New Media Challeges - Colloquim Vikalpa

COLLOQUIUM
New Media Experiences:

Dealing with the Game Changer
includes debate by
practitioners and
academicians on a
contemporary topic
Gaurav Mishra, Tushar Makkar, Aman Gupta,
Meena Vaidyanathan, Shalini Sarin, and
Gita Bajaj (Coordinator)
INTRODUCTION
Gita Bajaj
O
ver the last one decade, revolution in communication technology has trig-
gered a communication revolution. The new media has brought new para-
digms of communication and has become a game changer. From a time
when the journalists and columnists had the privilege of voicing their and others’
views to large audiences, the privilege is now shared with anyone who has a thought
of his own and access to new media. From a time when customers made a beeline to
register their complaints against companies and government departments, the scene
is reversed with companies tracking social media and blogging websites like
Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, etc., to track any customer grievance so as to
address it as early as possible.
A host of practitioners and academicians are

organizing communication conferences and
From a time when
seminars to delve on the power of social me-
dia communications. It is a medium that com- customers made a beeline
KEY WORDS
panies are employing to sell products, share to register their complaints
Social Media information, build brands, and even address against companies and
Crisis Communication their customers’ grievances. Advertisers and
marketers are exploring this virgin territory
government departments,
Online Communication the scene is reversed with
where the audiences’ eyeballs are on the rise.
Intranet Managements of companies are engaging em- companies tracking social
Twitter ployees to secure their buy-in and ensure that
media and blogging
they are retained. Governments have found a
Role-based Career new medium to bring efficiency into their sys- websites like Facebook,
Structure
tems and to reach out to the public at large and Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn,
Infosys share their achievements at the same time. For
etc., to track any customer
iRace the first time this year, the policy makers of
G20 summit used the social networking plat- grievance so as to address
Attrition
form to collaborate and share perspectives on it as early as possible.
Talent Management critical issues, months in advance of the sum-
VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2010 91

mit enabling them to have multiple options in real time. Celebrities Bear the Brunt
Not only companies, celebrities are also using this me- Powerful as its usage is, improper communication or
dium to engage their fan following and to build their delayed responses can lead to a potential reputation dis-
brand and product offering. Be it writers and cartoon- aster for prestigious brands, companies or celebrities.
ists like Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) and Saad On September 15, 2009, Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State
Akhtar (@saad_skhtar) or politicians like Shashi Tharoor for External Affairs, India, was asked by a journalist:
(@shashitharoor) and Rahul Gandhi (@RGamethi) or “Tell us Minister, next time when you travel to Kerala,
film actors like Sharukh Khan (@iamsrk) or Priyanka will it be in cattle class?” and the Minister promptly
Chopra (@priyankachopra), one can witness an increas- tweeted his response- “Absolutely, in cattle class, out of
ing presence of celebrities engaging with their follow- solidarity with all our holy cows.” For all the humour
ers. With hundreds and thousands of followers following that the Minister claims, the comment travelled like wild
every move and word that the celebrity shares on Twit- fire followed by his political bosses calling for an expla-
ter or Facebook, the celebrities’ power to influence has nation on labelling the economy class as “cattle” and his
catapulted manifold. No longer can political peers as ‘holy cows’. Tharoor’s
the journalist twist the words and not is not the only case. Amitabh
share their version of the quote. No Bachchan, a famous Bollywood actor,
Powerful as its usage is,
wonder, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, had to withdraw his comments on
improper communication Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire as
LinkedIn, My Space, and many other
social networking, blogging, and or delayed responses can presenting India as a “third-world,
microblogging tools have changed the lead to a potential dirty, underbelly developing nation,”
rules of the game. which “causes pain and disgust
reputation disaster for among nationalists and patriots.” The
What is pulling everyone to this me-
prestigious brands, comment spread from one blog to nu-
dium? Direct access to a large audi- companies or celebrities. merous news channels and newspa-
ence, ease of access, freedom of pers and was later a household
expression, minimal costs, and viral impact are some of discussion. Chetan Bhagat, the young
the reasons drawing individuals to this medium. author of bestselling fiction with a large fan following
Facebook has more than 500 million active users1 and also received a blow to his fan following when some of
50 per cent of the users log onto the site each day. This his comments on piracy were refuted and he blocked
would mean 250 million users every 24 hours (at the unyielding tweet responders. The issue blew up with
time when the statistics was noted). Twitter now has 75 27,000 tweets a day and hash tags were devoted to
million user accounts, but only around 15 million are ‘chetanblocks’. Lalit Modi, the Chief of the Indian Pre-
active users on a regular basis2 and LinkedIn has over mier League, tweeted his discontent with the ways of
50 million users worldwide. Sector-specific networking the then Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr
sites like pagalyguy.com has 700,000 unique visitors per Tharoor, only to see it blow up into a web that forced
month, visitors being MBA aspirants in India. Each visi- Mr Tharoor to resign from his post of Minister and Mr
tor to the site has the choice to be an audience or a con- Modi show his way out of the IPL as he continued to
tributor or both. The freedom and access is what appears struggle to clear up the innumerous allegations of cor-
to be pulling crowds which in turn are pulling celebri- ruption that were unearthed thereafter.
ties and organizations and vice-versa. Once the loop gets Interest of the people in the celebrities is not geographi-
into a cyclic mode, the numbers blow up. What makes cally isolated. What one hears in one corner of the world
the medium unique is that the control continues to stay is resonated in the other and so on. International super-
with the crowd. stars such as Rihanna, Michael Jackson, and Tiger Woods
have all provided news that has thrived on blogs, fuel-
1
ling content and traffic for many sites. For instance, Ti-
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
2
ger Woods’ infidelity controversy led to an uproar on
Source: http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/02/01/social-media-statistics-
facebook-twitter-flickr-linkedin/ the online medium with blogs, tweets, and posts from
92 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

several corners of the world, covering it and expressing these three brands did ultimately respond and the Twit-
it through the eyes of different cultures, thereby posing ter storm receded in about 10 days.
yet another challenge for PR practitioners.
When Medium is Not at the Source of Crisis:
Companies Deal with Employees on the Public Take on the Companies
New Media The ease with which crisis can be triggered, particularly
Not just celebrities, the corporates have also been feel- on the internet and the social media, can be demon-
ing the heat of the new medium. On February 5, 2010, strated with what Pepsi did with a rather tasteless ad-
someone internally sent an obscene vertisement that depicted a lonely
tweet from the Vodafone corporate calorie committing suicide. The out-
account that led Vodafone UK into Toyota recall case rage grew and Chris Abraham, a
some serious online crisis manage- demonstrates how online blogger for Ad Age, tweeted and
ment. The story was among the top blogged on it, as did many others, con-
3
and social media are
tweeted stories on Tweetmeme.com, cerned about the sensitivity to the is-
but Vodafone acted swiftly to limit the game-changers when it sue of suicide. Chris received a
damages before there was any major comes to modern crisis response to his tweet from Pepsi and
impact on its brand. They directly ad- he posted an update saying, “Pepsi
communication battles.
dressed a large number of people that Apologized to Me for its Suicide Ads.”
were commenting on the issue or When Toyota’s recall news This case also provides an example of
retweeting the obscene tweet. How- broke, thousands turned how the company is directly involved
ever, not every organization is geared online to research or share in the new media, trying to head off
up for such a crisis. the firestorm of outrage that happens
fears, frustrations, and all too often.
When Kristy and Michael, two em- questions. Traffic to
ployees of Dominos, used a personal Another example is the case of the
Toyota.com nearly
camera and shot and uploaded an un- Kryptonite Lock and the Ballpoint
sanitary video on YouTube depicting doubled from the week of Pen, where a series of blog posts and
them defacing the food before serv- January 17 to the week of videotapes demonstrated that certain
ing it to the customer, it raised a big models of the formerly well-regarded
January 24 (when the
question mark on Dominos’ quality Kryptonite bicycle lock could be
standards and the result was an in- news was released), hacked and opened using an ordinary
stant crisis for the organization.4 The reaching a period high of ball-point pen.5 This led to a massive
employees were fired, and quite pos- over 1.2 million unique recall that cost the company nearly
sibly sued. But, because it took Domi- half its revenues for the year and left
nos more than 24-hours to respond,
visitors. a legacy of some 50,000 Google list-
the company was singled-out as be- ings recounting the controversy.
ing uncommunicative and unresponsive to the
groundswell of online commentary on Twitter and vari- It is important to note that the medium is important not
ous blogs. Similar slow-reacting critiques have been only when it is at the source of the crisis, but also when
hurled at Motrin and Amazon. Dominos, Motrin, and other crises are perpetuated through this medium. The
Amazon all suffered immediate consequences of not ICICI Bank in 2009 had a run on the bank when Lehman
making a decision on how to respond within 10 hours Brothers filed bankruptcy in the US and the news about
of the incidents they faced. The online chatter spiked ICICI’s exposure to subprime lending in the US emerged
as a high concern area for its huge customer base in In-
and to an extent, took on a life of its own. However,
dia. The bank reeled under crisis which was fuelled by
3 Source: http://www.kullin.net/2010/02/one-tweet-causes-crisis-for- uncontrollable viral messaging on this medium. It took
vodafone/
4 Source: http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2009/04/16/dominos- 5 Source: http://www.micropersuasion.com/2004/09/kryptonite_lock.
pizza-deals-with-youtube-nightmare html

