Social Networking, Management Responsibilities, and Employee Rights: The Evolving Role of Social Networking in Employment Decisions

Abstract

In the past decade, social networking sites (SNSs) have transformed the way people socialize. They allow individuals to connect globally and instantaneously. These connections, however, generate user profiles that provide an abundance of personal and behavioral information that can be used as a management tool in the selection process and as a way to monitor potentially detrimental employee activities. Employers can, with relative ease and low cost, access information that would not have been otherwise available. Because employees use and view SNSs in markedly different ways than employers view and use them, these conflicting perspectives and different interests pose serious issues as SNSs continue to grow. Regulations typically lag technology, and research regarding SNSs is limited. Thus, while there is clear potential for using SNSs as human resource tools, there are few legal guidelines controlling their use, little knowledge of their effectiveness, considerable disagreement over privacy and ethical issues, and some potential for abuse. Consequently, proponents and opponents continue to debate the legal, ethical, and practical issues of using SNSs in both staffing and employee monitoring processes. This paper examines these issues and provides guidelines on how managers should use SNSs in managerial decision making.

Social Media Screening and Procedural Justice: Towards Fairer Use of Social Media in Selection

“…Literature suggests the use of social media enables the employer to efficiently and conveniently review readily available information at low costs, which allows for a wide range of organizations to take advantage of this practice, including small businesses (Brown and Vaughn 2011;Chauhan et al 2013;Jeske and Shultz 2019). Another major reason for using social media in the selection process is that social media profiles potentially contain more revealing information on a candidate than traditional application documents: Firstly, because users are believed to be more honest on social networks than in the résumé, and secondly, because social media websites often include information posted by others, which goes beyond the information provided and controlled by the applicant him-or herself (Slovensky and Ross 2012;Thomas et al 2015). Through this allegedly more authentic representation on social media, the screening process may then present HR professionals with the opportunity of drawing conclusions about the applicant's character and personality, which cannot easily be done by traditional means (Kluemper and Rosen 2009;Brown and Vaughn 2011;Chauhan et al 2013).…”

“…Despite its great potential of improving hiring decisions, the use of social media in selection raises several legal and ethical concerns (Thomas et al 2015). In this context, opponents of social media screening are particularly concerned with potential privacy and discrimination issues Black et al 2015;Thomas et al 2015;Lam 2016). Research suggests that social media screening causes strong moral reactions in job candidates due to potential invasions of privacy (Black et al 2015).…”

“…The absence of social media information on an applicant may also be a source of discrimination, because not all individuals are similarly or frequently active online (Thomas et al 2015;Jeske and Shultz 2016). Applicants who maintain a social media profile may be perceived more positively than those without a social media profile Slovensky and Ross 2012;Alexander et al 2019).…”

“…Since the pieces of information obtained from social media may be perceived differently across raters (Davis 2007), it is necessary to use multiple raters (Davison et al 2012(Davison et al , 2016Kluemper et al 2012). However, the task of online background checks should only be done by a limited pool of authorized individuals (Thomas et al 2015;Lam 2016). According to Davison et al (2016), it should be the task of the HR department to do social media checks, as HR professionals are more familiar with issues of validity, adverse impact, and disparate treatment than practicing managers, who may also be too tempted to examine non-job-related factors.…”

“…Social media profiles appear to contain more revealing information on candidates than traditional recruiting methods because users are believed to be more honest on social networks than in the résumé. Furthermore, these profiles often include information posted by others, which goes beyond the information provided and controlled by the applicants themselves (Slovensky and Ross 2012;Thomas et al 2015). This way, the use of social media sites in recruiting decisions may prevent irresponsible employee behaviour and help the company avoid negligent hiring lawsuits, which may occur if an applicant is hired who causes harm to others and if the hiring company does not use information from background checks (Woska 2007;Elzweig and Peeples 2009;Davison et al 2012;Bentley 2013;Kluemper 2013;Lam 2016).…”