When Social Media Poses a Threat to Your Business. Two employees decide to go on to Facebook to make remarks about the way they are being treated by their employer of multiple years. The company offers them full benefits, insurance and all the bells and whistles any employee can imagine. They usually just laugh off their angry supervisor’s behavior but this particular day they were fed up and ready to vent to the world of social media. Since Facebook has an app for mobile devises once the comments are made the buzz spreads like a wildfire. It began just in their building and later to the next building over and soon all five offices of the corporate sector had begun talking. With only 2 hours to go until the close of the day the employees had been called into the office released, stripped of their badges and immediately escorted of sight by security. Why does this happen why do people feel the need to vent their valid however more than not temporary feelings? What could the employees have done to avoid getting fired? How could the supervisor have handled the situation to prevent the employees from making those remarks on Facebook? Is this a matter of freedom of speech or common sense? The bottom line is social has become a double edged sword for businesses because of issues like this very fictional scenario. According to the Article “Employee Use & Abuse of Social Media’ until 2011 the National Labor Relations Board would too terminate the two employees from the scenario above until closer consideration was taken and the NLRB began actively pursuing and litigating instances where employees were terminated for making postings critical of their employers in social media in violation of the NLRA (Polid). In fact they found that an employee’s rights were terminated for blogging about their supervisor and settled. The NLRB basically decided that remarks made online are not grounds for firing unless the threat of verbal or physical violence is present. Another concern is the time employees’ are spending online during business hours. Employees are spending a lot of time online as I myself see so many postings during business hours in fact the bulk of my news feed occurs from Nine to five. Should it be a crime to be stealing time from your employer? Where does Integrity and common sense come in? I believe these are just a few of social media’s threats to business’s. APA http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2900/employee-use-abuse-of-social-media The impact of a business when technology fails. Technology in business has matured considerably from decades ago with each year reaching a different milestone. In any type of business veteran employees can remember how the business used to run and the pros and cons regarding all the technological changes. The biggest change employees may most commonly remember is switching to the computer to store and/or type up reports instead of handwriting them or using a typewriter. These typ.

1. When Social Media Poses a Threat to Your Business.
Two employees decide to go on to Facebook to make
remarks about the way they are being treated by their employer
of multiple years. The company offers them full benefits,
insurance and all the bells and whistles any employee can
imagine. They usually just laugh off their angry supervisor’s
behavior but this particular day they were fed up and ready to
vent to the world of social media. Since Facebook has an app
for mobile devises once the comments are made the buzz
spreads like a wildfire. It began just in their building and later
to the next building over and soon all five offices of the
corporate sector had begun talking. With only 2 hours to go
until the close of the day the employees had been called into the
office released, stripped of their badges and immediately
escorted of sight by security.
Why does this happen why do people feel the need to vent
their valid however more than not temporary feelings? What
could the employees have done to avoid getting fired? How
could the supervisor have handled the situation to prevent the
employees from making those remarks on Facebook? Is this a
matter of freedom of speech or common sense? The bottom line
is social has become a double edged sword for businesses
because of issues like this very fictional scenario.
According to the Article “Employee Use & Abuse of
Social Media’ until 2011 the National Labor Relations Board
would too terminate the two employees from the scenario above
until closer consideration was taken and the NLRB began
actively pursuing and litigating instances where employees were
terminated for making postings critical of their employers in
social media in violation of the NLRA (Polid). In fact they
found that an employee’s rights were terminated for blogging

2. about their supervisor and settled. The NLRB basically decided
that remarks made online are not grounds for firing unless the
threat of verbal or physical violence is present.
Another concern is the time employees’ are spending
online during business hours. Employees are spending a lot of
time online as I myself see so many postings during business
hours in fact the bulk of my news feed occurs from Nine to five.
Should it be a crime to be stealing time from your employer?
Where does Integrity and common sense come in? I believe
these are just a few of social media’s threats to business’s.
APA
http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2900/employee-use-
abuse-of-social-media
The impact of a business when technology fails.
Technology in business has matured considerably from decades
ago with each year reaching a different milestone. In any type
of business veteran employees can remember how the business
used to run and the pros and cons regarding all the
technological changes. The biggest change employees may most
commonly remember is switching to the computer to store
and/or type up reports instead of handwriting them or using a
typewriter. These types of changes have moved business
forward with a greater potential for profit. Businesses in
infancy will begin with mom and pop places which with the
right combination eventually grow into empires and money
making pools.
A critical issue business most commonly face is when the

