Whom do you know? Recruiters’ motives for assessing jobseekers’ online networks

Hedenus, Anna; Backman, Christel; Håkansson, Peter

doi:10.1080/09585192.2019.1579245

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As downsizing spread in the 1980s, employees engaged in a positive self-presentation activity and reframed their value explicitly in their resumes; consequently, employers began to distrust the information that prospective employees shared (Barrick et al, 2009;Berkelaar, 2014). Hedenus et al (2019) found that cybervetting helps employers determine whether the candidate is trustworthy. For example, employers assess a job candidate's online connections to see if there are any mutual connections to assess trustworthiness (Berkelaar & Buzzanell, 2015).…”

Section: Research-article20202020mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data

Gruzd

Jacobson

Dubois

2020

Social Media + Society

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The article examines whether and how the ever-evolving practice of using social media to screen job applicants may undermine people’s trust in the organizations that are engaging in this practice. Using a survey of 429 participants, we assess whether their comfort level with cybervetting can be explained by the factors outlined by Petronio’s communication privacy management theory: culture, gender, motivation, and risk-benefit ratio. We find that respondents from India are significantly more comfortable with social media screening than those living in the United States. We did not find any gender-based differences in individuals’ comfort with social media screening, which suggests that there may be some consistent set of norms, expectations, or “privacy rules” that apply in the context of employment seeking—irrespective of gender. As a theoretical contribution, we apply the communication privacy management theory to analyze information that is publicly available, which offers a unique extension of the theory that focuses on private information. Importantly, the research suggests that privacy boundaries are not only important when it comes to private information, but also with information that is publicly available on social media. The research identifies that just because social media data are public, does not mean people do not have context-specific and data-specific expectations of privacy.

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Section: Research-article20202020mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data

Gruzd

Jacobson

Dubois

2020

Social Media + Society

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“…level of education, certifications, etc.). However, current research attempts to incorporate more multi-dimensional scales and now suggests that education may not be a key to hiring individuals and networks and connections are the most important (Tandon et al, 2018), social capital level within China will have the greatest effect on the hiring decision (Zhang and Lin, 2016), that recruiters use a potential candidate's social capital by measuring their online network's size and composition (Hedenus et al, 2019) and use of guanxi in recruitment practice can overcome the liability of smallness (Ko and Liu, 2017). Our research attempts to support signalling theory through a direct, immediate test of a signal to a reaction by receivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An empirical test of signalling theory

Yaşar

Martin

Kiessling

2020

MRR

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Purpose This study aims to support and extend signalling theory because of information asymmetry. This study also aims to answer the call to further negative signalling and explore immediate reactions to signals, thus alleviating a gap with regard to temporality of signalling. Design/methodology/approach The study used two separate data sources, the S&P 500 and 51,500 pages of the public papers between 1981 and 1999, nearly 20 years of data. Inter-rater reliability, controlled for all macroeconomic announcements identified in the literature, is used, and the data are empirically tested using generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GJR-GARCH) modelling. Findings In accordance with signalling theory and the efficient market hypothesis, the study found that receivers do react to positive signals from a credible insider signaller to obviate information asymmetry. In line with previous research, the study also finds that receivers react much stronger to negative signals. Practical implications Investors, financial managers and top executives responsible for their stock price need to focus on presidential signalling as these directly affect market volatility. In particular, investors and financial managers can predict stock price volatility based upon signals from the president. Originality/value This is the first research study that explores the correlation between presidential signalling and market volatility. This study is important for investors and financial managers.

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“…Additionally, recruiters may also check the networks (friend lists and contact lists) that job seekers have on their social media profiles, in order to assess their social capital and the size of their professional networks. Some recruiters also evaluate how applicants interact with other social network users, as an informal confirmation of their social competencies [33].…”

Section: The Importance Of Visual and Textual Cues For Cybervettingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Checked and Approved? Human Resources Managers’ Uses of Social Media for Cybervetting

Walrave

Ouytsel

Diederen

et al. 2022

JCP

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Human resource (HR) professionals who assess job candidates may engage in cybervetting, the collection and analysis of applicants’ personal information available on social network sites (SNS). This raises important questions about the privacy of job applicants. In this study, interviews were conducted with 24 HR professionals from profit and governmental organizations to examine how information found on SNS is used to screen job applicants. HR managers were found to check for possible mismatches between the online information and the experiences and competences claimed by candidates. Pictures of the job candidates’ spare time activities, drinking behavior, and physical appearance are seen as very informative. Pictures posted by job candidates’ connections are valued as more informative than those posted by the applicants themselves. Governmental organizations’ HR managers differ from profit-sector professionals by the fact that political views may play a role for the former. Finally, some HR professionals do not collect personal information about job candidates through social media, since they aim to respect a clear distinction between private life and work. They do not want to be influenced by information that has no relation with candidates’ qualifications. The study’s implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

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Whom do you know? Recruiters’ motives for assessing jobseekers’ online networks

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data

Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data

An empirical test of signalling theory

Checked and Approved? Human Resources Managers’ Uses of Social Media for Cybervetting

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