For those of you that haven’t checked out The Enthusiastic Employee, I recommend it. It’s a great organizational tool for assessing Human Resources practices in an organization. If you are interested in buying it, check out the link at the bottom of this post. It’s well worth the fifteen or twenty bucks.

The book presents information regarding the attributes of a “partnership organization” that is pertinent to the discussion regarding appropriate Facebook policy. They define a “partnership” organization as an organization that has “bonds that develop among adults working collaboratively toward common, long-term goals and having a genuine concern for each other’s interests and needs.” This is the type of organization that they find corresponds to having “enthusiastic” or highly motivated employees. This organizational model presents information regarding how people are treated, and what is important to people in the workplace. The three main categories that they found most people look for in an organization are camaraderie, equity, and achievement. These are also positively correlated to high organizational morale. I certainly would like to work in a workplace that values these three categories. For me, the author’s premise that these categories would be strong in better organizations rings true, and it’s important to consider these factors when thinking about how your organization uses FB.

The benefits of having employees that are “enthusiastic” or willing to go far beyond what is expected of them are enormous. It is the difference between doing the minimum, the bare bones of what is expected, what is written in the job description, and continuing to seek new, innovative, creative, and powerful ways to be a better business. The core concept or foundation on which I believe any HR Facebook policy should be built is respect. Treating employees like children (which the blanket blocking of Facebook appears on the surface to do) demonstrates that an organization does not truly respect its employees. Blocking Facebook is not a humiliating or unjust approach – but it does demonstrate indifference. Choosing not to spend the time to understand why workers are not doing what they are supposed to, or why they would want to check Facebook during the workday, demonstrates what the authors of EE called “a sin of omission – what management does not do” to make the workplace better. I believe that organizations would be much wiser to provide written guidance, training, and coaching regarding communications inside and out of the organization, including FB.

The authors of EE most clearly capture this fundamental lack of respect that preventing people from accessing Facebook in the following statement: “The view that people at work can’t be trusted to carry out their jobs without supervision is one of the hallmarks of bureaucracy.”

So true. Does your org have these hallmarks of bureaucracy? Do you consider yourself an enthusiastic employee? Can you use FB at the workplace?