the management nearly a month to The PR Challenge
save the bank from the crisis. According to Greenpeace, According to Shel Holtz, co-author of
Yet another example is the Toyota re-
the palm oil supplies were Blogging for Business, “Social media
call case which demonstrates how endangering the rain has magnified the urgency of crisis
online and social media are game- communication.” He says, “a seem-
forests and in turn the
changers when it comes to modern ingly small incident can quickly
Orangutans, the spread into bigger PR problems via
crisis communications battles. When
its recall news broke, thousands inhabitants of these the Web.”
turned online to research or share forests. The online Consumers and people can come out
fears, frustrations, and questions. with concerted, sustained, and net-
campaign caused
Traffic to Toyota.com nearly doubled worked campaigns on what they see
from the week of January 17 to the immense damage to
as unacceptable state of affairs. Before
week of January 24 (when the news Nestle’s reputation. Web 2.0, crisis communication teams
was released), reaching a period high had hours, if not days, to deal with
of over 1.2 million unique visitors. The good news for the media, draft responses, hold press conferences, and
Toyota was that they had the opportunity to directly ensure that their message made the evening news. Those
influence the large pool of searchers that next visited days are essentially gone, as the news cycle has been
Toyota.com. This was a strategically important dam- whittled down to minutes. With the time to create a re-
age control opportunity. The bad news was that the sponse almost non-existent, strong preparation becomes
majority (80%) did not visit a Toyota site next; this put mandatory. Recently, Apple saw this happen when a
Toyota less in control of its own destiny and more at the hoax e-mail claiming that the iPhone would be delayed,
mercy of the internet in general. The situation was esca- made its way to the popular tech blog, Engadget. Within
lated by media coverage, driven by an initial communi- minutes, the company’s stock had lost US $4 billion of
cation lockdown by Toyota. While Toyota was value on the U S stock exchange.
attempting to manage media relations, social media was
adding a new dimension to the consumer-brand dia- Berners-Lee (1999) conceptualized Internet as the net-
logue that was replete with hysteria and anger, escalat- work of networks and Wasserman and Faust (1994) de-
ing out of control online. fined social network as a set of nodes (people,
organizations or other social entities) connected by a set
Another noteworthy case is that of of relationships, such as friendship, af-
Greenpeace taking on Nestlé for filiation or information exchange. The
sourcing palm oil from Indonesia. Ac- Before Web 2.0, crisis Internet provides endless chances for
cording to Greenpeace, the palm oil
supplies were endangering the rain
communication teams had crisis—but also endless chances to
meet crises head on, and turn them to
forests and in turn the Orangutans, the hours, if not days, to deal
an advantage. New media enables a
inhabitants of these forests. The online with the media, draft world of networked co-creation,
campaign caused immense damage to which contrasts strongly with the hi-
responses, hold press
Nestlé’s reputation. Customers
worldwide reprimanded Nestlé for conferences, and ensure erarchical structure of the one-to-
many broadcast paradigm still
being unfriendly towards the environ- that their message made predominating in much of corporate
ment. Nestlé found itself cornered as
the evening news. Those communications. The experience with
Greenpeace garnered customers’ sup-
port which forced the company to days are essentially gone, new media is that a co-evolutionary
stance is not only a valuable concep-
take corrective measures. Nestlé aban- as the news cycle has tual aid but also an important practi-
doned its major supplier of palm oil been whittled down to cal imperative. This is because all
and vowed to abstain from using un- three layers of the new media com-
licensed supply of palm oil in the fu-
minutes.
municative ecology – the social, con-
ture.

tent, and technology – are co-evolving. ceptable? What to trust and not to trust on this medium?
How to circumvent viral effect during crisis? How to
While book shelves are getting filled with books on reduce response time?
marketing on online medium, its impact in bad times
requires more attention. Newspapers, television, and Practitioners and academicians are deliberating on these
online medium are increasingly re- and many more questions. We have
porting incidents of online crisis. Con- documented two such cases, ‘Chetan
sidering that the medium is
New media enables a Bhagat Blocks’ and ‘Internal Commu-
continually evolving and emerging as world of networked co- nication Online: Boon or Bane?’. The
a medium with unique attributes, creation, which contrasts case, ‘Chetan Bhagat Blocs’ is a celeb-
there is need to research the area for rity’s experience of managing fan fol-
strongly with the
better understanding. lowing on Twitter. ‘Internal
hierarchical structure of Communication Online: Boon or
Unanswered Dilemmas the one-to-many broadcast Bane?’ is a company’s experience of
Many questions pertaining to this managing employees’ internet and
paradigm still
medium deserve attention. How predominating in much of later intranet, during a phase of or-
should one respond to serious issues ganizational change. Both cases have
as in the case of Dominos, where
corporate been written based on secondary in-
within a matter of seconds an event communications. formation, as what is being discussed
can turn into a huge crisis causing is the affect of open forum discussions
immense damage? How to determine that this medium enables and what is
whether audience actions are based on rumours or facts in public domain is what is understood by most of the
and how do we deal with the surge of comments? Does public. What is deliberated upon are the understanding
one ignore the comments or deal with them? Which that such experiences deliver and the methods of man-
sources are reliable? How does one deal with the issue aging the medium so as to avoid these in future. Expert
of time in a space of instant dialogue need or demand opinions have been sought to focus on what learning
for real time information? How to define contours of can be drawn from these experiences to better manage
personal space in the virtual field? How to appreciate the emerging space on online communications. What fol-
audience sensitivities? How much of expression is ac- low are the Cases and the case discussions.
Case 1: Chetan Bhagat Blocks

Gita Bajaj
Facebook friends, Sheena and Sharad, had been regu- the youth, having more than 27,000 followers on the
larly discussing the emergence of new media for some microblogging site, Twitter, and possibly one of the most
time now. Both of them loved books, blogging, and now accessible Indian celebrities on Twitter — had posted a
also tweeting. They had been following their favourite few tweets lamenting on the piracy of his books which
emerging author, Chetan Bhagat, when one day they resulted in a debate with a Delhi-based writer and car-
found him in the midst of heated tweets. Both of them toonist, Saad Akhtar and a journalist of The Economic
had divergent views on Chetan’s response to his follow- Times, Joji Philip. Chetan had then blocked Saad and Joji
ers and his understanding of the medium. from his Twitter account. The episode had started a mas-
sive surge of tweets related and unrelated to this inci-
On December 7, 2009, Chetan Bhagat — the bestselling dent with the hashtag #chetanblocks.
author of three blockbuster novels, highly appealing to

Background Chetan: At a broader level, a society that doesn’t
Chetan Bhagat was an investment banker by profession respect intellectual property never excels at in-
and is also the author of three blockbuster novels, Five novation. See what kind of India u want.
Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005) Saad: Tying everything to India’s progress today,
and The 3 Mistakes of Life (2008). The New York Times called aren’t we?”
Chetan ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in
Chetan: Well it is tied to progress. Close ur eyes
India’s history.’ Chetan also wrote op-ed columns for
to it if u want to.
several leading English and Hindi newspapers, focus-
ing on youth and national development-based issues. Saad: In a bad mood today, aren’t we? Let me
Seen more as a youth icon than just an author, this IIT guess: Royalty check came in?
Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad graduate was making India Chetan: One more smart one and u r blocked. ok?
read like never before. Chetan quit his international in-
vestment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time Joji Philip: Don’t blame the consumer. If he/she
to writing and to make change happen in the country. gets the product at a fifth of its cost, they have
every right to pick it up.
Saad Akhtar was the creator of the popular Indian
Chetan: If I can access your bank account, I have
Webcomics, called Fly, You Fools! His webcomics at-
the right to steal from it?
tempted to take a sarcastic look at the day-to-day life
and popular culture and were about the small (or big) Joji: Piracy happens only when there is huge gap
irritations of life in India. He was voted as Mid-Day’s between d market cost & buying it otherwise.
Twitter Indian of the Year. Mid Day was an English Tab- Greedy publishers plz note! There is a nexus
loid newspaper circulated in Mumbai, Delhi, and between cops, illegal printers & publishers
Bangalore with its focus on the Young Urban Mobile who r responsible for piracy. Attack d system,
Professionals across India (YUMPI). not the consumer.
And the argument continued.
Joji Philip (journalist) was an Assistant Editor with The
Economic Times, an English daily that started in 1961 and Chetan: Nobody is greedy. If u can’t afford it,
is India’s largest and among the world’s top three Eng- don’t buy it. Do u steal cars if u can’t afford
lish Business dailies with a daily circulation of over them?
620,000 copies. It is published simultaneously from 10
Joji: No, I don’t steal cars, but if someone was of-
metropoliton cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore,
fering me one for Rs 1,000, I wud buy it. Blame
Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Ahemedabad,
the guy who is offering me. As a consumer I
Chandigarh, and Pune.
have done no wrong -- I’ve paid the guy on
Chetan, Saad, and Joji were active users of the micro- the street corner my hard earned Rs 1,000 & I
blogging site called Twitter. did not steal it from anyone.
Chetan: U have. Ask a lawyer. And one more
Conversation Track defense of illegal stuff and will block u. ok?
On December 7, 2009, Chetan Bhagat’s first few tweets The discussion led Chetan to block Saad as well
were on the issue of piracy of his books. He tweeted: as Joji.
Chetan: Almost anyone who is reading my pi-
The Aftermath
rated books can afford the original. It hurts
me a lot personally. Just sharing. What followed was a flood of one-liners and anti-Chetan
messages across Twitter and a hashtag #chetanblocks.
Chetan: Piracy kills publishers, esp domestic lit-
The hashtag became a trending topic on Twitter’s home
erature. Gives incentive to writers to move
page. According to wthashtag.com the little quarrel
westwards. Don’t do it if you care for Indian
among the three resulted in 2,658 mentions of
creativity.
#chetanblocks on Twitter with 779 contributors and 37.6

per cent as retweets, 61.2 per cent as mentions, and 10.9 been raising issues on Twitter. As he followed this inci-
per cent as multiplied hashtags. dent, he was angry that Saad Akhtar should have poked
fun on Chetan when Chetan in principle was right about
#chetanblocks swarmed up with tweets by people about plagiarism. To this again Sheena disagreed as she felt
their opinions on the right and wrong of the entire is-
that Saad Akhtar being a cartoonist had only said what
sue.
could be expected from him. So the conversation only
A flurry of messages, accusations, counter-accusations, reveals Chetan’s lack of sense of humour. “Why did he
one-liners, and cartoon strips followed. Around 8 pm get into an argument?” she said. Sharad was still ada-
or so, a video was online in which Hitler pokes some mant maintaining that it is impossible to anticipate the
mild fun at Chetan and finds out later from his senior nature of all followers on Twitter and therefore he main-
officers that he had been blocked. He was not amused. tained, “You cannot expect an audience centric response
He promised revenge. In another few minutes, on Twitter. The audience are too many, too varied and
Wikipedia had an article on Chetan Bhagat page which unknown; this kind of an expectation is unrealistic” he
was later removed. And by night there was a website said.
called www.chetanblocks. com. “At least he could have stopped when
Chetan put out a clarification on his Joji came into the scene?”
Twitter is a medium for
Twitter account saying he stands by “How could he have backed out now?
light-hearted
his decision to block Saad and wrote, So I can’t think of any other way by
“Today, someone who had done so microblogging. One is
which he could have brought this to
many times, trivialized my commit- only supposed to write an end. Blocking was the only option.”
ment to India.” “Few things can hurt what is on one’s mind and
me more. I still didn’t block him and Sheena disagreed as she felt that
told him to stop. He enjoyed the at-
therefore Chetan should Chetan’s reputation got a big blow by
tention and ridiculed that as well. I not have raised such a this incident and that celebrities can-
took a call and blocked him… I stand serious issue on Twitter. not allow this to happen to them. A
by my decision to block him, and I large section of his following was now
think I have the right to. Am aware having fun at his cost. He was no more
tweets can still be accessed. Just don’t want him in my a role model for the young, the way he was earlier.
timeline.” Sharad disagreed saying, “If his books are good, they
will read. Twitter is short term and it goes in short-term
What Sheena contended was that Twitter is a medium memory only”.
for light-hearted microblogging. One is only supposed
to write what is on one’s mind and therefore Chetan The Case raises several questions:
should not have raised such a serious issue on Twitter.
• How to handle Twitter (a two-way mass communi-
More so because a large segment of his audience would
be young boys and girls who love to download freebees cation tool) as a medium of communication?
and buy stuff at lower prices, this wasn’t the right sub- • How would this incident impact Chetan Bhagat’s
ject to give ‘gyan’. “Why should Chetan brag on morals image and reputation?
here?” said Sheena.
• What could have been the possible reasons for the
Sharad disagreed as he viewed Twitter as a medium for communication to have taken such a turn?
voicing what’s on one’s mind and that could be ‘thoughts • In what other ways could have Chetan Bhagat possi-
of relevance’. In fact he loved to read the tweets of bly responded to Saad’s and Joji’s comments?
Rajdeep Sardesai and some other journalists who had