3. programs designed to push profit and maintain a precedent to its
clients/customers fails and employees are scrambling to find a
quick solution. However re-educating employees about all the
basics will push the business forward when technology fails.
When a system shuts down for example a rental car company
has no capability to view what customers have pre-paid,
incoming reservations, or what vehicles are available to rent. I
have entered a business many times and have been given
excuses such as the system was running slower than usual, or
sometimes having to turn business away because of some
system malfunctions. A business needs to learn how to run
effectively even when all the gadgets and gizmos fail to work
properly.
Technology is the breath of life for a business and teaching its
employees the core skills to overcome glitches with the
technology used will give the business long term success. The
employee’s business skills such as multi-tasking, excellent
customer service skills, properly giving negative
announcements, and problem-solving are important. Companies
having to send employees home due to the system being down
for long periods of time causes loss of revenue. It would be a
vital task to make sure the employees understand the protocols
for glitches and having to make temporary changes while
continuing productivity until the problem can be resolved.
Article Review:
According to an article from Fox Business by Donna Fuscaldo
“System Crash: Worse Than a Sick Employee?” a computer
crash does more damage than a sick employee. In this article it
details options and back up plans a business should have for
situations where the system has been disabled. A hybrid cloud
solution is mentioned as a perfect back up plan as it gives you a
backup available for use even when the system is down. Other
options discussed in the article include using portable devices
like tablets, and cell phones. Using these devices saves
everything on the server so if the office computer crashed you
could still access vital company files. Other devices such as

4. printers and scanners can save everything within the cloud
which you can access with no interruption.
As seen in all of the examples technology can fail but with
today’s advances all pertinent information is readily available
online or on outside servers. This would be one of the biggest
technological advances that has definitely kept the flow of
success for a business. When these options were not available a
lot of data was forever lost and it evitable gave ideas to create
ways to have back up information available as it is today. For a
small business plans like these help sustain and continue to
grow the business. Ultimately technology failures give us the
needed experience if needed to re-examine the strength and
weaknesses of the business.
Technology in Business Communication
Genevieve Hedrick (Sherman)
Business 119
May 18, 2013
The Internet has revolutionized the world of business
communication. Coming into the digital age has changed the
way people do business and the way people communicate. From
direct communications, social networking, Podcasts and
Webcasts, not to mention E-commerce, cell phones,
smartphones and laptops; we rely on all of these things in our
daily lives to conduct business and communicate. Technological
Communication has become a necessity, to which most people
and businesses cannot live without. With all the technology at
our fingertips, it has allowed businesses to reduce costs and
improve efficiency resulting in growth for the company.
Email has become an integral part of most people’s lives. It is a
fast and efficient way to communicate and it can be done from
anywhere with an internet connection. Being able to send
documents via email and not hand deliver or mail them has
saved an incredible amount of time, energy and money for so
many companies. A lot of companies now use instant messaging

5. internally as well, which is an amazing feature in itself. The
ability to be able to communicate in real time with people that
are online is pretty amazing not to mention a great way to
continue the flow of communication and expedite projects and
decisions. Video conferencing is another incredible tool.
Holding video conference meetings or screen share meetings
over the internet rather than face to face is another great
resource that has allowed companies to save travel expenses and
the travel time. This has also allowed companies to expand and
do business globally at a nominal expense.
Marketing and advertising have been greatly impacted by social
networking sites. Social Networking is basically free marketing
for companies that choose to take advantage. It is also a great
way for professionals to build relationships and stay in touch
with others in the same field using Social Networking sites such
as LinkedIn.
E-commerce is the process of conducting business over the
Internet, which today is standard. People buy all kinds of things
online. Books, clothes, groceries, music, movies, event tickets,
plane tickets, rental car reservations, and even auto purchases
are now made online. The list is endless as to what can be done
electronically now. It is no longer necessary to go to the store
and fight off sales people when you already know what you
want. You can simply order online with a few simple clicks.
Now that companies are able to sell products over the internet
they are not only increasing revenue, but the ability to sell
products and not have the overhead of a store to run including
rent, employees and utilities. It has also allowed businesses to
operate globally and coordinate worldwide with consumers,
distributors, and suppliers giving companies the option and
flexibility to outsource as well as provide products and or
services globally with ease.
We have all seen how the cell phone has evolved from an
oversized brick to sleek, compact fully featured powerhouses.
Cell phones offer many features from text messaging and
picture messaging to GPS services and of course the ability to

