Dangers of social networking for employees - Research Paper Example

? Dangers of social networking for employees Nobody can deny the influence of social networks on human life at present. Business is one segment in which social networks proved its worth beyond the expectations. Product manufacturers and service providers are currently relying heavily on social networks to market their products and services. However, social networks also brought many challenges in the organizational world. The misuse of social networks by the employees is causing big headache to the organizational world. Employees are spending too much time in front of the social networks and failing to complete their routine works in time. They are providing vital company information to the competitors knowingly or unknowingly through social networks. Competitors are exploiting the possibilities of social networks to know the business secrets of organizations through employees. It is necessary for the organisations to regulate the activities of employees in social networks. The traps existing in the social networks are unaware to many of the employees. Employees should be encouraged or trained to use the social network in a judicious manner while working in an organization. This paper analyses the dangers raised by social networks to the employees. Dangers of social networking for employees (Tomexy, 2011) At the time of introduction of social networks such as twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Skype etc, nobody thought that it may affect human life as it does now. Initially the purposes of social media were; spending leisure time, relaxation, enjoyment and instant communication etc. However, after few years from introduction, social media have changed everything. It is difficult to describe the influence of social media on current human life in few words. Virtually, all the segments of current human life are influenced by social media now. Irrespective of culture, race, gender, age or socioeconomic background, people from all parts of the world are interested in social media activities. However, teenagers and employees are more active in social media websites. Social media bring lot of opportunities to the business people and teenagers. At the same time, it brings lot of challenges also. Business is one segment in which social media brings lot of opportunities as well as challenges. Social networking marketing spending has been increased a lot in the past. According to a report, it has increased from $884 million to $2.34 billion in between the period 2007-2009 (Dickey & Lewis, 2010, p.140). Currently, organizations are utilizing social media not only for the recruitment of employees, but also for marketing products and services as well. Social media brought lot of opportunities to the employee community. It is easy for them to share their thoughts and relieve their personal and professional stresses through social networks. However, there are plenty of dangers hiding in social media for an employee. Many of the social media savvy employees in the past suffered a lot from social media. If not used judiciously and carefully, social media can bring more harm than good to an employee. This paper analyse the dangers involved in social media as far as an employee is concerned. Discussion Unlike many other media or channels of communication, social media has the ability to furnish two-way communication. It should be noted that television and newspaper like communication channels are incapable of helping people in interacting each other instantly. Instant two way communication is good as well as bad as a far as employee is concerned. Instant two way communication helps employees to get the feedback or vital information from the other end quickly and take decisions based on that. However, while performing two way communication, employees often forget about the value of time and they may forget other important matters as well. Most of the employees engage in casual talks with others along with the professional matters while they use social media for communication. Casual talks often end up in waste of time and the organization may not benefit from it. Failure of doing works in time, may cause punishments to the employees. In short, it is necessary for the employees to use the social media judiciously. Employees should use it only for professional purposes, when they are on duty. According to a research conducted by American Management Association “10% of the employees go online at work to visit porn sites, followed by travel (8.2%), entertainment (6.65), and shopping (3.5 %.)” (Carr, 2009, p.45). These statistics show that more than 27% of the total employees of an organization go online for their personal works during office hours. As substantial portion of the employees use office computers for sharing jokes, rumours, and inappropriate contents. Moreover, majority of these employees use office computers to perform illegal activities which may later develop lawsuits. Since more than one employee normally uses office computers, it is difficult for the organization to identify the culprit. Even fortune 500 companies are not free from such antisocial activities from the employees. While chatting with others through social networks, employees need not be aware of the traps made by the person at the opposite end. One of the major advantages (or disadvantages) associated with online chatting through social networks is the ability to stay anonymous. Anybody can create fake profiles and trap others. Many of the celebrities all over the world have fake social network accounts. Employees while chatting with such fake account holders may disclose sensitive information regarding the company to them. Suppose an Apple Inc. employee is chatting with a Samsung employee unknowingly through Facebook or Twitter. If the Samsung employee wants to get some sensitive information about the business strategies or new product developments of Apple, he can easily obtain it by brainwashing the Apple employee. The Apple employee may not recognize the other as Samsung employee and he may disclose vital information to him. Samsung can utilize such information for formulating strategies to counter the attack of Apple. Pornography is another area of concern for employees while using social networks. It is quite possible that the person at the other end will send some porn materials to an employee operating his computer from his office. This porn material may consist of certain viruses and the employee may not be aware of it. While he tries to see the porn material, he is unknowingly damaging his company’s computer. It should be noted that hackers often plant malware and viruses along with porn materials as an effort to hack or destroy the data of others. In short, social networks can spoil the complete computer system of an organization, if the employees fail to take precautionary measures. It is not necessary