Facebook Case Discussion

1. Discuss how the web and new media such as Facebook have (a) aided, and (b) complicated organizational communication. Be sure to consider the implications of sending a message when you do not know who the receiver might be.
2. Suppose that Miranda had just heard a rumour about Rick's activities as opposed to seeing them on Facebook. Would her reaction have been the same?
3. Do the prominence of Rick on the web and relative absence of Deborah
4. reflect gender differences in communication?What should Miranda do? To help better understand the questions a small story is down below.

The story the goes with the questions is below

Miranda Shaw was stymied. She had been on the verge of hiring a highly talented recent business school graduate, Rick Parsons, as a senior analyst for her project team. It had been a choice between Parsons and Deborah Jones, another very promising hire. Both Parsons and Jones had graduated from the same highly ranked business school that Shaw had attended, had the appropriate work backgrounds, and had performed well in their multiple rounds of interviews. From their conversations, Shaw believed either one would be a good choice for the company. While she had had a hard time deciding, she was leaning toward hiring Parsons because of his leadership skills and his reputation for tireless energy and great communication skills. Before making her final decision, Shawalmost in desperation, because she needed to submit her recommendation to human resources immediatelyhad "Googled" both of the candidates. What she had discovered about Parsons both in her Google search results and on Facebook, while not necessarily a deal breaker, was disturbing enough that she had to rethink her opinion. Shaw was a manager at a leading consulting firm. She had worked her way up from intern after four years and was on the fast track to making partner. Her company was a special place, and, as she had seen over the past few years, it took a special type of consultant to work there. She remembered plenty of cases where new hires had left the company in the first few months because they did not fit in with the high- energy and high- commitment work environment. She had seen several projects delayed or worse because of personnel issues. This high turnover was not good for the company, because it invested significant time, energy, and funds to train and mentor new hires. Shaw believed in the adage that "you are only as good as the people who work for you," and she knew that making the right hiring decisions was critical to her success at the firm. Shaw had to take these factors into consideration as she decided between two equally qualified candidates for the position. In her web search, Shaw was initially impressed with Parsons. He was obviously very involved in non-profit work and had won a number of community service awards. But she then discovered his Facebook page and found herself quite dismayed. There were several pictures of Parsons with his fraternity brothers; in most, they were drinking, smoking cigarettes, andin his own words"smokin' blunts." This term, Shaw learned after a little research, meant smoking cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana. She then turned her Google efforts to Jones. She did not discover any personal information about Jones, nor did she find Jones on Facebook. There were only work-related sites that listed Jones as an effective project member. Shaw sighed in dismay. She had been poised, only an hour earlier, to submit her recommendation to hire Parsons. Now she was not sure what to do. Pearson Education: Source: This case was prepared by Bidhan Parmar (MBA, '07), Jenny Mead, Senior Ethics Research Associate, and R. Edward Freeman, Elis & Signe Olsson Professor of Business Ethics. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright 2008 by the University of Virginia Darden