????近幾周來，沃爾瑪的日子可不太好過。

????10月，就在這家全球最大的零售業巨頭慶祝開業50周年時，12個州的沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）員工舉行大規模罷工，抗議東家的不公平待遇。這場黑色星期五罷工可能致使沃爾瑪的營業額損失上百萬美元，更別提對其品牌的進一步損害了。

????沃爾瑪的一位發言人把10月罷工貶稱為“作秀”。與此同時，一家搜羅了大量在崗和離職員工吐槽抱怨的視頻、名為“Walmart at 50”的網站卻引發網友瘋傳。

????對一家企業來說，無論它是擁有成千上萬的雇員，還是只有十幾個人的小團隊，公司內部的怨聲載道都可能愈演愈烈，最終讓公司聲譽受損。對此，公司領導層必須應對有方。公關公司萬博宣偉（Weber Shandwick）對企業領導層所做的一項調研表明，公司市值的63%與聲譽密切相關。另據經濟學人智庫（Economist Intelligence Unit study）近期開展的一項研究，公司聲譽受損帶來的風險幾乎是恐怖主義和自然災害所帶來的風險的三倍。

????布萊恩特大學（Bryant University）的管理學教授邁克爾·羅伯托給出的建議是：“在公司內部建立一個社交媒體平臺是很有價值的，這樣員工就能在這上面溝通交流，發發牢騷。如果沒這個平臺，那些想吐槽的員工就沒有在公司內部發泄的渠道了。”

????羅伯托還建議，擁有一套明確的外部社交媒體政策，也能讓那些對公司高層有怨言的人找到發泄之地。他解釋說：“我們總是認為員工知道哪些行為是不可容忍的，但有時候他們其實并不知道。”他還表示，有些網民習慣把自己所有生活細節都發布在Facebook和Twitter上，這些人可能需要一些指導。

????去年，黑莓手機制造商RIM公司（Research In Motion）的一位高層員工繞過管理層，發布了一封致前聯合首席執行官吉姆·巴爾斯利和麥克·拉扎里迪斯的公開信。這封信并沒有抨擊公司，相反，該員工提出了一個滿懷激情的復興計劃，要使這家公司重獲競爭力。可是，公司高層的反應卻出人意料地不冷不熱，只是再次重申了公司的財務狀況是如何可靠。結果，這種態度讓其他牢騷滿腹的員工發出了更多公開信。

????It's been a tough few weeks for Wal-Mart.

????As the world's largest retailer celebrated its 50th year in business in October, workers in 12 states walked off the job in a wave of protest aimed at unfair employment practices. And the specter of a?Black Friday protest?could cost the retailer millions in lost revenue, not to mention more damage to its brand.

????A Wal-Mart (WMT) spokesperson dismissed the October strike as a "publicity stunt," as a website dubbed?"Walmart at 50,"?which features a slew of video testimonies from current and former disgruntled staff, went viral.

????Whether a business has a workforce that numbers in the millions or just a handful of staffers, it's important for company leaders to have a plan to deal with reputation damage that can stem from rumblings within the ranks. A?Weber Shandwick survey?of business executives revealed that 63% of a company's market value is tied to its reputation. According to a recent Economist Intelligence Unit study, reputation risk is nearly three times greater than the risk of terrorism and natural disaster.

????"There's value in having an internal social media platform where employees can communicate, grumble, and gripe," advises Michael Roberto, a management professor at Bryant University. "When you don't have that, then you leave employees who want to vent about something with no internal option."

????Roberto suggests that having a clear external social media policy and training could also redirect complaints to company leaders. "We often believe employees know what's acceptable and what isn't and sometimes they don't," he explains. Digital natives used to posting every detail of their lives on Facebook and Twitter may need some guidance, he says.

????A high-level employee at BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIMM) bypassed management and published an?open letter?to former co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis last year.?Rather than trash the company, the employee delivered an impassioned prescription for making the mobile phone maker competitive again. The?executives' response?was to restate the strength of the company balance sheet in tepid corporate prose,?which only prompted more open letters from other dissatisfied staffers.