Workplace Ethics: Case Study on Facebook Post

This report discusses workplace ethics and the case study of a Facebook post that negatively affected a company's image. Alternative solutions are presented, including ignoring the post, firing the employee, or implementing a new policy on social media use. Recommendations include understanding the reasons behind such activities and creating a comfortable environment for employees to express their ideas.

MGT10002: Critical Thinking in Management
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Management 1
Executive summary
Currently, most of the companies are dealing with the ethical issues in the internal business
processes, which affects the working of company, and influence the perception of company
towards their employees. The aim of the report is to throw light on the concepts of workplace
ethics that is required to manage by company as well as its employees. In the report, Case Study:
Should he be fired for that Facebook Post?. is taken into the account. This is every clear with the
name of the case that it is related to step that company will take to fire the employees because of
the Facebook post. The motive of the report is to understand the issue as it will provide the
support to Susannah Winslow to deal with the issues. The findings of the report show that
Kenton who is employee of the company is contributing in affecting the image of company in the
market through Facebook post. However, on this, other employees said that they are not open
about the concern, which they are facing, and Kenton has shared his view and opinion about the
company.
It has been found that every person in relation to the company on high position is involved to get
the best solution. The alternatives which has been found include ignore Kenton, fire him from
work and new policy of restriction on use of social media. All these options can contribute
effectively in dealing with the issue. Along with this, the recommendations are provided which
include value to employees, proper communication, new policy of social media privacy and
many others.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background......................................................................................................................................4
Case study scenario..........................................................................................................................5
Alternative solutions........................................................................................................................6
Ignore Kenton..............................................................................................................................6
Fire him from work......................................................................................................................6
New policy of restriction on use of social media........................................................................7
Recommendation and conclusion....................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

Management 3
Introduction
In the present world, it is essential for every larger business to perform their business operations
in ethical manner. In the workplace ethics, the moral principles that guide the actions of the
persons present at the workplace (Lachman, 2016). In this report, there is discussion about one of
the case scenario of Facebook that leads to issue for business. The aim of the report is to outline
the business issue and provide the recommendation for resolving the issue that is faced by the
company. The report is prepared by ethics officer in the large organisation when general
manager, Susannah Winslow, asked them, as this will help to resolve the issue. The report is
totally based on the case study that is Case Study: Should he be fired for that Facebook Post?.
Susannah Winslow deals with the problem of an employee who has been making the pained
remarks about the company on the social media sites. Susannah has asked to present the report
and specifying the business issue that is required to be resolved.
The case study is posted in Harvard Business Review as an article which shows the case study of
a scenario that involves the potential damaging Facebook comment posited by the one of the
well-respected employees of an fictitious company which will lead to the decision in related to
the appropriate punishment. The report include the description about 2-3 approaches which are
required to be taken by the company. In the end, there are recommendations for the solution to
the issue that is faced by Facebook is discussed so that they can deal with this effectively.

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Background
In this case, Susannah Winslow is the general manager of Downcity Motors, who owned
BMW, Range Rover, and Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Charlotte, North
Carolina whose dad Dell was the president. This has been found that
company faced issue when Kenton has been bad mounting us on Facebook
again (Watson and Lopiano, 2016). James Kenton is the employee of the company
who is known with the last name that means a sign of the affection and
respect for being one of the successful salesperson. The salesperson joined
the office Downcity’s Mercedes dealership after the college and this makes
them bigger producer far outselling his peers across the different locations.
The major issue is when it was determined that Kenton wrote something
nasty about the Friday’s Mercedes launch (Watson and Lopiano, 2016).
Kenton Facebook page shows the quote posted by him that says “So thrilled
that Downcity went ‘all out’ for the most important Mercedes launch in
years. Nothing says luxury like plastic tablecloths and soda pop.” Along with
this, he had posted the photo of a soda can with the Downcity Motors sign
that loom in the background (Watson and Lopiano, 2016). This made the issue,
which made the Tyson (dealership sales manager) to say that they will get it
delete. On this issue of case, there is discussion about the policy related to
social media. Susannah replied that if Kenton want he could restrict who
sees it, depending on the privacy settings made by him. This made her to
visit Kenton’s profile to know who all can see this post. This reflects the

