Minding Your Netiquette

“Following proper netiquette is essential to developing professional relationships online, and the solution to ensuring employee etiquette is trust” (Nikravan, 2010). In his article, Minding Online Manners Boosts Leadership and Workforce Development, Laden Nikraven reviews the current down-spiraling trend of proper netiquette use in the workplace and the causal effect from poor leadership relationships.
Businesses today have a critical need to use online communication to reach not only their external consumers, but their internal customer, the employee. Current leadership methods frequently use the “hovering-over-the-shoulder” threat to enforce proper netiquette from their employees which according to Nikravan is back-firing. Employees that feel micromanaged and threatened are less likely to be productive or offer communication that supports their employer. It is this sense of “mistrust” that destroys online relationships and in office cohesion. Leadership needs to refocus the use of “hovering” and threatening employees to something proactive and useful such as providing meaningful netiquette rules and empowering their employees to use it successfully. According to Nikraven, “If trusted and thus empowered, employees using social media for the good of the company will collaborate with other members of the organization to be productive” (2010, para. 8).
There are many lessons to be learned from prominent netiquette experts. Proactive tools are available to all employers to regain their employees trust and improve their bottom line at the same time. These tools are as simple as remembering to communicate with professionalism and common courtesy no matter the medium. In this new cyber-communication age it is time to make sure these lessons and tools are used.
Nikravan, L. (November 17, 2010). Minding Online Manners Boosts Leadership and Workforce
Development. Chief Learning Officer. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from http://clomedia.com/articles/view/3917/1