Andy Grover, the co-founder of the Intel Corporation, was wrong to state that an organization's values have to change to achieve success. Changing the values will affect the organization's long-term goals and affect the relationship between personal and institutional values. People who tend to go against institutional values are regarded as misfits of the organization and may face worse punishments. WhatsApp, one of the leading mobile messaging applications, has recently been caught in a bad relationship between personal values and institutional values.
Singh Manish’s article “ WhatsApp Details What Will Happen to Users Who Don’t Agree to Privacy Changes” evaluates WhatsApp’s recent privacy policy changes in details and what it would mean if customers would not embrace the changes. Earlier in the year, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to allow sharing of data with Facebook. Implementing the strategy caused an uproar, including some people leaving the app services permanently (Singh, 2021). The events were fueled by two issues: competition and reputation. WhatsApp has competitors in the market, including Telegram and Signal, which are safer apps for people to turn to after the update on privacy policy by WhatsApp. According to Singh (2021), people were unwilling to share their data with Facebook because of their reputation in handling users' data. Furthermore, they were forcing everyone to accept the terms or be prevented from using their platform. Facebook has several privacy concerns as it was recently fined for illegally harvesting data from its users. These factors led to a decrease in the number of WhatsApp users.
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The WhatsApp team recognized the impact this update had on users and the company and rushed to rectify their strategy. Facebook halted the privacy policy's implementation for another three months to provide more room for consultation and adding more features that will attract more users (Finger, 2021). WhatsApp has also tried to educate people on the importance of their privacy and assuring them that WhatsApp so not spy on their users. Regardless of that, WhatsApp has been sharing its users’ data with Facebook for a while now. The WhatsApp team is using communication as a strategy to make people believe in their privacy policy.
Communication is a crucial aspect to improve the relationship between personal and institutional values. Both internal and external stakeholders need to be on the same level of understanding to buy-in the strategy. The best message to put across is the organizational goals; all stakeholders need to understand why the organization exists. In the case of WhatsApp, it is to provide a secure messaging platform for its customers. Using an appropriate communication strategy is important in aligning all the employees to the organization's goal. Also, active participation by all stakeholders may help convince them to support the idea since everyone will pitch in their views. The tech world is rapidly changing, and it will need people who are competent in balancing individual and institutional values.
References
Finger, L. (2021, January 26). WhatsApp: We Should Discuss What Our Data Is Used For, Not Who Has It. Forbes . https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2021/01/26/whatsapp-we-should-discuss-what-our-data-is-used-for-not-who-has-it/?sh=6ae247a847d4
Singh, M. (2021, February 19). WhatsApp Details What Will Happen to Users Who Don’t Agree to Privacy Changes – TechCrunch. TechCrunch . https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/19/whatsapp-details-what-will-happen-to-users-who-dont-agree-to-privacy-changes/
