Should Companies that Fire Shoot First?

Case Incident

Organizational Behavior

Ahmed ZeinE-Business MBAEng_ahmedzein@yahoo.com

Key word

• “Today, whatever you say inside a company will end up in a blog,” says Rusy Rueff, a former executive at Pepsico. “So, you have a choice as a company—you can either be proactive and say, ‘Here’s what’s going on,’ or you can allow someone else to write the story for you.” 

Gossip & Roamers

• Informal comments or other gossip spread by employees usually has a demoralizing effect on company employees. Demoralized employees may develop a fear regarding their job security.

• Rumors emerge as a response to situations that are important to us .

• Rumors start because it make good gossip .• Rumors will persist until the uncertainty is revealed .

Transparency is a must

• Managers must explain the reason why a decision is made.

• One study found that employees were twice as likely to be committed to changes with the reasons behind them were fully explained .

Confidentiality and integrity

• Many blog posts by people outside these companies are not completely accurate and accuse companies of poor management. This in turn is creating a negative image for these companies who are clearly already struggling.

Ethical dilemma

• Do you think employees who blog about their companies have an ethical responsibility to disclose their identities?

It’s a double edged weapon ,, How ??

My opinion :• Yes they have too , because mentioning their names will

add more reality to what they blog . • And they can be a reference in farther investigation

Counter measures

• fostering an open environment for employee questions and concerns.

• Releasing a company newsletter or holding friendly management-employee meetings .

• Stopping employee gossip from starting is usually the best policy for avoiding losses on the company's bottom line.

• Employee must sign a code of conduct which states that he must not speak about internal company issues out side the company .

The win win !!!

• Companies that have blogged about their layoffs have found a sympathetic audience.

• it makes private companies much more accountable to the people they retain and who leave, and that’s probably a good thing .