Alternatives for Lancaster-Webb

Blogs were created to allow people to create an online journal of their thoughts and ideas and to publish them for view by the general public. While blogs began as a personal endeavor, they are starting to become a business phenomenon as well, with company-sanctioned blogs being written by executives and managers. Companies must also proceed with extreme caution when sanctioning company-sponsored blogs or in allowing employees to blog about the company in such a public domain. How can Lancaster-Webb monitor or police employees like Glove Girl who are writing a personal blog but are sharing information, or misinformation, about the company? The first step would be to create a blog code of ethics that the employees who write personal blogs are to follow. In addition, Lancaster-Webb and companies in general should create a blogging policy as part of the confidentiality agreements they have employees sign when starting with a company.

As mentioned before, it is necessary to set some ground rules when allowing employees to blog about the company on their own time. As the idea of corporate blogging began to create traction in 2004, Charlene Li of Forrester Research created a list of six general principles that authors of internal company blogs should follow. However, these principles have a great deal of utility for external blogs that employees are writing and companies would be wise to ensure its employees are blogging by these principles:

1. Make certain any views expressed in the blog are the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of their employer.
2. Respect and protect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
3. Confer with management regarding any questions about what is appropriate to include in a personal blog.
4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.
5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments. (Li, 2004, p.7)

These six general principles will help establish a set of rules for employees to follow. The challenge remains in keeping track of any personal blogs employees are authoring. The Internet is extremely large and it will be difficult for employers to find and monitor personal blogs, though it may be easier for these companies to find its employees on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Because of the difficulty in monitoring employee blogs, a company should also create a ‘blog code of ethics’ that employees must sign when starting with a firm.
Most employees are accustomed to signing confidentiality agreements as well as agreements to understand and abide by a company’s code of ethics. However, it is likely safe to assume that these codes of ethics do not cover the recent advances in social networking. As a result, a company like Lancaster-Webb should either edit its existing code of ethics or create a separate code of ethics regarding the use of social media, particularly blogs, and how the employee represents the company. While there are many factors which need to be included in this code of ethics, the following are the most important aspects of a code that need to be included:

1. Tell the truth and write accurately,
2. Acknowledge and correct mistakes quickly,
3. Strive to create high-quality posts, including following the rules of basic grammar and utilizing spell-check,
4. Cite references or link to original sources directly whenever possible,
5. Disclose any conflicts of interest. (Li, 2004, p.10)
It appears that Glove Girl was following most of these rules as she was writing her own personal blog. In the case of the Houston clinic mentioned before, Glove Girl was quick to recant her opinions of the clinic when she learned of the reasons for the abnormally high rate of cesarean deliveries. The key thing that Glove Girl and Lancaster-Webb can learn from this particular example is that it is important to do research and to cite references when blogging about work, particularly when the subject of a post is an extremely important customer. While Glove Girl did correct her blog when she learned of the reasons behind the clinic’s high rate, the fact remains that irreparable damage could have been done and the correction may have been too late.