Federal Government Ethics: Social Media

Abstract

The federal government has not escaped the increasing worldwide useof social networking. Federal employees are using social networks (socialmedia) for personal and professional reasons and leadership and management arewrestling with the ethical implications. The role of ethical theory and practice in the global businessenvironment is discoursed from the federal government’s vantage point withrespect to social networking.  Given thehistory of federal government officials and employees acting in an unethicalmanner, multiple normative ethical theories are investigated.  The leadership is examined with a utilitarianlens and non-management employees are studied from the Kantianperspective.  Additionally, virtue ethicsare discussed as a counter argument to the aforementioned theories.  Cultural intelligence is discussed as havingreciprocal relationship with the multicultural and global aspect of socialnetworking.  It is argued that ethicalintelligence needs to be created to support the minimum requirement of a codeof ethics for federal employees to follow when using social networking.