RESPONSES ON CHETAN BHAGAT’S MOVE TO BLOCK TWEETS AND
TWITTER AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
Tracking Twitter Celebrity Trends

Gaurav Mishra
I have observed three drivers of Twitter’s growth in

every country:
(@faroutakhtar, >134000 followers), Genelia D-Souza
(@geneliad, >134000 followers), and Barkha Dutt
(@bdutt, >130000 followers).
• Citizen reports on Twitter during national crisis situ-
ations like earthquakes and terrorist attacks Celebrities love Twitter because it is short, mobile, easy-
to-use, public, one-to-many and very
• Celebrities like actors, sports stars,
viral. So, celebrities can build a huge
and politicians who engage with
Celebrities love Twitter fan following in days and keep both
their fans on Twitter
because it is short, mobile, fans and journalists tantalized with
• TV channels and newspapers that
use Twitter to encourage direct easy-to-use, public, one- short messages. Fans love Twitter be-
cause it allows them to speak to ce-
response from their audience. to-many and very viral. lebrities in public, even though the
India is no different, and events like

So, celebrities can build a celebrities themselves reply back only
the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack huge fan following in days intermittently.
(#mumbai) and the 2009 Lok Sabha and keep both fans and Twitter has two million users in India
elections (#indiavotes09), celebrities now, which is bigger than the reach
journalists tantalized with
like Shahrukh Khan (@iamsrk) and of several English TV channels in the
Shashi Tharoor (@shashitharoor), and short messages. Fans love country. Celebrities in India use Twit-
media organizations like NDTV Twitter because it allows ter not only because they can talk di-
(www.social.ndtv.com) and IBNLive rectly to a few thousand fans, but also
them to speak to
(www.ibnlive.in.com/blaze) are im- because they can make provocative
portant drivers of Twitter’s growth in celebrities in public, even
statements in public, which journal-
the country. though the celebrities ists can pick up for new stories. So,
themselves reply back the real reach of Twitter is much
In fact, the list of top twenty Twitter
higher than the number of Twitter us-
users in India (from www.tweeple.in) only intermittently.
ers in India.
looks like a who’s who list of Indian
celebrities, with Shashi Tharoor Celebrities use Twitter for ten distinct purposes:
(@shashitharoor, >775000 followers), Vir Sanghvi
(@virsanghvi, >370000 followers), Priyanka Chopra • To share the mundane trivia from their lives
(@priyankachopra, >348000 followers), Dalai Lama • To engage in one-to-one conversations with their
(@dalailama, >323000 followers), Sachin Tendulkar celebrity friends on Twitter
(@sachin_rt, >290000 followers), Deepak Chopra • To promote their blog or fan community
(@deepakchopra, >201000 followers), Preity Zinta
• To promote a project or cause they are engaged in
(@realpreityzinta, >196000 followers), Karan Johar
(@kjohar25, >195000 followers), Abhishek Bachchan • To comment on a news item or a public debate
(@juniorbachchan, >195000 followers), Hrithik Roshan • To comment on news item related to them
(@ihrithik, >195000 followers), Shahid Kapoor • To shape public debate with a strong point of view
(@shahidkapoor, >184000 followers), Deepika Padukone • To engage in a public cat-fight with other celebrities
(@deepika padukone, >180000 followers), Farhan Akhtar or journalists

• To answer questions from their mob of Twitter users joined in to taunt
fans on Twitter Even as most Twitter users Chetan. The hashtag became a
• To connect their fans with each felt that Chetan Bhagat trending topic on Twitter’s home page
other through memes and contests. and resulted in a viral video, several
behaved in a pompous blog posts and even a few news sto-
Any of these ten types of Twitter con- and self-righteous manner, ries.
versations can go viral or become they agreed that the meme
newsworthy, depending upon the ce- Did #chetanblocks impact Chetan
lebrity and the context. Some recent
went too far in ridiculing Bhagat’s reputation? Not really. Even
examples of viral memes related to him. Since the as most Twitter users felt that Chetan
Indian celebrities include: Bhagat behaved in a pompous and
controversy, Chetan’s
self-righteous manner, they agreed
• The September 2009 controversy follower count on Twitter that the meme went too far in ridicul-
around politician Shashi Tharoor’s has increased from 27,000 ing him. Since the controversy,
comment about the economy class Chetan’s follower count on Twitter
to 109,000, making it
in the Indian Airlines being the has increased from 27,000 to 109,000,
‘cattle class’. evident that the making it evident that the controversy
• The December 2009 #chetanblocks controversy has not has not affected his popularity. Else-
meme when writer Chetan Bhagat where, his books continue to sell and
affected his popularity.
blocked a few Twitter users after a he is as popular as ever before. The
heated discussion on pirated #chetanblocks meme, however, is ar-
books. chived permanently, on www. chetan blocks.com and
• The March 2010 public fight between Shahrukh Khan elsewhere on the web, as an embarrassing reminder of
and the Shiv Sena, related to the controversy around the fickle nature of the celebrity-fan relationship on a
the movie, ‘My Name is Khan’. social platform like Twitter.
• The March 2010 public catfight between The Hindu
Editor, N Ram (@nramind) and other members of his Celebrities often fail to understand that the power dis-
family, related to succession issues. tance between them and their fans is lower on a plat-
• The April 2010 public catfight between politician form like Twitter than in real life. The same is true for
Shashi Tharoor and IPL Chief Lalit Modi (@lalitkmodi), brands and consumers.
around irregularities in IPL contracts.
So, while most fans only wish to derive vicarious pleas-
The IPL public controversy has done serious damage to ure from reading their favourite celebrity’s tweets, some
the credibility of both Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi, fans want more. They want to talk to the celebrity; they
and even led to their ouster. In most other cases, the often expect the celebrity to respond, and demand that
controversy died down quickly, only to be referred to the celebrity responds to them respectfully, and even
in year-end news roundups and aca- treat them as equals. So, when a ce-
demic case studies like this. lebrity does not respond, they feel let
Specifically in the case of #chetan- Celebrities often fail to down. Worse, when a celebrity re-
blocks, the controversy was rather understand that the power sponds in a high-handed manner,
short-lived. Author Chetan Bhagat they feel offended, and often respond
distance between them in kind. This is precisely what hap-
complained about the piracy of his
rather popular books. Cartoonist Saad and their fans is lower on pened in the #chetanblocks case.
Akhtar made fun of him and journal- a platform like Twitter than Most brands and celebrities also do
ist Joji Philip supported Saad. Chetan
in real life. The same is not understand the nature of Twitter
blocked both Saad and Joji and sev-
true for brands and flash mobs. Most Twitter users tend
eral other Twitter users who joined in
to behave responsibly on the platform
the debate. Someone started the consumers.
because they use their real identities
#chetanblocks hashtag and a flash

and are connected to at least some of their real-world • A celebrity or a brand threatens to or actually de-
friends and business associates. So, they behave respon- letes or blocks negative comments or users.
sibly, because they have to protect not only their online
reputations but also their reputations in their real social It is interesting that Chetan Bhagat erred on all these
three counts in the #chetanblocks case.
networks. However, if brands or celebrities offend Twit-
ter users, with words or actions, Twitter users tend to So, what should have Chetan Bhagat done instead? He
transform into a self-righteous mob. The #amazonfail should have ignored Saad’s comments and Saad would
meme against Amazon banning books with adult con- have moved onto other targets. If he did feel a need to
tent and the Motrin Moms meme against an insensitive respond, he should have treated Saad, Joji and others as
ad campaign are good examples of such Twitter flash equals and responded to them as such. Finally, he should
mobs. Chetan Bhagat found himself in the middle of one not have threatened to block anyone who disagreed with
such Twitter flash mob in #chetanblocks. him, even if he had actually gone ahead and blocked
There are three typical hot buttons or triggers for such Saad.
flash mobs:
In general, each celebrity has a unique personality and
• A celebrity or a brand offends Twitter users with their he should use Twitter in a way that suits his personal-
actions or policies, and then does not respond to criti- ity. So, it is perfectly fine for a celebrity to use Twitter
cism fast enough or adequately enough. purely as a broadcast medium and not engage in any
one-to-one conversations with fans. Perhaps, Chetan
• A celebrity or a brand is rude to a Twitter user and
Bhagat should have stuck to expressing his own view-
continues to be rude even when others point to the
point on Twitter.
unsuitability of such behaviour.
New Age Media, Age Old Rules!

