All in a Twitter over Facebook? Social internet use at Pragmaticase
The case presents the issue of employees’ use of Social Media through the eyes of Johan L., the CEO of Pragmaticase. Several companies have started to block employees from accessing Facebook™, Twitter™, YouTube™, LinkedIn™, flickr™, and other social media tools from their workplace computers and networks. The issue has also recently seen increased coverage in the news media. Should the company simply forbid all use of social websites and give the IT department the go-ahead to block access to these sites? Or should it choose not to fight this battle and let internet use be unrestricted? The case presents arguments a company needs to consider in order to make informed decisions on this divisive question.
The objective of this case is to raise a contemporary issue: Employees’ use of social media sites. Through this discussion some basic dichotomies can be exposed and discussed, such as work/life balance; control versus flexibility; inspect versus expect; results-only-work-environment versus traditional contracts; requirements of knowledge workers vis-à-vis traditional labour; perspectives on humans and leadership (e.g. theory X vs. Theory Y). The case provokes managers to think about positive and negative aspects of restricting access to social media sites..
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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Building on NTT (A), the case starts with NTT’s CEO having narrowed down strategic growth options with the board to prepare NTT for the future. Past international investments in AT&T Wireless and KPN to tap into foreign markets had resulted in bil...
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NTT Corporation, Japan’s information and communication technologies (ICT) leader since 1953, was the first to commercialize internet usage on mobile phones in the 1990s, which resulted in NTT achieving much success in Japan. However, by the end of...
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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
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