2. Do you agree with the decision of the NLRB or court in the case you describe in question #1 above? Why or why not?

3. Assume this case happened at a place you have worked in the past, or where you work now (or want to work.) Give an example of how the decision in the case above could lead to better or worse employee relations in your company.

4. Explain how you would communicate this decision to your employees or to your supervisors (depending on the decision you have selected) to ensure that future situations like this do not occur again. In your answer, determine whether you feel a social media policy is a good route to go or not. If so, list at least 3 things you would include in your policy and why you would include them. If you do not feel a social media policy is a good route to go, explain why you would not implement one (give at least two valid reasons.)