Firms Fear Online Gossip
Bosses are afraid their companies' reputations are being hurt by employees who air complaints about their employer on the Internet, according to a new report conducted by Weber Shandwick Research and the Economist Intelligence Unit. However, top execs are often clueless about the specifics -- and sometimes even contribute to the problem themselves.
Risky Business: Reputations Online is based on interviews with 703 senior executives representing more than 20 industries in 62 countries spanning North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Nearly seven out of 10 of the executives said they feared for their corporate reputations as incidents of employees spreading bad will on sites such as JobVent and sensitive e-mails accidentally sent to the wrong people grow in number. In fact, a new acronym of sorts has sprung up to address the problem: online reputation management, or ORM.
:
