ABSTRACT
Employees interact with external publics on a daily basis, representing or misrepresenting organizational strategic interests depending on the quality of their relationships with their organizations (Kim, 2011). The easy access to, and the availability of, online media today (e.g., privately owned websites) represent both opportunities and threats for organizations, as employees now have greater platforms to either praise their organization or to air their grievances. As lines between people’s personal lives and work lives blur (Treadaway & Smith, 2010), the risk of employees disclosing confidential information via social media is an uncomfortable reality for organizations, as is the potential for employees to vent against their organizations through defamatory comments on social media (Bach & Kim, 2011). The threat that these potential communicative behaviors represent for organizations is magnified because their strategic publics and stakeholders are increasingly turning to cyberspace for their information foraging efforts. The opportunities presented by cyberspace take the form of employees’ voluntarily foraging cyberspace for information relevant for their organization’s interests and goals, and communicating such information to the organization.
