Investigating employee harassment via social media
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-03-2015-0022 |
| Pages | 322-335 |
| Published date | 09 November 2015 |
| Date | 09 November 2015 |
| Author | Mark Taylor,John Haggerty,David Gresty,Natalia Criado Pacheco,Tom Berry,Peter Almond |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems |
Investigating employee
harassment via social media
Mark Taylor
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences,
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
John Haggerty
School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University,
Nottingham, UK
David Gresty
Centre for Computer Security, Audit, Forensics and Education,
University of Greenwich, London, UK, and
Natalia Criado Pacheco, Tom Berry and Peter Almond
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences,
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of investigation of employee
harassment via social media to develop best practices to help organisations conduct such investigations
more effectively.
Design/methodology/approach – It reviews the technical, managerial and legal literature to
develop guidance for organisations conducting investigations of employee harassment via social
media.
Findings – Organisations may not have effective procedures for the investigation of social media
misuse, in general, and employee harassment via social media, in particular. This paper provides
guidance for organisations to conduct investigation of employee harassment via social media more
effectively.
Originality/value – The paper consolidates the fragmented discussion of investigation of social
media misuse with regard to employee harassment via a literature review across technical, managerial
and legal disciplines. The paper provides guidance to support organisations for conducting
investigations of employee harassment via social media more effectively.
Keywords Social, Media, Misuse
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Kaupins and Park (2011) stated that corporate social networking sites can provide
employees and employers with considerable opportunity to share information.
However, Van Laer (2013) commented that misuse of social media in the form of cyber
harassment can have harmful effects on social media users, such as emotional distress.
Employers and employees, as well as the legal system, are being affected by the growth
and proliferation of social media and the challenges and difculties presented by the use
of social media in the modern-day workplace (Lakhani, 2013;Eivazi, 2011;Kierkegaard,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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JSIT
17,4
322
Received 20 March 2015
Revised 14 August 2015
Accepted 24 August 2015
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.17 No. 4, 2015
pp.322-335
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-03-2015-0022
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