6. actually make phone calls. The ability to call someone and
communicate from anywhere is amazing in itself and then you
have smartphones. Smartphones are basically mini computers.
They have operating systems and have the same components has
a computer. The evolution of the smartphone and allowed us to
take digital on the go. Phones now have mobile internet, email,
text and video messaging, IM and basically about anything else
you can do on your computer. With all the software available
you can find an app for just about anything you want to do. I
personally conduct so much business over my cell phone and
tablet with access to email and apps that allow me to sign
documents and edit documents as well as scan documents.
Technology has revolutionized the way we do business. It has
enabled companies to communicate effectively and efficiently
through the internet. It has allowed us to cut costs in several
areas such as travel and employee overhead, due to increased
efficiency. Ecommerce has allowed companies to conduct sales
over the internet increasing customer convenience all while
decreasing company overhead. Then there is the smartphone,
which has been a godsend for people on the go. It has allowed
executives the flexibility to be out of the office and not lose any
productivity.
Article Review:Social Media's Productivity Payoff, in Harvard
Business Review discusses the economic impact of social
networking sites and the potential value creation when social
technologies are used to improve communication and
collaboration across enterprises. According to Mckinsey &
Company, over 1.5 billion consumers globally have social
networking accounts and almost one in five hours online is
spent on these sites. Many companies are shifting their
marketing efforts toward social media not only to advertise but
also collecting consumer data and observing consumer behavior
and using it as the powerful research & development tool that it
is. Based on numerous case studies and in-depth research,
McKinsey Global Institute analyzed the potential value that
could be obtained through social technologies. The potential

7. value at stake in 4 main sectors (consumer packaged goods,
consumer finance, professional services, and advanced
manufacturing) amounted to 900 billion to 1.3 trillion annually,
with a third contributed from applications of social technology
in product development, marketing & sales, operations and
customer support but two-thirds arising from using social
technologies for better and more efficient communication and
collaboration of knowledge workers within these functions and
across the enterprise.McKinsey estimates that “interaction
workers” which includes, managers, professionals, sales people
and other employees require frequent interpersonal
communication and spend roughly 28% of their workdays
answering, writing and responding to emails. 19% is spent
trying to track down information and another 14% is
collaborating with co-workers. McKinsey believes all of these
activities could be completed effectively and more potentially
20-25% more efficiently using social technologies.Like with
most everything else, there is a catch. The increase in
productivity and efficiency is dependent on the implementation
of its use and the participation. In order to be effective the use
of these technologies would need to be a part of the daily
workflow and a standard procedure if you will. In order to
obtain maximum participation there needs to be an open
environment and a culture of sharing and collaboration. There
needs to be a sense of trust and leaders will have to take the
lead in using them for others to observe. Changing old mindsets
and behaviors and developing a new environment of openness
and sharing where there hasn’t been one before will probably be
the biggest challenge.Works Cited:
Manyika, James, Michael Chui and Hugo Sarrazin . Social
Media's Productivity Payoff. 21 August 2012. 18 May 2013
<http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/social_medias_productivity_pa
y.html>.
1

8. 3
Technology in Business Communication
Lusye Smith
Bus 119
05-16-2013
The use of technology in daily business on constant manner has
evolved. Being aware of current new trends in market has
become a critical aspect in understanding business. Technology
has played a role towards improving the communication
procedures in most businesses. Businesses have more options in
growing themselves due to the intense revolution of internet
across the globe. Revolution of technology has made
interrelation of hardware, software, and network into one
unified and solid system. This has led optimization of business
communication and other procedures more efficient.
With the increase in technological complexity each dawn,
training has become a major issue that businesses have to face.
Whenever new technology gets integrated into systems and
operations of a business, it is important for the organization to
ensure that all the users get acquainted with the new
technology. In training, the organization has to hire consultants
and professionals who have to train the employees who will be
using the new technology. This means that besides the initial
costs of purchase and installing, the organization will need to
cater for training of all the employees who will be using the
new technology. This will translate to increased costs that may
not have a direct impact on productivity of the organization.
Additionally, training is time consuming and the productivity of
the company will be affected negatively. Worst still, technology
keeps on changing and organizations will need to always be
updated on the new technology. This means that even before
employees get used to the technology, new technology will have
been brought and training might become a constant practice that
may affect the business processes of an organization.

