Creating a community online

Good office morale and a safe and challenging workplace are key ingredients to a successful business. Through employee blogging this is being increased. Although workplaces may not encourage employee cynicism on online platforms, it is a long-term fix for businesses and their overall success. 

By developing an online space for employees to discuss positives and negatives surrounding their work, it creates a sense of community and alliance within the office, which builds relationships and subsequently morale. 

In Richards and Kosmala ‘In the end, you can only slag people off for so long’, Schoneboom (2007) is cited. He “believes work blogging forums have moved on from being sites for explicit cynical attacks on employers to more settled and organised vocal movements” (Richards, J., and Kosmala, K., 2013), reiterating the positive outcomes of employee blogging. Additionally, the “anonymity afforded by such communication technologies” (Schoneboom, 2007) provides complete openness and truthfulness in these forums, allowing bloggers to give advice and encouragement to others work experiences.

Alongside blogging’s accessibility, the entire E-world offers sustainability to workplaces through the information that can be sourced by employees. Businesses that abide by workplace laws and ethics are more likely to be successful over a longer period. This is because employee job satisfaction and productivity is achieved in workplaces that honour their employee’s rights and needs.

In Moyo’s ‘Digital democracy: enhancing the public sphere’, the endless information provided by the Internet is addressed, “… most of the information online from the media, civic organisations, government, political parties and some international organisations is freely accessible” (Moyo, L 2009). The information that can be obtained by employees through government sites will provide them with an understanding of their rights within a workplace.

This understanding combined with a forum to inform each other of these rights will instil a safer and more enjoyable workplace for all. 

References

Moyo, L 2009, ‘Digital democracy: enhancing the public sphere’ Creeber, G and Martin, R (eds.), Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media, Open University Press, Maidenhead, pp. 139-50

Richards, J., and Kosmala, K., 2013 ‘In the end, you can only slag people off for so long’: employee cynicism through work blogging’, New Technology, Work and Employment, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 68 – 77.