that all the employees working in an organization have same level of computer proficiency. Even experts sometimes fail to operate the social networks properly. Social networks always try to encourage the visitors to stay back as much as possible. Many social networks have the ability to recognize the interests of visitors by analysing the contents of website they normally visit. Based on such analysis, social networks often present customized contents in front of the visitors or the employees. For example, if an employee visits some porn sites regularly, social networks realise it and present sexual contents and advertisements in front of him. He cannot resist the temptation of visiting such sites and subsequently he wastes lot of his working time in visiting such unwanted sites. Thus, his routine jobs could be accumulated and the organization may take action against him. In short, social networks create a kind of addiction among employees and the final outcome could be a suspension or dismissal from service. “Social networking websites can affect a person’s employability. A survey released by social networking provider Viadeo said that 62 percent of British employers use social media sites to screen candidates” (The Dangers of Social Networking in an Employment Context, 2011). In actual job interviews, candidates may not disclose their private data to the employers. They will disclose only the information, which favours them. Thus, employers in the past found it difficult to identify the true character of an applicant before recruiting him. Imagine a job seeker has the habit of substance abuse. In a job interview, he may not reveal it to the employer since such revelations may harm his job potential. However, he may disclose such information through Facebook or twitter, thinking that the employer may not come across with it. Nowadays, it is easy for the employers to get some private information of the candidate through social networks. Majority of the youths all over the world have a Facebook or Twitter account. In the case of educated youths, the percentage of youths with social network membership exceeds far more than the youths without social network membership. In short, it is easy for the employers to know the details of an applicant before providing employment to him. In most of the cases, companies may not give a chance to the applicants to explain their part with respect to the disputed information. In other words, job applicants may not get even a chance to explain their part once the employers get any questionable information about them from social networks. It is quite possible that a fake profile exists for a job applicant. Even then, he may not get an opportunity to prove his innocence in front of the employers. In short, social networks can cause immense harm not only to the employees, but also to the job aspirants. Job seekers should take extreme care while posting or sharing their personal information though social networks or internet. Most of the social networks have less security features. It is easy for anybody to locate a person on social networks if he knows something about that person. Suppose a person try to locate another person with the help of social networks. He may get hundreds of profiles with the particular name he is looking for. From these names, he can easily locate the person he is looking for using the details given by that person in his profile. Screening of application with the help of social networks is a method employed by modern companies and recruiters. Applicants never know why they failed to get any interview calls from the companies even after sending colourful CV’s, since most of the companies never disclose the reasons for the rejection of applications. In short, job applicants should take extreme care while posting personal information on social networks since such information has the potential to affect their job prospects. Plenty of employees have the habit of posting their bio data on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, in search of new jobs. Such job seekers never like to disclose their intentions to join another company to their present managers. It is quite possible that their bio data will come in front of their present managers while they use social networks for the recruitment process. Moreover, an applicant’s private matters may also come in front of the recruiters while they search for new applicants using social networks. In short, social networks activities are not at all safe either for the job seekers or for the employees looking for a change of profession or company. Social networking activities are not suitable for some particular professions, which require immense concentration. For example, healthcare professionals should not use social networks while on duty. Imagine a situation in which a nurse uses social networks while on duty. Nursing profession is not like other professions. Nurses are working with the lives of people. Any professional negligence or errors from the nurses may cause damage to the patient’s life. Other professionals may get a second opportunity to rectify their mistakes. Since human life is non-renewable, nursing errors are much more serious than other professional errors. Human life is the most important thing in this world. Suppose a nurse fails to give medicines to a particular patient in time while chatting with her friends in social networks such as facebook. The patient may develop serious troubles and he may sometimes lose his life. In short, social network addiction may end up in loss of life also and hence nurses like professional should take extreme care while using social networks. There are plenty of doctors, who disclose sensitive patient information through social networks. It is quite possible that this information will come in front of the concerned patients. Suppose a doctor thinks that the chances of survival for one of his patients is too less. Imagine, the doctor shares this information to other doctors or medical staff through social networks. It is quite possible that this information will come in front of the concerned patient somehow. In short, social networks can cause big damage to professional ethics. Social networks are providing lot of harms to the teacher community also. The general concept about a teacher is that he should be role model in front of the students. There are plenty of teachers who pretend like role models in front of the students and reveal their true character through social networks. It is quite possible that the students may get such private information of their teacher while surfing through social networks. Some social networks have the habit of keeping the histories of activities of a user and disclosing it to others. Suppose, a teacher has seen a porn video uploaded by one of his friends. Social networks like Facebook have the habit of informing all the friends that the teacher had seen already that