9. Literature Review
Alignment is not enough: Integrating business and information
technology management with the balanced business scorecard is
an article that gives an insight on the role of technology in
affecting business operations. According to the article,
technology has greatly sphered business communication to
greater heights. The idea of merging voice networks, data, and
emergence of internet protocol based massaging has encouraged
most companies to put more efforts on their communication.
Businesses with viable plan in hand and considers use of
technology in their implementation processes have been able to
save a lot of money and raise their employees level of
production to greater heights. Use of technology in business
communication has offered a wide chance to small and medium
scale business to compete with large scale companies.
Technology has made many companies to be updated on daily
basis about new markets that have emerged. This has led to
focus on evolvement of technology, business have put more
directed more funds in technology in order to improve their
communication system.
Despite all the praises that has been heaped on the role of
technology in improving business operations, the article has
criticized on overreliance of technology as the major driver for
business organizations. According to the article, relying on
technology is not enough and business organizations will need
to integrate other frameworks in realizing their strategies. Even
though technology may seem to be impressing to many
businesses, it should not be the only stronghold that businesses
should rely on in all their operations. In this regard, the article
has created an insight on the importance of using technology
not as the only driver for success but an important aspect that
should be considered when conducting business.
References
J.T.M. Van Der Zee, B. Jong. (1999). Alignment is not enough:
Integrating business and information technology management

10. with the balanced business scorecard. Journal of Management
Information System, 16 (2). 137-156.
Doyle 1
Matthew Doyle
Lionel Remesha
Business Comm. 119
May 17, 2013
Technology in Business Communication
In today’s business world technology is the leading tool that
organizations use in order to make their business function and
create revenue. But with great amounts of technology other
issues have been arisen that can actually be the downfall or at
least smaller revenue in certain area’s of ones business.
Businesses that sell a product decide to start up an online
website were they can sell the same products online, which they
already sell to customers in the store, but in the convenience of
their own home. Another technology that is highly regarded in
today’s society is instant streaming and multiple companies are
signing contracts to distribute their product into their consumer
home directly without a store outlet. Are these new features of
today’s marketplace benefiting or having a negative effect on
our overall economic society and destroying jobs and lives?
There is really no big chain store out there today that does not
have an online service available to access the products that are
sold in store. The problem is if the products can just be bought
online from your home with the push of a button then why even
bother going to the actual store? The companies themselves rely

11. on their stores to have individual profits but if people are online
shopping through the company website then, where are the
profits going? People are buying products online more and more
each year and the problem is then the store locations need less
and less employee’s. With companies hiring less people to work
in their stores every year the jobs are getting scarce and
unemployment is going up.
Companies are realizing that technology has made is so people
can have everything that they want delivered to their own home
without ever having to leave. Marketing people love to talk
about “convergence,” the process whereby technologies are
merged and wondrous new products are introduced with more
and more features (Trout20). Many entertainment companies are
signing contracts with online media websites to distribute their
products in addition to the retail stores. Now rather than going
out and purchasing the actual movie or CD product at the store,
people are downloading or streaming what they want to listen to
or watch through a monthly fee service. Again this takes away
the jobs of the people that make the product, transports the
products, sell the products at stores, and many other more.
Using technology can to help produce revenue for companies
but it can also make it so that they lose revenue in individual
stores and therefore making it so companies continue needing
fewer employees each time. Many companies are signing up
with other companies to make it so that all the products and
services a consumer needs will be in delivered home and people
won’t need to go outside anymore. The problem with this way
of business through the use of technology is costing people jobs
and many companies are going overseas to produce their
product and then sale it worldwide through the net. Many
companies are benefiting from the use of the new technology at
the expense of other smaller business and the people who
become unemployed.
Literature Review
Best Buy online sales slide despite online boost:

12. news.yahoo.com: In this article Best Buy had a massive decline
in sales at their retail outlets but their online store profit
margins went exponentially up. As the sales of the online store
keeps going up best buy has been looking at the stores that do
not produce enough revenue and have been delegating on which
stores should be closed down. In this case technology of having
an online store has brought the company revenue online but has
made it so more people are not going to the actual retail store to
make their purchases.
Netflix signs deal with Disney: news.yahoo.com: This article
states that another company has signed a contract with Netflix
to post their products Disney movies on Netflix instant
streaming website. Netflix charges their subscribers a very
small fee to have their service and has many entertainment
companies post their movies/shows on their website. This
service is making it so people are not going to the stores to buy
movies or TV shows anymore but just instant stream everything
for just a simple service charge. So the problem with this new
technology of instant streaming your entertainment is if people
are not buying the hard copies of products then our economy is
going down in sales and jobs are being lost.
Trout, Jack. The New Positioning: The latest on the world’s #1
Business Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1996. Print.