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privacy policy, which means that person can change the privacy setting and
make it visible to only friends, or close friends or other people (Trevino and
Nelson, 2016). Thus, this shows that every social media site has their own
privacy policy that can be applied which helps them, as their post cannot be
accessed.
The situation made the Susannah to ask Kenton not to post anything on the
social media account that reflects the negative impact on the Downcity or its
customers as well as partners. This made the management thinks that they
will fire him or not. It has been found that Kenton’s posts are hurting the
reputation of the company in the market. The situation of company is getting
worst with the post by Kenton’s. In the case, Downcity’s head of HR Toby
said that no one should be disrespectful or use profanity or any other
language that can affect the reputation or image of business. The
involvement of HR is essential because the management is thinking to fire
the employee because this is all about the reputation of the company (Egan,
Murthy and Hecimovic, 2017).
Case study scenario
The activity of Kenton on the Facebook makes the company to think that
whether they should take any step or not. They are in dilemma because
intentionally or unintentionally it is all about image of the company that
might get affected (Durkheim, 2018). According to Kenton, they are just
presenting their own views for the company on Facebook that are affecting

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the image of the company in the negative manner. This activity of Kenton
made the president Dell as well as Susannah (who ensures that online
working of company is appropriate) is to think how they can actually deal
with this ethical dilemma because they have to be ethical with client also.
However, the issue is also from the side of company as they are unable to
manage the privacy policy. In addition, this situation made the department
manager of sale and HR head to think what they can do the best to deal the
issue and be wearing of any negative consequences on it (Crane, Matten, Glozer
and Spence, 2019). In the case, this has been found that Susannah tries to
understand the reason, which made the Kenton as an employee to comment
about the company for which they also contacted Rachel.
Alternative solutions
This section shows that it become essential for the company to apply 2-3 possible approaches
that helps them to deal with such as difficult situation (Vasconcelos, 2018). The possible
approaches to be taken by the company are given below –
Ignore Kenton
In the case, the possible approach which can be taken by company to deal
with the issue is that they can ignore it because ultimately Kenton’s was
presented this own option on the Facebook page (Watson and Lopiano, 2016).
However, on this Susannah said that this will make other employees and
people think that this behaviour is okay which is not acceptable ultimately all
about company.

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 The major advantage of this is that it shows that the company value
the views of their employees that are precious for the company due to
which they are ignoring the Kenton opinion.
 However, the major disadvantage of this method is that it encourages
the other members of the company for presenting their views on the
social media site without any fear (Parker, Marasi, James and Wall, 2019).
Fire him from work
The second option is to make the example of him as he has damaged the
reputation of the company in the public forum so it is essential to take the
major disciplinary action. In this, Toby presented few ideas which include
making the note in personnel file of Kenton’s, request that he rescind his
own remarks or management can take the action to suspend him from the
work, with or without any pay (Watson and Lopiano, 2016). On this, Susannah
thinks that they cannot fire the employee due to this, which remains
unethical. However, on the same side she says that it will leave a negative
imprint on the company.
 The firing Kenton from the organisation will show that the company is
concern and the serious steps will be taken by the company when any
employee will perform such sort of activity (Watson and Lopiano, 2016).
 Along with this, it leads to the disadvantage for the company, as they
will lose their most valuable salesperson present within the company
(Binder, 2019). Further, this will also shows that company is not able to