video. It is quite possible that this information will be received by the students also. Such teachers may not yield the respect from the student community and they may fail in their profession. There are plenty of police officers who have the habit of using social networks extensively. It is quite possible that such police officers might disclose the details of the cases they are investigating through social networks. Such revelations often affect their profession negatively. It is difficult to keep secrets while using social networks. There are plenty of people, who have the habit of disclosing their private matters to their social network friends. They are doing so to relieve their tension or stress. However, such activities may bring more harm than good to them. Since discipline is more important in police force, police officers often use social networks to relieve their frustration and agony in profession. It is impossible for them to shout at their superiors when the superiors ask them to do something risky. In such situations, police officers may disclose their dissatisfaction with the help of social networks. Superiors can easily trace it and take punishment actions of upon such officers. Military is another employment sector in which the use of social networks should be restricted. It is not necessary that the soldiers are aware of the dangers involved in their activities on social networks. They may share lot of sensitive information with their friends while using social networks. It is easy for the antisocial elements or the enemy country to trace these information. For example, a soldier may share some photographs and videos about the location in which he works to his friends using social networks. It is not necessary that he had any wrong intentions while doing so. In fact, he might have sent it to the persons whom he better knows. However, hackers have the ability to break any of the firewalls created by the social networks and they can easily download any photos or videos uploaded by the military person. In short, that military person may unknowingly become a traitor. In short, social networks have the ability to cause immense damage to the safety and security of a country. So, it is better for the military personnel to avoid using social networks. According to Jaques (2009), “businesses are afraid of social networking because it represents a real and present danger to their corporate security”(p.20). Immense battle for dominance is going on in the corporate world. Globalization has intensified the battle between companies for dominance. Cyber wars are taking place between big companies at present. As mentioned earlier, internet provides a platform for companies to attack competitors and stay anonymous. It is not necessary that the all the employees of an organization have the awareness about what information they can share and what they cannot. Companies should give enough training to the employees about the threats while using internet and social networks. According to Isaac Newton “To every action, there an equivalent opposite reaction”. This scientific principle is true in the case of social networks also. Social networks brigs harm as well as good to the organizations. It is difficult for the modern organizations to stay away completely from social networks since the benefits bring by social networks are immense to the corporate world. Successful organizations always train its employees about how to use social networks safely Malware attacks are the major problems brought by the social networks to the corporate world. Malwares can enter company computers, when the employees share some data or photographs through social networks. One of the major problems associated with malware is the fact that it is difficult to identify them. Even the most advanced virus software may sometimes fail to identify the malwares planted in the computers. Malwares can easily communicate with its creators and it can send the necessary information needed to its creator. In a heavily competitive business world, organizations often try to plant malwares in the computers of the competing organizations to know the business secret. The increased appetite for social networks by the employees helps such organizations in achieving their goals. Facebook is one of the most prominent social networks used by people all over the world. It is estimated that more than 50000 third party applications are available in Facebook. In other words, Facebook has no control over 50000 applications in its website. Majority of the Facebook users do not know this fact. They believe that Facebook like big companies will always have enough security features to protect their identity and privacy. Such people have blind faith on Facebook like social networks. Moreover, the social network addiction prevent them from thinking more about things like security and privacy while using social networks. The intentions of third party applications are not obvious always. Many of these third party applications are providing free services to the users. However, such applications always contain certain traps. It should not be forgotten that the third party application developers definitely have some commercial interests. It is illogical to think that third party application developers are spending thousands of dollars for the development of such applications and then distribute it freely to the public. In a highly commercialized world, such things will never happen. However, social network addiction prevents employees from rational thinking and they will become the victims of social networks in one way or another. Many employees have the habit of disclosing their personal details through social networks. Suppose an employee inform the person at the other end that nobody will be available in his house during daytime since he and his wife are working professionals and their children are going to school. If the person at the other end is a thief, he may utilize this information and steal valuable things from his home. Cain & Jones (2008) “cited some examples of cases that involve the use of the Internet, such as the case of an employee in the Alberta Public Service who was terminated by her employer due to derogatory remarks made on several of her co-workers and management on her blog” (p.59). Social network is a platform quite frequently used by the employees to blame the company management and co-workers. It should be noted that it is impossible for the dissatisfied employees to disclose their displeasure inside the company premises. So, they will use social networks as a safe channels to attack the company management as well as the co-workers. These habits often cause immense damage to the reputation of the company. No organization would like to see their employees causing problems to them using their own resources. Employees often believe that the organization may not be aware of the rumours spread by them