Tushar Makkar
T he emergence of social media or ‘peer-to-peer’ me-

dia is proving to be quite a disruptive trend of our
times. I use the word ‘disruptive’ in the positive sense
But if this media is entirely about the freedom of ex-
pression and no inhibitions, then why do incidents like
‘#Chetanblocks’ happen at all? The point to note here is
to highlight the level of interconnectedness that this is that despite whatever freedom this media might give
bringing. All of a sudden, we realize that we are not us, it is still a ‘medium’ and the personalities and egos
alone in the way we think but there are millions of oth- of people shine through the medium. The personality
ers who are much like us…and much unlike us as well. could be what you actually are or even one that you want
I am particularly intrigued by the very nomenclature of to portray…the catch being that you have to constantly
this media, even before the diverse uses that we are defend the one that you choose for yourself…after all, it
putting it to. While the name ‘social’ media highlights is your personal positioning in this competitive world
the fact that this media can and does further social bond- where you need to make your personal brand stand out.
ing, I would like to focus particularly on the parallel no-
Let me stay with this thought of creating a brand and
menclature of ‘peer-to-peer’ media. It implies, and very
marketing it for just a moment more. There would be
aptly so, that this media is about everyone being at the
hardly any major organization today that is not explor-
same level. Social media does exactly that – all of a sud-
ing the possibilities with social media already. Businesses
den you realize that you have no inhibitions; no roles
are realizing that they cannot ignore this media simply
that you are expected to play while talking to others or
because if they are not on it, they will be dragged on to
even need to adhere to a certain mannerism because you
it anyways in discussions either by those who like you
are free to create one of your own.

or those who don’t…the obvious like- on this media as on any other, the ego
lihood of the latter is much higher. The The advantage of states have to complement each other.
point I am trying to make is that so- presenting their Given the current scenario, what is re-
cial media can impact your business quired is that the participants to the
significantly and it will be incorrect
viewpoints in a media that discussion exhibit the ‘adult’ ego state.
to make an observation that it is meant is completely free of However, what we are seeing are
only for light conversations. distortion (because they crossed transactions with Chetan opt-
ing to exhibit the ‘parent’ state and
A certain amount of favourable PR in themselves contribute the
Saad and Joji not accepting to be in
certain good media can make a per- content), reaching the ‘child’ state for the transaction to
sonality a celebrity. Who realizes this
possibly the widest set of be complimentary.
more than the celebrities themselves!
The advantage of presenting their audience, in a certain Additionally, Twitter as a medium
viewpoints in a media that is com- category, and most does not provide much opportunity
pletely free of distortion (because they for ‘strokes’ to play a role. What I mean
importantly, being
themselves contribute the content), is that as against a face-to-face commu-
reaching possibly the widest set of au- absolutely free of cost nication, where body language, for
dience, in a certain category, and most makes social media the example, could be a great ‘stroke’ to
importantly, being absolutely free of ideal choice for celebrities help in the success of communication,
cost makes social media the ideal Twitter offers limited options. Thus,
choice for celebrities to leverage. Of
to leverage. to a large extent, the reader’s frame of
course, their image managers may be mind at the time of reading a tweet
advising them on what personality to portray externally, determines how he/she would decipher it.
including on social media.
I recently had the opportunity to meet David Farrar, one
Chetan also seems to be projecting a certain type of per- of the most celebrated bloggers in New Zealand (his blog
sonality on his Twitter account. It really does not matter is titled www.kiwiblog.co.nz), who shared some of his
whether this is his real persona or a chosen external fa- blogging rules:
cade till such time as his overall externally presented
• Write for yourself, not for your readers
personality falls in line with his external brand. As a ce-
• Don’t just blog on your work, but on everything you
lebrity, he does tend to protect his ‘personal brand posi-
are interested in
tioning’! As any good marketer would suggest –
• Respond to comments
protecting brand comes before enhancing it.
• But give up responding after
Similarly, Saad and Joji are projecting round three.
Twitter as a medium does
their own personalities as well. Given
not provide much I find these rules not only interesting
the profession each of them are in and
but also very apt in the existing sce-
the impact one’s profession may have opportunity for ‘strokes’ to nario. To me, the first two rules are a
on the personality, I am not surprised
play a role. As against a clear reflection of your personality
to find the respective personalities
face-to-face communication, and allow people to know you and
they are projecting on their Twitters
your opinions, which in turn
— Saad carrying a light frame of mind where body language, for
strengthen the ‘personal brand’ that
or Joji voicing views of the consumer. example, could be a great you are creating for yourself. Rules
So, is it a clash of personalities that we ‘stroke’ to help in the three and four are rooted in transac-
are seeing here? Not exactly! I would tional analysis and imply that if you
success of communication,
rather put it as a ‘clash of ego states’. are not able to get to a complimentary
Relating to the time-tested, albeit sim-
Twitter offers limited series of transactions in three rounds,
plistic, transactional analysis, for a options. you will probably reach what hap-
meaningful conversation to take place pened in #Chetanblocks.

So, should the participants to the discussion have done their Tweets. The only change probably could have been
something different? In my opinion, the more apt ques- in the ego state with which each of them approached
tion is whether the participants would have wanted to the scenario, or else followed the fourth golden rule pro-
do anything different since each one of them have cho- fessed by David Farrar.
sen to portray a certain ‘image’ and ‘personality’ with
Case 2: Internal Online Communications: Boon or Bane?

Gita Bajaj
O ver the last decade, social media has provided or- over 114,000 employees across 26 countries.6 It was set
ganizations with a new medium to share informa- up in 1996 and has since helped in reducing operating
tion, enhance transparency, build networks, and enhance costs and meeting client needs efficiently, ensuring good
camaraderie. Today, many organizations with an open returns for the company. It is the central information
culture have a thriving intranet that supports interac- resource of Infosys that serves as an internal social net-
tion among employees and management. Some of the work (just like Facebook), causing a networking effect
relatively bureaucratic organizations have also been ex- within the organization. The popularity of Sparsh has
perimenting with this medium. Com- been rising, thereby enhancing its
munication experts have been writing value. Through Sparsh, users seek out
and advocating the use of this me- iRace was designed to other employees with expertise in a
dium to promote or build a collegial align the talent particular subject, exchange ideas
and open culture, and an internal through e-mail or bulletin boards and
management activities of
brand equity. Positive messages and also hold discussions. It has now be-
information give obvious results; Infosys with client come the company’s primary channel
however, experts purport that even priorities, business needs, for news and official information. In
negative messages are welcome as
and employee aspirations. 2007, it was selected as one of “The
they provide the management an op- Year’s 10 Best Intranets” by the
portunity to respond. It clearly defined roles, Nielsen Norman Group, a user expe-
competencies, and rience research firm that advises com-
Whereas the advice is sound, its im-
plementation is not so simple. Chal- proficiency requirements panies on human-centred product
and service design. For the external
lenges before the management are and linked career path to world, there is Infosysblogs.com with
aplenty especially when some of the performance and business the tagline “discuss the business of
management decisions do not re- technology and the technology of
sound well with the employees. Be
focus.
business in the flat world.”7
this a genuine concern of all employ-
ees or a grudge of a section of employees, it can tanta- Rise in Employee Activism
mount to an escalation, sometimes beyond the control
of the management. One such case is that of Infosys man- In year 2005, when Infosys won the Business Today
agement whose genuine effort to implement ‘iRace’ Award for the ‘Best Employer,’ the employees of the or-
(Infosys Role and Career Enhancement), a career archi- ganization expressed angst on various social network-
tecture programme, received a rising opposition on this ing platforms and websites. Many employees questioned
online channel of communication. the award and wanted to know under what criteria the
6 Infosys Intranet. From Wikipedia. Retrieved on 18 Feb 2010 from http:/
Infosys is a global leader in the “next generation” Infor- /danpritchard.com/wiki/Infosys
mation Technology and consulting. Its intranet called 7 Mittal, Tushar (Jan 5, 2009). “KnowtheCo.com. Infosys, Retrieved on
“Sparsh,” a Sanskrit term meaning “touch,” connects 6 May 2010 from http://www.knowtheco.com/index.php?news=25

company was adjudged the best employer. Employees applicable with retrospective effect. Many employees
also voiced their disapproval of 9.15 hours of work a were demoted on the ground that they did not meet
day.8 iRace’s experience standards. So, senior project manag-
ers went down to project managers, project managers
In 2008, when Infosys launched its comprehensive en-
to technical leads, some even went down two levels.
terprise-wide Career Architecture Programme, ‘iRace’
(Infosys Role and Career Enhancement), similar agita- According to an ex-employee of Infosys, there were units
tion resurfaced on the online medium. iRace was de- of varying size and growth within the company. Dur-
signed to align the talent management activities of ing the high growth phase of Infosys, employees work-
Infosys with client priorities, business needs, and em- ing for the smaller units with higher growth were
ployee aspirations. It clearly defined roles, competen- promoted earlier than those posted in the bigger and
cies, and proficiency requirements and linked career path stable units. This brought disparity among the peer
to performance and business focus. iRACE involved a group. The new HR policy under iRace attempted to map
detailed diagnostic which consisted of several attributes including experi-
an analysis of feedback from clients ence of employees to assign new des-
and employees, inputs from industry
The new HR policy under
ignations for employees. As a result
benchmark studies, and internal busi- iRace attempted to map many employees who had earlier re-
ness strategy.9 several attributes including ceived quick promotions were de-
Over the years, Infosys had witnessed experience of employees moted from their current position; for
instance a Senior Project Manager was
many changes, the key ones being: to assign new designations
now a Project Manager. Infosys also
changes in the business context, in-
for employees. As a result changed its attendance policy which
creased customer expectations,
according to another ex-employee of
growth in headcounts (10,000 in 2002 many employees who had
Infosys was, as always, long but no
to more than 100,000 in 2008), and earlier received quick longer flexible. This was not received
changes in the organization structure.
promotions were demoted positively by the employees.
The iRace programme was initiated in
2007, when Infosys had moved from from their current position.
Employees Express Themselves on
a grade-based to a role-based career
Social Media
structure with a focus on role and availability of posi-
tion as a basis for career growth. These changes required The employees expressed their dissatisfaction on the
Infosys to review the need for a role-based career struc- internet, the blogosphere in particular, and on the com-
ture and move to a model that linked career progress to pany intranet. An employee based in Bangalore wrote,
performance and business focus. This new structure was “iRace is the reason for the exodus. After the implemen-
to enable Infosys to re-align itself internally and be tation of the programme and other policies like 9.15
strongly positioned to address the changing needs of hours of compulsory attendance, people now dread to
the clients as well as the industry in which it operates. work in the once dream company.”
According to Current IT Markets,10 while iRace’s objec- Nandita Gurjar, HR Head of Infosys, posted her com-
tive appeared laudable, it suffered in its implementa- ments on the internal blog. She said, “Of late I have no-
tion and the worst impact was of decision to make it ticed a disturbing trend wherein employees leaving the
organization write mails about it in disparaging terms,
and existing employees take joy and pleasure in circu-
8 Mishra, Bhibu Ranjan (April 15, 2010). “Rediff.com. Infosys Employ-
ees Vent Anger on HR Issues on Blogs,” Retrieved on 15 April 2010 lating these mails among themselves and even outside.”
from http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/apr/15/slide-show-1-
infosys-employees-vent-anger-on-hr-issues-in-blogs.htm When Infosys found that its employees were venting
9 Moneycontrol.com (March 2009). “Director’s Report Infosys Technolo- their angst on social networking and blogging sites, the
gies,” Retrieved on May 6, 2010 from http://www.moneycontrol.com/
annual-report/infosystechnologies/directors-report/IT company gave them a blogging platform to convey their
10 Current IT markets.com (March 26, 2010). “Infosys Reviewing Em- reactions. This was an effort to tame the disgruntled
ployee Rating System,” Retrieved from http://www.currentitmarket.net/ employees. They invited the employees to raise issues