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accept the views of employees. They do not have any sort of policy
relayed to the privacy of the information posted on social media.
New policy of restriction on use of social media
In the third option, Kenton violated the employee handbook by being the
disrespectful of the image of company and this was the second offense did
by them that are ethically not right practice. That would set the clear
precedent related to the employee social media use that has provide the age
of many new personnel which are essential for company. This option has
been generated because every employee should respect their company for
which they are working (Schminke, Arnaud and Taylor, 2015).
 The restriction on use of social media by employees will not hamper on
the image of customers that will save the image of company in market
that is one of the major advantage of company.
 On the other hand, it has been found that it has disadvantage also
which is that this will make the employees that company is not
allowing the employees to communicate which means there is
definitely a loophole within the company (Fearn-Banks, 2016).
The entire situation made her to meet with Rachel who is leading sales
person within the company, as this will help her to understand the
perception of the young employees who are working within the company.
Rachel confessed many employees who have the diverse views for the
company that they present. However, Kenton already received the warning

Management 9
earlier due to which they should not have done it again as it seems so
unnecessary and stupid.

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Recommendation and conclusion
In the end of report, it can be concluded that report is based on the Case Study: Should he be
fired for that Facebook Post?. The post has been done by one of the employee of Downcity’s
employee with the name of Kenton. Kenton Facebook post is converted into
sarcasm due to which brand value and position of company is negatively
getting affected. It has been found that it is not once that the issue is faced
by company due to post of Kenton but it took place early also. At that time,
the warning was given to him that are not actually considered by the
employees that further lead to issue for the company. Along with this, the
situation has become critical because every company needs to take the strict
steps when they find that their employees are contributing in forming the
negative image about brand in market. Further, the report shows the
alternative options which that can contribute in dealing with employees who
do not actually care about the company. The major options include ignore
Kenton activity, fire him from work or restrict the use of social media. These
options can contribute in dealing with the issue but then the company need
to think that they are doing ethically right with the employee.
In the end, it is recommended to the company that they should actually
understand the reason behind the sort of activities. The major reason behind
such activities can be lack of satisfaction with work or pay, demotivation,
value to emerging employees and many others. This reason will help
Susannah about their company and the loopholes that make the employees

Management 11
to think negative. Along with this, it is suggested to company that they
should determine that other employees also have some issues and they
think about the company in similar manner or not. It is further suggested
that they should resolve the issue of Kenton and warm him for it. The new
policy should be formed by the company that provide the right guidelines to
employees. The option on new policy of restriction on use of social media is one of the
best strategies. It is recommended that that there is need of system through which employees
must feel comfortable expressing their ideas, including those regarding the decisions of
management.

Management 12
References
Binder, P. (2019) Firing employees for their social media posts: Ethical and legal issues. SAGE
Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S. and Spence, L. (2019) Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Durkheim, E. (2018) Professional ethics and civic morals. Routledge.
Egan, M., Murthy, V. and Hecimovic, A. (2017) Integrating the Dalai Lama's Virtue Ethical
Teachings in the Workplace. The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, (68), pp.31-55.
Fearn-Banks, K. (2016) Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge.
Lachman, V.D. (2016) Compassion fatigue as a threat to ethical practice: Identification, personal
and workplace prevention/management strategies. Medsurg Nursing, 25(4), p.275.
Parker, J.M., Marasi, S., James, K.W. and Wall, A. (2019) Should employees be “dooced” for a
social media post? The role of social media marketing governance. Journal of Business
Research, 103, pp.1-9.
Schminke, M., Arnaud, A. and Taylor, R. (2015) Ethics, values, and organizational justice:
Individuals, organizations, and beyond. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(3), pp.727-736.
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A. (2016) Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Management 13
Vasconcelos, A.F. (2018) Workplace spirituality: empirical evidence revisited. Management
Research Review, 41(7), pp.789-821.
Watson, M.A. and Lopiano, G.R. (2016) Case Study: Should He Be Fired for That Facebook
Post? [Online]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2016/03/case-study-should-he-be-fired-for-that-
facebook-post [Accessed on 15th September 2019]