SPP Research Seminar Series: "Public Employment, Accountability and the Perils of Going Viral"

Abstract: With the rise of social media and cell phone camera footage, public and private sector workers have expressed a fear of being canceled, a term often used to convey a desire for accountability, which usually results in the loss of employment for the offending party. Being canceled is often closely related to activities posted, captured or shared on social media. While being canceled is frequently related to discriminatory language or actions, the rules on which offenses are cancellable are, at best, unclear. Put another way, there is a need to detail which actions should result in the loss of public employment and which actions should result in less punitive actions. In this paper, we define what it means to be canceled, provide a few high-profile examples of the practice, and offer a framework based on Romzek & Dubnick’s (1987) work on accountability to explore how organizations can implement a deliberation process to adjudicate discriminatory actions.