related to HR and other matters inside the company.8 greed on the second claim and said that 4,000 resigna-
Some of the major concerns were new roles introduced tions is a figment of someone’s imagination.13 Accord-
in the hierarchy, extended work timings, and lower sala- ing to him, “In February 2010, 1,000 people left Infosys
ries than industry standards. The employees were also voluntarily and that is normal rate of attrition, only
upset about the compulsory certification introduced by slightly up from last quarter (December).”
the company for each level of the role and leadership,
The overwhelming number of responses to the blog
and the improper management of acknowledging the
promotions.11 posts, forced the HR team to set up a team of six mem-
bers to moderate and summarize the
After iRace was introduced in the blog content so that the HR Head
company, Gurjar started to write There were reports stating could answer the concerns of the em-
blogs and changed topics every Fri- ployees. In these blogs, the company
that 4,000-4,200
day. The employees were free to par- had received severe attacks from the
ticipate and give their comments. employees had resigned at employees and as a result, was under-
Every day, the blog got around 30,000 Infosys in the month of stood to have changed some of its HR
hits. Gurjar mentioned in an online policy decisions.8
February 2010 though the
interview that she was getting thou-
sands of negative reactions to her blog average attrition rate was In April 2010, when the compa-
ny reported its earnings, it also an-
postings in the company’s intranet. around 1,200 per month.
nounced wage hikes of 17 per cent.
One particular blog posted by her re- This information was not Infosys executives claimed that the
sulted in a record number of 1,100 em-
ployees posting their reactions. Other
officially confirmed by the raises were in response to an explod-
than the blogging site, there was the management but multiple ing job market in India. “We have
dedicated website, ‘My voice,’ where given a large wage increase to people
sources, including the in the middle and junior levels to
every employee who had an opinion
company blog, were make sure that we have a competitive
on any policy matter could give an
opinion. The website was getting claiming the same. structure,” said Pai.14 Analysts, how-
ever, had termed the hikes, a form of
about 4,000 hits every day.8
damage control following iRACE.
There were reports stating that 4,000-4,200 employees
had resigned at Infosys in the month of February 2010 Acknowledging the above-mentioned allegation, Mr. Pai
though the average attrition rate was around 1,200 per said, “There were some issues with iRACE that the em-
ployees had raised, and we have addressed all those is-
month. This information was not officially confirmed
sues in this wage hike and promotion.” Gurjar later said
by the management but multiple sources, including the
that Infosys was trying to remove misconceptions among
company blog, were claiming the same.12
staff regarding iRace: “We are trying to slowly commu-
Gurjar rejected the claims saying, “The information is nicate to them that promotions would continue based
grossly incorrect. Attrition has been increasing in the on the role maturity, number of years and performance
last three months and this is largely because jobs are of an employee. It would also be based on the growth of
picking up after two years and the 4,000 number is not our business”.13
true.” The company’s HR Director, TV Mohandas Pai
admitted, “Attrition was partly due to iRace and partly To the question of personal attacks on the blogs, Gurjar
due to current job market conditions.” However, he disa- said, “All we can do is to be a part of the game! We have
13 Sharma, Praveena (March 24, 2010). “To Smother Staff Unrest, Infosys
11 Students Hangout Forum (February 2010). “Is Infy a Good Place only will Tweak HR Plan,” DNA Money, Retrieved on 6 may 2010 from
for Freshers?” Retrieved on 6 May 2010 from http://www.students http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_to-smother-staff-unrest-
hangout.com/topic/151057-is-infy-a-good-place-only-for-freshers/ infosys-will-tweak-hr-plan_1362552
12 14 Thoppil, Dhanya N (April 15, 2010). “Can Infosys Keep Workers with
Zopag News Network (March, 2010). “4,000 Employees Quit Infosys,”
http://www.zopag.com/news/4-000-employees-quit-infosys/ Hefty Raises?” The Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/
15317.html indiarealtime/2010/04/15/can-infosys-keep-workers-with-hefty-raises

to learn to deal with it. The new generation has moved must communicate and spend more time with the em-
to Facebook and Twitter. They will talk outside the com- ployees,” said Pai.15
pany,” she said. According to her, the intranet is an open
The questions that the Infosys case raise are:
window where employees can air their grievances. She
said a purging of anger happens every five years. “It • Why do employees voice grievances on public fo-
happened in 2004 too, the difference being then it was rums? How should companies respond to these situ-
within, now it is on Twitter,” she said. ations?
• Do open forums on social media unnecessarily esca-
However, these forums appear to be the response of the
late issues beyond a desirable level?
worried HR chiefs attempting to stop employees of the
• Is it a good idea to invest such time and energy on
“Facebook generation” from ranting and tweeting on
social networking platforms within companies?
social media sites. The experience has taught Infosys that
Why?
it must strengthen its communication. “Our managers
RESPONSES TO THE INFOSYS CASE
Lurking Dangers of Social Media Networks

Aman Gupta
Given the unforeseen, unexpected dangers of social me- lighted by the fact that it took Domino’s Pizza 50 years
dia, it is prudent to have Social Media Guidelines and a to establish their credibility but barely five hours to have
Code of Ethics to avoid unwanted crises. it trashed worldwide when two Domino’s employees
posted a video of themselves on YouTube doing unhy-
F ifteen years ago, few would have foreseen the me- gienic things to food that was to be served to waiting
teoric rise of social media net- customers.
works or their pervasive influence on Starbucks, Burger King, KFC, NFL
individual destinies and corporate In many ways, the online
(National Football League), and IPL
images. Perhaps the Canadian futu- world is far removed from (Indian Premier League) have all
rologist, educator, and philosopher borne the brunt of posts on Twitter
reality. Here, even
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) had and other social media. Little did IPL
some inkling of social media networks strangers are trusted like
Ex-Commissioner Lalit Modi realize
when he wrote in the early 1960s friends. The virtual world that his ill-advised comments on Twit-
about “electronic interdependence” ter about the Kochi team ownership
lulls people into letting
and how “the world has become a would backfire badly, dethroning him
computer, an electronic brain,” and their guard down by
within days from his supposedly un-
foresaw the world becoming a “glo- creating a false sense of assailable perch.
bal village.” security, privacy,
What is it that makes supposedly sane
In the past decade, the popularity of bonhomie, and anonymity. individuals utter inane comments
social media such as LinkedIn, online that they wouldn’t dare voice
Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and oth- in person? To comprehend this, it is imperative to delve
ers have spread like a raging bushfire. Although there
are individual benefits of social media networks, there 15 Phadnis, R (April 14, 2010). “Why Infy Staff Don’t Tweet,” Bangalore
mirror.com. Retrieved on May 6 2010 from http://www.bangalore
are also many dangers (apart from loss of productivity,
mirror.com/article/10/2010041420100414052256198d8cc1f1/Why-
compromised security and phishing attacks) – best high- Infy-staff-don%E2%80%99t-tweet.html

into behavioural psychology. Face to institutionalized early on. The mo-
face, it is human nature for most peo- The best way to handle a ment an employee is hired, an ambi-
ple to be on their best behaviour and social media crisis is to ence of transparency and bonding
present smiling faces to even those should be created. This ensures that
they detest. Even if comments are
prevent it! For this, new recruits do not suffer a sense of
made about people one dislikes, such preventive mechanisms alienation, particularly when they are
utterances are muted, diluted or held should be institutionalized still getting to know their peers. Trans-
back, thanks to the sheer power of parency also allows grievances to be
early on. The moment an
physical presence and proximity, solved faster, rather than being sup-
where even enemies are seemingly employee is hired, an pressed and aired later on social me-
treated like friends. ambience of transparency dia sites.
In many ways, the online world is the and bonding should be

Unfortunately, few understand or
opposite and far removed from real- created. value prevention. It is a human ten-
ity. Here, even strangers are trusted dency to ignore preventives in the
like friends. The virtual world lulls delusional belief that “nothing will happen to me” – until
people into letting their guard down by creating a false crisis smacks us in the face. In the “normal” Indian sce-
sense of security, privacy, bonhomie, and anonymity. nario, such situations are usually dealt with in two ways.
Else, how many girls would dare make raunchy com- Companies ban such sites at the workplace. Or compa-
ments online if their mothers were sitting alongside? Yet
nies go online and become part of the social media con-
the same girls (or boys) may not think twice about post-
versation to ‘control’ or ‘moderate’ the flow.
ing naughty comments or pictures of themselves if they
were all alone at home. Likewise, how many employees Banning such sites at work is common among IT, BPO,
would criticize their companies online if their bosses and PSU companies. While this solves some problems
were standing near them? But left alone, the employees and sweeps others under the carpet, it does not actually
take refuge in their supposed ‘anonymity’ and delude address the issue. In some employees, it could increase
themselves that views expressed online will not reach the frustration and cause more vitriolic outpourings
their companies. A false sense of security, anonymity, when the employee later accesses such sites (e.g., at
and bravado makes people shoot their mouths off in pri- home).
vate. Much like bullets that have whizzed out of their
muzzle and cannot be recalled, words On the other hand, creative sectors
posted online can never be muzzled. such as Advertising, PR, and the Me-
Whatever employers may
dia may allow employees to access
‘Controlling’ Online Conversations say, employees are part of
Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, etc. This
What is truly scary is that stable com- multiple social networks. is partly because creative sectors view
panies with decades of credibility can Part of their conversation social networking as an additional
suddenly be rocked by a disgruntled source for garnering information and
employee who may choose to hit be-
revolves around work lives are willing to accept some trade-off
low the belt or speak without think- and the companies that with employees wasting time online
ing. How can companies hope to employ them. Often, on personal chats. These companies
tackle a scenario when they do not believe in managing the risk created
conversations may not be
know when, how, and where a crisis by access to such sites and seek to lev-
may materialize out of thin air? complimentary, erage them as another useful tool by
particularly if social being part of the conversation, since
The one-word answer is prevention.
this is the best way to moderate it,
The best way to handle a social me- networks are forbidden in
control it, and present the company’s
dia crisis is to prevent it! For this, pre- the office. viewpoint.
ventive mechanisms should be

