In 2015, Chad Shanks, the official social media manager for the Houston Rockets, tweeted at the end
Question:
In 2015, Chad Shanks, the official social media manager for the Houston Rockets, tweeted at the end of a game with the Dallas Mavericks the following:
After sending out the tweet, he got 7,600 retweets and 5,000 favorites. The Dallas Mavericks, whose mascot is a horse, responded by tweeting, “Not very classy, but we still wish you guys the best of luck in the next round.”
Though responses were quite positive from Rockets fans, the Rockets decided to fire Chad for the tweet. The Rockets also apologized for the tweet, saying it was in “very poor taste & not indicative of the respect we have for the @dallasmavs & their fans.” After he was fired, Chad followed up with a tweet from his personal account:
In an interview later, Chad commented that “leading up to our series with Dallas, there were some harsh quotes about our team from Mark Cuban and former Rocket Chandler Parsons was returning after saying some negative things about the city, so the rivalry between the two organizations was at an alltime high.” He figured this was his chance to take a jab at the Mavs. He meant it to be just a play on taking an old horse out to pasture that would get Rockets fans even more pumped up. He said he was quite confused that people would equate pretend violence on an emoji horse with actual violence on a real horse.
Chad’s job was to stir up interest from fans and have fun with social media. His boss told him on numerous accounts that his job was to “take the [twitter]
account to subversive places” and do everything he could to give the fans engaging content. Up until this point, Chad was considered one of the best social media experts out there and he had always pulled through for the Rockets. It just didn’t seem fair to be fired over this one incident.
Questions
1. Given the facts of this case, should Chad have been discharged? Why or why not?
2. Should the social media manager of a company be held to a higher standard of personal conduct than others in the company? Explain.
3. Should management have considered Chad’s past work record before deciding on discharge?
Explain.
Step by Step Answer:
