Job Applicants’ Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening

AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, Dec 2016

For human resource (HR) departments, screening job applicants is an integral role in acquiring talent. Many HR departments have begun to turn to social networks to better understand job candidates’ character. Using social networks as a screening tool might provide insights not readily available from resumes or initial interviews. However, requiring access to an applicants’ social networks and the private activities occurring therein—a practice currently legal in 29 U.S. states (Deschenaux, 2015)—could induce strong moral reactions from the job candidates because of a perceived loss of information privacy. Subsequently, such disclosure requests could induce job candidates to respond in a multitude of ways to protect their privacy. Given that an estimated 2.55 billion individuals will use social media worldwide by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013), the repercussions from requests for access social media environments have potentially far-reaching effects. In this research, we examine how one such disclosure request impacted six information privacy protective responses (IPPRs) (Son & Kim, 2008) based on the job candidates’ perceived moral judgment and the perceived moral intensity of the HR disclosure request. These responses occurred when we asked respondents to provide personal login information during a hypothetical interview. By modeling data derived from a sample of 250 participants in PLS-SEM, we found that the five IPPRs (i.e., refusal, negative word of mouth, complaining to friends, complaining to the company, and complaining to third parties) were all significant responses when one judged the request to be immoral and perceived the moral intensity concept of immediate harm. The amount of variance explained by these five IPPRs ranged from 17.7 percent to 38.7 percent, which indicates a solid initial foundation from which future research can expand on this HR issue. Implications for academia and practice are discussed.

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Job Applicants’ Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening

AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction John R. Drake 0 1 2 3 4 J. Bret Becton 0 1 2 3 4 Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer 0 Drake , J. R., Hall, D., Becton, J., & Posey, C. (2016). Job Applicants' Information Privacy Protection 1 The University of Alabama , USA 2 East Carolina University 3 University of Southern Mississippi , USA 4 Auburn University Follow this and additional works at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci Recommended Citation Interaction, 8(4), 160-184. Retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol8/iss4/3 This material is brought to you by the AIS Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact . - Article 3 DOI: Transactions on Human — Job Applicants’ Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening John Drake East Carolina University Bret Brecton University of Southern Mississippi Dianne Hall Auburn University Clay Posey The University of Alabama Abstract: For human resource (HR) departments, screening job applicants is an integral role in acquiring talent. Many HR departments have begun to turn to social networks to better understand job candidates’ character. Using social networks as a screening tool might provide insights not readily available from resumes or initial interviews. However, requiring access to an applicants’ social networks and the private activities occurring therein—a practice currently legal in 29 U.S. states (Deschenaux, 2015) —could induce strong moral reactions from the job candidates because of a perceived loss of information privacy. Subsequently, such disclosure requests could induce job candidates to respond in a multitude of ways to protect their privacy. Given that an estimated 2.55 billion individuals will use social media worldwide by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013) , the repercussions from requests for access social media environments have potentially far-reaching effects. In this research, we examine how one such disclosure request impacted six information privacy protective responses (IPPRs) (Son & Kim, 2008) based on the job candidates’ perceived moral judgment and the perceived moral intensity of the HR disclosure request. These responses occurred when we asked respondents to provide personal login information during a hypothetical interview. By modeling data derived from a sample of 250 participants in PLS-SEM, we found that the five IPPRs (i.e., refusal, negative word of mouth, complaining to friends, complaining to the company, and complaining to third parties) were all significant responses when one judged the request to be immoral and perceived the moral intensity concept of immediate harm. The amount of variance explained by these five IPPRs ranged from 17.7 percent to 38.7 percent, which indicates a solid initial foundation from which future research can expand on this HR issue. Implications for academia and practice are discussed. The manuscript was received 12/04/2015 and was with the authors 5 months for 2 revisions. December 2016 Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction 1 Introduction For human resource (HR) departments, screening job applicants is an integral part in acquiring talent. While resumes and applications provide much factual and verifiable information such as educational achievements, certifications, licenses, experience, and so on, employers also use them to infer other characteristics such as personality, intelligence, leadership, and work ethic (Cable & Gilovich, 1998; Cole, Feild, Giles, & Harris, 2009) . They then use these inferences to assess prospect employability (Brown & Campion, 1994; Cole, Feild, & Giles, 2003; Cole, Rubin, Feild, & Giles, 2007) . To complement traditional resumes and formal applications, employers also use online social networks— which we refer to simply as social networks here—to enhance their hiring inferences (Davis, 2007; Grasz, 2009; Kasper, 2015; Smith, 2012) . This practice appears to be ubiquitous among employers. Approximately 93 percent of recruiters use or plan to used social media during the hiring process, and 55 percent have reconsidered applicants based on content found on their social media profiles (Jobvite, 2015) . By examining these networks, employers attempt to compile a more comprehensive profile of applicants than would be available otherwise, especially as it relates to individuals’ personalities (Kluemper & Rosen, 2009; Kluemper, Rosen, & Mossholder, 2012) . Additionally, many employers approach screening applicants using social networks as an additional means of assessing “fit” with the organization or identifying “red flags” (Grasz, 2009) . These “red flags” might include social network content about applicants’ use of alcohol and illegal drugs, profanity, and engag (...truncated)


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John R Drake, Dianne Hall, J. Bret Becton, Clay Posey. Job Applicants’ Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening, AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 2016, Volume 8, Issue 4,