Preventive Mechanisms have a specific link for such com-
There is a saying, “If you can’t beat
If a company fails to plaints. In all three mediums, total
them, join them!” Whatever employ- prevent a disgruntled anonymity is assured and only the
ers may say, employees are part of management or Grievance Cell would
employee from speaking know the complainant’s identity, not
multiple social networks. Part of their
out online, a mundane the employees.
conversation revolves around work
lives and the companies that employ issue may escalate out of
For grievances, the victim may sim-
them. Often, conversations may not be proportion on social ply contact the Grievance Cell and
complimentary, particularly if social report about the senior harassing him,
media forums. This is
networks are forbidden in the office. mentioning precise details of the inci-
In other words, bans exacerbate the because social media lulls
dents with circumstantial evidence or
problem. Moreover, employees may people into lowering their corroborative support. Mandatory
not criticize the company in office but guard and speaking out evidence would deter false com-
at home. Workplace bans therefore get plaints. Such a grievance-cum-redre-
nowhere. It is imperative to have a
without calibrating the
ssal mechanism will make sure that
Social Media Policy in place so that consequences of their certain employees are not frustrated
the employees know what is permis- outburst. and therefore not tempted to lash out
sible to speak about and what is not. via social media. Upon verification,
Irrespective of whether they bar or embrace social me- after the perpetrator is reprimanded and punished, the
dia, companies still need to focus on prevention. ‘Griev-victim will think highly of the company.
ance vents’ or preventive mechanisms therefore need to If a company fails to prevent a disgruntled employee
be in place allowing employees to voice grievances from speaking out online, a mundane issue may esca-
within the company itself in a way that safeguards the late out of proportion on social media forums. This is
employees’ interests and prevents a backlash or retri- because social media lulls people into lowering their
bution of any kind. To elaborate: a conscientious em- guard and speaking out without calibrating the conse-
ployee could be undergoing harassment from a senior quences of their outburst.
manager. Since the oppressor has the power to harm his
interests, the victim may be reluctant The Infosys Imbroglio
to complain. Under the circumstances,
Infosys is a classic case of a company
he could end up venting his spleen on Despite all the best
social networks, thereby defaming the once viewed as a ‘Best Employer’
company.
practices on social media, thereafter having to deal with dis-
a nasty crisis may still gruntled employees questioning the
A common occurrence in almost every criteria used for voting Infosys the
company, this could however trigger
break out. If so, a series of best. Infosys’ problems apparently
the next unforeseen social media cri- steps would be required to began after the company imple-
sis. How does a company prevent contain it. Measured mented iRace (Infosys Role and Ca-
this? To defuse such situations before reer Enhancement). iRace was
transparency, standby
they explode, companies should have designed to bring Infosys’ talent man-
hotlines with direct access to a Griev- statements, review agement activities in tandem with cli-
ance Cell or the higher management. mechanisms as well as ent priorities, business needs, and
For example, a Hotline Number could employee engagement employee aspirations. The pro-
be created exclusively for such com- gramme had clearly defined roles,
plaints and grievances with 24x7 ac- and education are some competencies and proficiency require-
cess. An email hotline could be ways to tackle such a ments, linking career advancement to
created for those with written com- crisis. performance and business focus.
plaints. Or company websites could iRACE involved detailed analysis of

the feedback from clients and employees as well as in- pany is in control of the situation and has nothing to
puts from industry benchmark studies and internal busi- hide. Employment education makes certain that Social
ness strategy. iRace’s implementation apparently Media Guidelines and the Code of Ethics are reiterated
opened a can of worms. Many employees were demoted and reinforced so that others don’t fall into the same
simply because they did not meet iRace’s experience trap.
standards. Senior project managers then became project
To recap, one must reiterate: prevention is best to tackle
managers and project managers became technical leads,
social media crises. If not, copycat versions of the previ-
while some were even pushed down two levels.
ous crisis are likely to recur. We need to be clear on one
Given the radical implications of iRace, Infosys should fact: whether companies like it or not, social media is
never have made it applicable with retrospective effect. here for keeps. Irrespective of company policies, employ-
Instead, iRace should have been implemented gradu- ees will use it. The only way to tackle this issue is to take
ally, after taking employees into confidence about its im- employees into confidence. Tell them the company views
plications. Although this could have meant short-term every single employee as a 24x7 brand ambassador. Ac-
discontent, it would have nevertheless allowed employ- cordingly, the company would like to train them on how
ees to acclimatise themselves to its nu- to conduct themselves online, keep-
ances. Prior notice would also have let ing their own safety and interests in
employees “guard their flanks” by Whether companies like it mind as well as that of the company.
raising the bar and putting in better Call for suggestions from employees
or not, social media is themselves on framing these guide-
performances and better behaviour
with clients and colleagues, knowing
here for keeps. Irrespective lines. The HR Department could
fully well that these people would of company policies, thereafter frame a Corporate Social
have the power to impact their career employees will use it. The Media Policy and a Code of Ethics,
path and growth prospects. Some de- with the Do’s and Don’ts specifically
only way to tackle this outlined, along with the inputs of
motions that were so demoralising for
Infosys staff could have been pre- issue is to take employees employees. When employees have
vented with an advance notice. into confidence. Tell them themselves been a part of the policy-
making process, they will be more re-
the company views every ceptive about adhering to company
Crisis Guidelines
single employee as a 24x7 guidelines while using social media.
Despite all the best practices on social
brand ambassador. After the crisis, companies should use
media, a nasty crisis may still break
out. If so, a series of steps would be the carrot-and-stick policy to prevent
required to contain it. Measured transparency, standby recurrence of such incidents. While employees are 24x7
statements, review mechanisms as well as employee en- brand ambassadors, they should be cautioned about the
gagement and education are some ways to tackle such a dangers of saying too much, since words posted online
crisis. Measured transparency would mean providing are usually never retrievable. The consequences of wash-
information as required as per the needs of the moment, ing dirty linen in public can range from the unpleasant
rather than being overly defensive and disclosing more to the unfortunate. Employees must be forewarned that
than required. Standby statements could come in handy this could adversely impact their CR (confidential re-
for quick dissemination, if required, rather than a cryp- port), appraisal, and salary increments. In some cases,
tic “No comment!” – this expression usually conveys the they could even lose their jobs. That inappropriate com-
impression that there is something to hide and should ments can get the employee and the company bad pub-
be avoided. Speedy reviews help plug loopholes to en- licity and even invite legal trouble should be
sure that the same mistakes are not repeated by other emphatically conveyed.
employees or the company. Employee engagement helps Caution and prevention are therefore the watchwords –
calm the fears of employees and conveys that the com- for employers as well as employees.
NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

108
Human Touch Amidst Technology Revolution
Meena Vaidyanathan
T wo issues are being tackled in this case:
• Treating employees like “assets” and losing human

The intent of the management is no doubt laudable, and
had it been executed with a more human face, it would
have perhaps created a revolution in
interaction in the process of scal-
the way the large multinational com-
ing up
• Building trust through transpar- When an organization is panies manage the career aspirations
of their employees. When an organi-
ency using social media as a vehi- as large and diverse as zation is as large and diverse as
cle. Infosys is, it is mandatory Infosys is, it is mandatory to rely on
In the service industry, employees re- to rely on technology to technology to bridge the spatial gap,
ally are the interface where a “wow” bridge the spatial gap, and and it is impossible and impractical
is created between a customer and a to expect a human interface to resolve
service provider. In a start-up firm,
it is impossible and the human resource issues. But the
where the number of employees is impractical to expect a key is to deploy technology intelli-
small, the involvement between the human interface to resolve gently in a way that the human con-
management and the employees in- nect is enhanced and not replaced.
the human resource
terfacing with the customer is signifi-
In my understanding, in HCL Tech-
cant. And this human interaction and issues. But the key is to
nologies, a software company with a
the paucity of resources result in the deploy technology similar profile of employees and port-
employees feeling a sense of empow-
intelligently in a way that folio of products and services, and al-
erment, especially when it comes to most as big in size, the use of
decision making. With empowerment the human connect is
technology to aid human interaction
comes a spirit of ownership and that enhanced and not is much better.16 The HCL CEO’s re-
naturally leads to innovation. When replaced. cently released book, Employees First
an organization begins to scale up and Customer Second, is perhaps worth a
processes begin to be applied to man-
read in this context.
age scale, there is a significant danger of this level of
empowerment to decrease. It is inevitable to a certain The second issue that this case deals with relates to the
extent, but smart companies that un- level of trust that is created within
derstand the value of this resource are employees through a culture of trans-
able to plan their processes in a way What was considered parency. Infosys has had a remarkable
that there is a certain level of inde- “private” in the past is no track record in being transparent as
pendence and decision making au-
longer so. And the flow of an organization and for having estab-
thority that is given to the employee lished best practices in governance at
to continue that culture of innovation. information between a time when these terminologies were
When the processes take over human people is also no longer not fashionable. It was also an early
interaction, usually, employees be- two-way. With this multi- trend-setter, at least among the Indian
come “assets,” to be deployed on corporate diaspora, to effectively use
projects as commodities. In the exam-
level, multi-channel social media as an effective provider
ple that has been described in the case, communication, there is of information, both within the or-
that is the ailment with which the an entirely new meaning ganization as well as outside of it.
good intent of providing employees
with a career planner like iRace suf-
that the issue of
16 http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/
fers. “transparency” takes. management/2007-12-16-workplace-

democracy_N.htm

Today’s generation of employees has concept of “Inverting the Pyramid,”
a different mindset when it comes to We are still in the nascent the communication hierarchy has ac-
a job. It is no longer sacrosanct, and it stages of this technology tually been turned upside down by
is no longer for keeps. A young man- the advent of invasive social media
revolution, and just like
ager will stay in a role as long as it platforms.
satisfies his or her professional aspi- democracies, management
For organizations, this could be a dou-
rations. The “Facebook” generation of these platforms will take
ble-edged sword. On the one hand, it
also has an entire new avenue to share on a certain level of provides them real insight on the em-
their joys and sorrows, both personal
maturity and self ployee pulse, while on the other, it
and professional, through social net-
regulation. Till such time, proves to be a real threat to let even
works on the web. In the past year, I
small issues assume monstrous pro-
read a very interesting book, Throw- issues like what Infosys portions if appropriate checks are not
ing Sheep in the Boardroom, that throws has been facing with, as taken on time.
up very interesting insights on how
the social media has begun to govern
described in the case, will I believe we are still in the nascent
our everyday business.17 continue to surface, and stages of this technology revolution,
organizations will have to and just like democracies, manage-
What was considered “private” in the ment of these platforms will take on a
deal with this.
past is no longer so. And the flow of certain level of maturity and self regu-
information between people is also no lation. Till such time, issues like what
longer two-way. With this multi-level, multi-channel Infosys has been facing with, as described in the case,
communication, there is an entirely new meaning that will continue to surface, and organizations will have to
the issue of “transparency” takes. There is a consider- deal with this. It is an era of uber-transparency and ul-
able amount of pressure on the part of organizations to tra-governance....and the sooner the organizations be-
maintain significantly higher levels of information avail- gin to reconcile with the situation the sooner the system
able to people. Referring to the late Dr. C K Prahalad’s will attain maturity.
Leveraging Social Media to Reap Employee Satisfaction

Shalini Sarin
T he Infosys case revolves around the paramount Social Media as an Escalation Medium:
theme of managing change in complex work coor- A Boon or A Bane?
dinates and engaging the key Internal portals and blogs are avenues
stakeholders to create a buy-in for Rather than brewing up of of communication, but they often suf-
change. Infosys implemented iRace
sensitive issues un-noticed fer from lack of operational efficacy.
which was not taken well by many
employees and experienced resist-
and surfacing when about With large volumes of multidirec-
tional flow of communication, it be-
ance. As a consequence employees re- to boil, social media comes excruciatingly difficult to keep
sorted to unfriendly modes of provides a release valve. track of conversations and their effect.
communication to vent out their con-
An early warning system, If the management’s response to em-
cerns. ployees’ grievances is slow, employ-
if deftly handled, can
ees voice grievances on public forums
bring about organizational and may adopt shooting the messenger
17 http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/matthew-
fraser/throwing-sheep-in-the-boardroom/_/R- alertness to act. approach and sometimes (though rare
400000000000000205823

now) an indifferent approach. A pub- Performance Networking
lic/open forum serves as a conduit Before introducing social The company, together with its
that carries information loaded with media in any organization, stakeholders, should be able to take
opinions, affirmative and contrarian up internal issues that affect its per-
views, perceptions and misplaced
it is recommended to do a
formance and impact a large section
perceptions. It is not a well-regulated dipstick test of readiness of
of the stakeholders. In fact these
six lane highway on which traffic people to accept it. A should be the core benefits derived
moves in order. Collisions often take from the social networking platforms.
young and vibrant
place here and when it is in public To achieve this, the platform has to be
view, it can be frustrating, embarrass- organization is more likely
well-structured to make sure that it is
ing, or devastating, and rarely harm- to accept and use social large enough to avoid restriction of
less. The company ends up dealing media than an older well- participation and yet is manageable.
with unique escalations that some- If enhanced performance is the objec-
times turn into a mass movement. established one.
tive, a collective push can take it to-
What is critical for one employee wards a conclusive outcome. How-
could be insignificant for the other. Rather than brew- ever, a fine balance between emotion and objectivity has
ing up of sensitive issues un-noticed and surfacing when to be maintained. Facebook and Twitter can serve the
about to boil, social media provides a release valve. An emotional need of social networking well enough. It is
early warning system, if deftly handled, can bring about the objective need of clear communication of policies
organizational alertness to act. There could be positive and addressing grievances that must also surface
and negative comments but venting is most important. through performance networking.
HR and the management cannot absolve themselves
from facing venting. It is therefore advisable to invest Listen, Listen and Listen…
time and energy on social networking platforms within Feedback comes from a concerned mind, which seeks
companies. improvement and hence raises voice. Not listening to
feedback is probably the worst response to one who
Given the complexity of social media and diversity of
makes the effort to provide it. There is an obvious need
information that spreads through blogs, a cross-func-
to separate grain from the chaff. Not all being said is
tional team can play a vital role in sifting through it.
worth acting upon. Not all that is acted upon will de-
This can help the management come to a conclusion on
liver the expected outcome. Value lies
action to be taken by selecting what
in an enabling environment. Compa-
information to retain and what to dis-
Voicing concern in a nies have to demonstrate transpar-
card.
ency of intent and action. Even when
public forum is not a
The success of social media, as a chan- the action is harsh, if it is well-rea-
nel of communication, also depends
reaction but an end result. soned and honestly and openly com-
on factors such as maturity level of the It is the highest level of municated, it will be accepted by all –
organization and workforce escalation and can never barring a few who would differ. Clos-
demographics (Gen Y or Gen Z). Be- ing the loop between what you say
be the first and preferred you would do, what you actually do,
fore introducing social media in any
organization, it is recommended to do choice of the employee. and what you promise to do will go
a dipstick test of readiness of people Every escalation in the forward and lay the foundation of mu-
to accept it. A young and vibrant or- tual trust. Not often do we reach the
open forum reflects the goal; sometimes we do not even make
ganization is more likely to accept and
use social media than an older well- malfunctioning of the it half way through; but if the fact that
established one. The cultural fabric of concerned employee’s the wheels are moving and covering
the organization is the key to such ac- distance, is well demonstrated, it
supervisor. would pacify the loudest dissent.
ceptance.

When employees need to share their robust, taking in different points
story and feel that they have been a Blogs promote anonymity of view, getting a better buy-in,
victim of unfair practices, they would and act as a channel to and supporting cascading. There
resort to expressing themselves is an intrinsic sense of responsibil-
through this medium.
voice employee opinions ity that line managers feel towards
targeting the top its success.
Voicing concern in a public forum is
management which, • While Infosys management com-
not a reaction but an end result. It is
municated the what and the how,
the highest level of escalation and can otherwise (depending on
they missed out on why — the
never be the first and preferred choice company culture) is not most important of them all- under-
of the employee. Every escalation in
very reachable. There is a lying the benefits of change and
the open forum reflects the malfunc-
distinction between answering the most important
tioning of the concerned employee’s
question, “What’s In It For Me?”
supervisor. Further, Blogs promote transparency and chaotic It is likely that many employees
anonymity and act as a channel to
open communication. have still not understood the need
voice employee opinions targeting the
Infosys probably yielded for change and the consequential
top management which, otherwise
benefits to them or the organiza-
(depending on company culture) is to the latter. tion. Line managers should have
not very reachable. There is a distinc-
been taken into confidence and in
tion between transparency and cha-
fact be engaged in the front end to
otic open communication. Infosys
While Infosys support the communication.
probably yielded to the latter.
• I perceive that the HR department
management was defensive rather than listen-
Analysis
communicated the what ing to the employees. Through the
The following points capture the statements such as “line managers
and the how, they missed
learnings from the case: should have communicated bet-
out on why — the most ter,” it shifted the blame to them
• Before implementation, it is pru-
dent to carry out impact analysis
important of them all — instead of owning a part of it.
and distinguish the outliers. Pro- underlying the benefits of • Once an organization has tasted
gressive policies have a different change and answering the the blood of venting, you cannot
strategy for implementation while pull it away.
most important question, • Honesty is the key in communica-
regressive policies must generate
a creeping effect and not bulldoze “What’s In It For Me?” tion. The HR Manager denied that
their way in. It would be a blun- there was a problem and attri-
der to make such a policy retro-effective. tion was a concern. It is OK to let
• Involving line managers/cross-functional teams in people go, but there is a crying need to be trans-
policy formation helps in making the policies more parent while doing so.
CONCLUSION
Gita Bajaj
C
‘ hetan Bhagat Blocks’ and ‘Internal Communica-
tion Online: Boon or Bane?’ are two cases that
present the challenges of managing dialogues on ‘Twit-
communication channels.
The case, ‘Chetan Blocks’ captured the emergence of a

ter’ and ‘Intranet Chats,’ two of the more popular online celebrity’s conflict dialogue with other celebrities on

Twitter and its impact on the audience brought and the freedom it offers to
which, in all likelihood, is the cus- Controversies usually shed the labels and play as we talk.
tomer of the celebrity author’s books. appear to have a short life He further rejoices the freedom to be
The second case, ‘Internal Communi- less conscious of the mannerism as we
cation Online: Boon or Bane?’ captures
span but anything which participate to evolve the mannerism
a company’s struggle to tame the dia- is documented forever can for this medium. Gaurav appears to
logue on its intranet, which in turn be pulled out again, when agree when he writes that it was per-
was a reflection of employee senti-
the next related controversy fectly alright for a celebrity, in this
ments as they were then. Thus, one case Chetan Bhagat, to not respond to
case delved on an individual’s partici- hits. In that sense, the life any of the fans, much against the so-
pation whereas the other on a com- span is longer than it is cial mannerism that one would expect
pany’s participation; one case delved perceived by most. otherwise.
on external stakeholder and the other
Aman delves on the other side of the
on internal stakeholder; one case is a
coin and purports that the power of physical presence
result of participation goof-up by the celebrity whereas
is missing in case of online communication and that al-
the other is an effort to manage employees’ participa-
tion. Thus the two cases were thoughtfully selected to lows people to be curt to the extent of being callous and
bring up a variety of issues and thoughts. discourteous. He warns against a false sense of anonym-
ity, security, and bravado that is experienced by most
As anticipated, the discussions have brought forward on this medium. He thus attributes this freedom to the
many aspects of the challenges and possible solutions. falsely felt attributes and warns against disregard for
The discussions have also confirmed that ill-prepared courtesies.
participation can later lead to many anxieties and thus
the need to delve on the subject. Participation on Twitter
Real and planted controversies: The practitioners/ex-
Nature of Twitter as a Medium of Communication perts purport that the pattern of participation in differ-
Conflicting perception: Twitter as a medium of commu- ent countries appear to be the same. Gaurav Mishra
nication has been witnessing an explosive growth. points to the ten conversations that mostly populate the
Gaurav Mishra has highlighted that the reach of the me- Twitter space. These conversations may be natural or
dium is more than many channels of traditional mass planted; the ones planted are to breed controversy to
communication and is not limited to the direct audience. provide a boost to a product, project or brand. Some-
In fact, Twitter, he says, is serving as a feeder to journal- times, the controversies boomerang like in the case of
ists who may pick up an issue and blow it up depending Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor. Not always do the con-
on the cause and context. In that sense, the medium of- troversies lead to reputation damage. Gaurav Mishra
fers higher mileage than any of the believes that even though Chetan
other medium and thus serves as a Bhagat’s controversy led to a Tweet
mass communication channel. How- As in case of Twitter, the surge or Tweet flash mob, it did not
ever, it is still not seen to be a compet- company cannot be high- actually affect his fan following or his
ing mass communication channel by
handed in its approach and sales and is at best worth academic
the traditional mass communication studies like this one. In that sense, he
media. It is still perceived as a direct the employee will have to believes that Twitter controversies are
source of information. Many conflicts adopt an ‘adult personality’ short-lived though he agrees that
may perhaps be emerging due to the participation to make the Chetan’s dialogue got documented
conflict in perception of the role of the forever as a reminder of the embar-
medium.
medium benefit both – the rassingly feeble celeb-fan relationship.
Equanimity and freedom of expres- employees and the One point that Gaurav seems to have
sion: Tushaar Makkar celebrates the company. missed here is that controversies usu-
equanimity that the medium has ally appear to have a short life span

but anything which is documented on Chats and freedom offered in a
forever can be pulled out again, when Owing to the equanimity, democratic environment and insists
the next related controversy hits. In power distance on Twitter is that both require some level of matu-
that sense, the life span is longer than rity and self regulation to make them
it is perceived by most.
less and the world is more successful. She adds that in India we
flat. Celebrities thus cannot are still in the nascent stage of adopt-
Flat world realities: Owing to the
be high-handed and will ing the new media and hence the ma-
equanimity, power distance on Twit- turity in participation is still to come.
ter is less and the world is more flat. have to learn to treat fans
Celebrities thus cannot be high- as equals. This can be a Need for emotion and objectivity:
handed and will have to learn to treat Meena draws attention to the concept
difficult proposition for
fans as equals. This can be a difficult of ‘Employee first, customer second’
proposition for many celebrities. Un- many celebrities. Unless and writes that companies that adopt
less they accept the new paradigm, they accept the new this mindset would be better
they can be victims of Twitter flash paradigm, they can be equipped to manage company
mobs, which many a time may turn intranet chats. In case of Infosys, she
self-righteous.
victims of Twitter flash sees a mechanistic approach towards
mobs, which many a time employees and attributes the negative
Brand positioning tool: Tushaar has
may turn self-righteous. sentiment to lack of emotional connect
presented the argument of business
with employees. Shalini Sarin also
and individuals employing the chan-
draws attention to this problem. How-
nel as a brand positioning tool, which in turn requires ever, she believes that the greater need is to instill objec-
the brands to present themselves in a specific way, be it tivity into the participation as the Facebook and Twitter
real or portrayed. Once projected, the brand personal- generation freely expresses emotions on the new me-
ity has to be protected and this leads to the evolution of dia. Thus, as in case of Twitter, the company cannot be
personal brand positioning. high-handed in its approach and the employee will have
Personality and ego conflict: Tushaar has insisted that to adopt an ‘adult personality’ participation to make the
personality shines through the medium and has viewed medium benefit both – the employees and the company.
the ‘Chetan Blocks’ case through the lens of transactional
Ensuring ‘adult like’ participation: Shalini compares
analysis. He purports that ego and need to protect brandonline participation to unregulated traffic lanes where
positioning had fueled the argument. Absence of adult collisions often happen in mass presence , leading to the
behaviour or a parent-child complementary dialogue led
embarrassment of the victims. Aman recommends cau-
to conflict escalation.
tion and prevention and insists that companies must
Tushaar has also given some simple rules for participa- have social media guidelines and Code of Ethics to en-
tion. He disagrees with Gaurav and advises participants sure a seasoned participation on the medium. He be-
and celebs to respond but with a cap of three, for con- lieves that the medium provides great opportunity and
versations not leading anywhere. if used with prudence, which a com-
However, both Tushaar and Gaurav pany may have to inculcate, it can pre-
profess that the response should be vent the possible crisis. Shalini cautions
Ease of access, viral
consistent with the profile of the ce- that despite knowing the reality, cor-
spread, and group identity porate mandates cannot control it en-
lebrity on Twitter.
cover come into play as tirely as that can be claustrophobic.
Company Intranet Chats: Nature more and more people To respond or not to respond: Accord-
and Participation
join the dialogue, many ing to Shalini, the large numbers make
Nascent system, mature response: operational efficiency extremely diffi-
times taking it beyond
Meena Vaidyanathan draws a par- cult. However, unlike on Twitter, the
allel between the freedom provided controllable limits. responses here are more reasoned and

provide insights into the minds of come into play as more and more peo-
stakeholders that really matter in the Infosys is known for its ple join the dialogue, many times tak-
running of the company. Thus, unlike transparency and it has ing it beyond controllable limits.
on Twitter, the internal communica-
tion platforms must have sound feed-
already geared itself to Whereas the negative sentiment spi-
employ a platform that ral may have escalated in Infosys,
back mechanisms in place as the
what is also important to note is the
employees expect a response. furthers transparency and
extensive effort that the management
With considered early warning sys- accountability. put in to respond. It may have become
tems in place, cross-functional re- defensive at times, as per Shalini’s
sponse teams, well-reasoned and, openly and honestly analysis, but it did attempt to respond on a medium that
presented arguments, suited to the cultural fabric and requires a new kind of expertise and a massive effort.
generational readiness, can help build better employee Infosys is known for its transparency and it has already
satisfaction systems. geared itself to employ a platform that furthers trans-
parency and accountability. True, it could have done it
Infosys was implementing a large change management
at a lesser cost had it learnt the art of managing the me-
programme that was affecting about 115,000 employ-
dium much before the crisis struck or the company un-
ees; it was therefore bound to face some grievances. Not
dertook a radical change initiative; all
everyone can be happy though a com-
the same it has gone ahead and learnt
pany would have to explain the ra-
tionale behind such action. It is
The online medium is here the way forward.
possible that Infosys adopted some to stay; companies may New media: a phase or forever: The
ways of communicating the vision choose to embrace it in discussion indicates that the online
and rationale to the employees and
good times or they will be medium is here to stay; companies
might have instituted ways of receiv- may choose to embrace it in good
ing grievances but the point we are pulled to the medium in times or they will be pulled to the me-
making here is that despite all efforts, difficult times. dium in difficult times. The critical
many employees expressed their learning is that those companies
grievances online in an open forum. which will understand the medium
through others’ experiences and make inroads with
While the medium provides misplaced anonymity, se-
preparation will reap benefits by employing this game
curity and bravado, as shared by Aman, more peers tend
changing medium whereas others may be compelled to
to express themselves which in turn escalates the issue.
learn under duress.
Ease of access, viral spread and group identity cover
Acknowledgment. The coordinator wishes to acknowledge the research assistance offered by Ms Meeta Mishra and Ms Pooja
Khera in putting together this Colloquium.
Gaurav Mishra helps global brands benefit from social Tushar Makkar is the Head of Business Value Communica-
squared, the intersection of social as in connecting people and tions at Microsoft India. He is responsible for public relations,
social as in benefiting the society. He has studied at IIM Ban- analyst relations, and digital communications across all
galore, held senior marketing roles at the Tata Group, taught Microsoft brands and business-to-business market segments
social media at Georgetown University as the 2008-09 Yahoo! in India. Before joining Microsoft, Tushar was the Regional
Fellow, launched crowd-sourced election monitoring platform Corporate Communications Manager at IBM. He has per-
Vote Report India (www.votereport.in) and co-founded so- formed various roles in the communications function for IBM
cial media agency 2020 Social (www.2020social.com). More India and South Asia region, ASEAN, and South Asia roles at
about Gaurav at the Gauravonomics Blog for Marketers, En- IBM. His experience spans the field of corporate communica-
trepreneurs and Activists (www.gauravonomics.com). tions, marketing communications, advertising, and brand
management. He has also worked for Computer Sciences Cor-
e-mail: gauravonomics@gmail.com
poration and Ogilvy & Mather. He is an MBA and is currently

pursuing his Ph.D in communications. Shalini Sarin is the Director, Human Resources, at Schneider
Electric India Pvt. Ltd. Prior to joining Schneider, she was Head
e-mail: tmakkar@yahoo.com
HR at Cairn India. She is a Doctorate in Organization
Behaviour, and has a double Masters in Sociology and HRM.
Aman Gupta is the CEO of Imprimis PR. He has more than
She began her career as a teacher and then moved on as a re-
ten years of experience in strategic communications and me-
tainer and consultant for Hughes and PriceWaterhouse Coo-
dia across various sectors of technology, healthcare, commod-
pers. She later joined Godfrey Phillips India as GM-OD &
ity, agriculture, education, and entertainment. His professional
Training. In her career spanning over 20 years, she has made a
experience includes communications around product position-
significant contribution in HR Transformation, Organization
ing and market development; national media campaigns, and
Development and has successfully positioned HR as a true
media training. He has conducted training for over 200 spokes-
Business Partner. She is a certified Psychometrician from Brit-
persons and provides communications consultancy to top glo-
ish Psychology Society and a certified trainer and an Execu-
bal players such as Pfizer India; Johnson & Johnson; Nicholas
tive Coach from Motorola University-Chicago. She is a
Piramal India Ltd; Apollo Hospitals Group; Almond Board of
Certified Six Sigma black belt and accredited in ‘Personal
California; Monsanto Imagine, ProAgro, Crop Life, Bill &
Counseling’ too. She also has an Advanced Human Resource
Melinda Gates Foundation; Novartis and IAVI to name a few.
Certification from Ross School of Business, University of Michi-
e-mail: agupta@imprimispr.com gan, Ann Arbor.
e-mail: Shalini.Sarin@in.schneider-electric.com
Meena Vaidyanathan is the Director for Development at the
Dialogue Social Enterprise. She is a consultant on business de-
Gita Bajaj is Associate Professor and the Chairperson of Cor-
velopment and strategy, with over 17 years of experience in
porate Communications at the Management Development In-
marketing, communications, and business development. She
stitute (MDI), Gurgaon. She has a mix of industry and academia
has worked with organizations like Monsanto, Honeywell, and
experience of 19 years. As a researcher, she focuses more on
HCL Technologies, before she turned a full-time social entre-
qualitative research and devotes her time to documenting both
preneur. She is presently working with Dialogue Social Enter-
best practice cases and teaching cases. Her recent Case on
prise as a Director for Development creating a global
‘Pepsi-Basix Partnership: Promoting Livelihoods through Con-
programme to build awareness on the importance of trust, em-
tract Farming of Potato in Jharkhand India’ written jointly with
pathy, and respecting human diversity while empowering peo-
a colleague was awarded the All India Best Case of 2010 by
ple with disabilities. She is a Biotechnologist by training and
ISB-Ivey Case Cell. She also teaches Case Writing to Doctoral
holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management with
students at MDI. Her areas of research interest include Crisis
a specialization in Marketing, and a certification on Social En-
Communication in the age of digital media and Communica-
trepreneurship (ISEP) from INSEAD. She teaches occasionally
tions for Social Inclusion. She is a Ph.D. in Communications
in business schools on effective business communication, brand
from AMU and a Harvard Business School Affiliate.
management and crisis communication.
e-mail: gbajaj@mdi.ac.in
e-mail: meena.vaidyanathan@gmail.com

New Media Challeges - Colloquim Vikalpa

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New Media Challeges - Colloquim Vikalpa

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COLLOQUIUM

New Media Experiences:

A host of practitioners and academicians are

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92 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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94 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

Case 1: Chetan Bhagat Blocks

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96 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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Tracking Twitter Celebrity Trends

I have observed three drivers of Twitter’s growth in

India is no different, and events like

98 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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New Age Media, Age Old Rules!

T he emergence of social media or ‘peer-to-peer’ me-

100 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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Case 2: Internal Online Communications: Boon or Bane?

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104 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

RESPONSES TO THE INFOSYS CASE

Lurking Dangers of Social Media Networks

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In many ways, the online world is the and bonding should be

106 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

T wo issues are being tackled in this case:

• Treating employees like “assets” and losing human

fers. “transparency” takes. management/2007-12-16-workplace-

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Leveraging Social Media to Reap Employee Satisfaction

110 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2010 111

The case, ‘Chetan Blocks’ captured the emergence of a

112 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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114 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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116 NEW MEDIA EXPERIENCES: DEALING WITH THE GAME CHANGER

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