The advent of new forms of communication technology and associated social media have benefited organizations and their employees in many ways, but they have also led to an assortment of problems and conflicts. Several themes are apparent in the scenarios presented in this exercise. For one thing, contemporary communication media have blurred the distinction between the work and non-work domains. Second, the scenarios suggest communication contradictions—Facebook postings could be grounds for firing, but the medium can also facilitate work related communication. Third, much contemporary communication occurs in a context in which one is not sure just who the receiver might be. The exercise can be conducted in several ways: Students can independently prepare their reflections on the scenarios for class discussion. Alternatively, learning teams can discuss one or more scenarios and report their reflections to the class. Finally, the instructor might organize a debate around each scenario. In any case, use your imagination when reflecting on the scenarios. How would you feel if you were an employee in the scenario? How would you feel if you were a manager?

Do U txt @ wrk? Some members of the police SWAT team in Ontario, California, did, and it got them into hot water. The officers were given department-issued pagers and were permitted to use them for personal texting if they reimbursed the department. Fed up with doing the accounting to get reimbursement and surprised by the volume of personal texts (in a month, only 57 out of one officer’s 456 texts were work related), the department accessed the texts via the mobile carrier. They contained a good bit of sexually explicit content. The department had a formal policy to monitor emails but had not explicitly mentioned pagers. The officers and a lower-level court claimed that this was a violation of privacy rights. Under appeal, the U.S.

Supreme Court was unanimous that the employer was within its rights to access the texts. Many employees are issued pagers, mobile phones, and so on for the convenience of the employer.

Should employees expect some privacy if they use them occasionally for personal purposes?