through social networks. However, the organizations have many channels to watch the activities of its employees on social networks. In short, increased social network use may result in termination of job as far as an employee is concerned. Some of the employees in an organization may have the habit of using the office computers for chatting with friends and relatives through social networks. Such tactics are dangerous both to the employees and the organization. If the organization came to know about such tactics of its employees, it may take disciplinary action against them. Most importantly, these practices may result in the leakage of secret company information. The employee may not have false intentions, but the person at the other end can easily collect information about the stored documents related to a new product, the company is going to develop, in the computer. Suppose the company wants to avoid disclosing the details about the product from the competitors. In such cases, the competitors can establish friendship through social networks with some of the employees of the rival organization and they can download information about the secret product easily. Even the friend on the other end may not know the person at the other end may have bad intentions and he is silently downloading sensitive information from his company computer. Andrew Hough (2010) has written on Telegraph UK that facebook is currently working on solving their security problems. He has mentioned that “anonymous users bombard victims with offensive messages or abuse with the help of stories of Cumbria shootings victims and soldiers who died in Afghanistan which resulted in some teenagers committing suicide” (Hough, 2010). Social networks spread lot of rumors and false stories. Most of the social network users share the information they receive without ensuring the authenticity of that information. Thousands of fake photographs and videos are spreading through social networks. For example, there are plenty of fake photographs and videos on social networks about the atrocities committed against Muslim community by the Burma, America, Israel etc like countries. Majority of these photographs and videos are fake. However, social network users are sharing such things to their friends without knowing the facts and the consequences of their actions. Social networks have a prominent role in spreading rumors. Word of mouth is a new term evolved in the marketing world recently because of the evolution of social networks. “Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding how WOM (Word Of Mouth), particularly online WOM (which is a form of social media), impacts sales, diffusion, and other marketing performance measures”(Stephen & Galak, p.5-6). Viral marketing is a new term evolved out recently in the corporate world, mainly because of the contributions of social networks. The essence of viral marketing is mouth publicity. No other channels of marketing is as efficient and effective as viral marketing since consumers respect the words of others more than any other advertising activities. Marketers know this fact very well. They are doing everything possible to increase the mouth publicity of their product through social networks. Many of the employees think that they can do anything using office computers and stay anonymous. The functioning of social networks are unknown to many of the employees. Many of the employees think that only the friends can see what they have written on the social networks. In fact, social networks are not providing such security to its users. Suppose an employee has written something against his office manager on social networks. He might think that only his friends will be able to read it. However, it is quite possible that the manager will see it. Conclusions Social networks bring many advantages as well as disadvantages to the employees. Even though, it is useful to release tension or stress, it may cause lot of harm to the interests of employees. While chatting with others through social networks, employees may reveal sensitive information about their company to others. Such information may end up in the hands of competitors and they will exploit it. If found culprit, such employees may get termination or suspension. Social networks have the ability to create addiction in the minds of users, just like alcoholism, smoking and substance abuse. In other words, majority of the social network users lose their ability to stay away from it because of the interesting contents in it. Thus, an employee who visits a social network may waste lot of time in front of the computer, chatting with friends and relatives and thereby he will struggle to complete his scheduled duties in time. Failure to complete the jobs in time may bring punishment to the employees. Social network profile can cause immense damage to employability of job seekers. Current recruiters are searching social networks for getting more private information about a job seeker. Job seekers can hide vulnerable information from the employers during the interview process, however, they may unknowingly provide these information to the employers through social networks. In short, social networks have the ability to destroy the future of an employee. The use of social networks during office hours should be restricted as much as possible since such habits may reduce productive works. Employees should take immense care while communicating with anonymous people through social networks. They should make sure that their activities in social networks may not bring any harm either in their personal or professional life. References Carr, N. (2009) New Media Mayhem. American School Board Journal. October 2009 Cain, G & Jones, J. (2008). Employment Law: The Dangers Of Social Networking Sites. NZ Marketing Magazine. Nov2008, Vol. 27 Issue 10, p59-59 Dickey I.J & Lewis W.F. (2010). The Evolution (Revolution) of Social Media and Social Networking as a Necessary Topic in the Marketing Curriculum: A Case for Integrating Social Media into Marketing Classes. Society for Marketing Advances Proceedings, January pp. 140-143. Hough, A. (2010), Facebook vows new security measures to combat alarming 'trolling' abuse trend, telegraph.co.uk Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7939721/Facebook-vows-new-security-measures-to-combat-alarming-trolling-abuse-trend.html, Jaques, R. (2009). Anti Social. Financial Director. Sep2009, p20-20 Stephen A.T & Galak J. (2010). The Complementary Roles of Traditional and Social Media Publicity in Driving Marketing Performance. INSEAD Working Paper, October, pp. 1-40. Tomexy. (2011) Diary of a Media Junkie. Retrieved from http://teesdiary.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/social-medias-rumour-mill-africa/ The Dangers of Social Networking in an Employment Context (2011). Retrieved from http://www.dol.govt.nz/er/services/law/case/themes/2011-10-social-media.asp Read More