A digital job application reference: how do social media posts affect the recruitment process?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2022-0232 |
| Published date | 28 October 2022 |
| Date | 28 October 2022 |
| Pages | 457-477 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Mahmut Demir,Yusuf Günaydın |
A digital job application reference:
how do social media posts affect the
recruitment process?
Mahmut Demir
Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Tourism,
Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Isparta, Turkey, and
Yusuf G€
unaydın
School of Tourism, Final International University, Kyrenia, Cyprus
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to determine the influence of candidate employees’social media accounts (SMAs)
on human resource (HR) professionals’hiring decisions as a job application reference in the tourism industry.
Design/methodology/ap proach –Using a qualitativ e approach, semi-struct ured interviews were
conducted in tourism businesses, such as hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, bars, and ground-handling
service companies. In-depth, open-ended interviews with 16 questions were conducted to gather data face to
face between October 15 and December 20, 2021, with 38 HR professionals. The research questions were
analyzed using thematic analysis and discussed under three main themes.
Findings –The findings of this study showed that HR managers in the tourism industry generally prefer to
examine candidates’SMAs rather than traditional references because they can quickly and cheaply screen
many applicants.
Originality/value –Social media (SM) is increasingly used as a crucial channel in recruitment within
organizations. This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management, which empirical studies on the
influence of job applicant’s SMAs on recruiters’hiring decisions have been limited so far.
Keywords Social media, Employment, Social judgment, Recruitment process, Job reference,
The tourism industry
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Information technologies and smart digital communication tools have become indispensable
to human life in recent years. Accordingly, the time spent by people on social networks and
platforms has increased while the content and number of shares have become uncontrollable.
Shares on social media (SM) are not only limited to users’social lives but also reflects their
work life. Managers and recruiters can therefore make preliminary assessments by
examining SM posts of job applicants, those changing workplaces, or those seeking
promotion to management. While this can benefit some, it can disadvantage others.
Researchers suggest different approaches to study attitudes and behaviors towards SM
use. While some researchers argue that it is a social need (Krishen et al., 2016;Wang et al.,
2012), others see it as a technology addiction (Longstreet and Brooks, 2017), a technological
communication frenzy (Katambwe, 2020), and everyday behavior or sharing for various
purposes. These include sharing locations, events, emotional situations, communication
between individuals or groups, liking others’posts, commenting, starting discussions,
questionnaires, ratings, promotions and marketing, announcements, and invitations (Branley
and Covey, 2018;Quinn, 2016;Whiting et al., 2019). People may even encounter unexpected
reactions or threats while socializing through such posts. However, most people do not realize
that their SM posts may be considered as a reference tool in job applications and that
candidates may even be eliminated due to negative posts (Abril et al., 2012;Lam, 2016;Ng
et al., 2016).
A digital job
application
reference
457
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 14 May 2022
Revised 20 August 2022
1 October 2022
Accepted 3 October 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 45 No. 2, 2023
pp. 457-477
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-05-2022-0232
It is an acceptable reason business to examine job references for recruits, supervisors
comprehensively, and middle-level managers to ensure person-organization fit, person-job fit,
and person-work team fit. Job applicants’SM posts provide recruiters with important clues
(Acikgoz and Bergman, 2016;Mehrotra and Mariam, 2020). Therefore, candidates’social
media accounts (SMAs) can be considered digital job application references for managers to
make the best recruitment decisions (Demir, 2015;Lam, 2016). Candidates’personal SMAs
contain personal and business life content, political and religious views, clubs, unions,
associations, political parties, attended events, photos, articles, etc. Inevitably, managers may
use this information during recruitment.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to understanding the influence of SM posts on
candidate judgment and hiring decisions of human resource (HR) professionals and
recruiters, so far under researched issue. Given the limited credible data utilized by HR
professionals, recruiters, and tourism business managers (Demir, 2015;Demir and Demir,
2019), the importance and value of hiring decisions, and the increasing use of SM searches of
job applicants (Dalal et al., 2015;Davidson et al., 2011), the impact of SM posts on hiring
decisions cannot be ignored. For this reason, this study presents evaluations and findings
based on the posts of applicants in SM that can create negative impressions within the scope
of social judgment theory (SJT).
Literature review
SJT is based on the premise that a receiver’s judgment of a persuasive message depends on
one’s position related to the topic (Sherif and Hovland, 1961;Sherif and Sherif, 1967). It is a
process involving integrating data from a set of sources into a judgment about some behavior
(Brehmer, 1988). Because according to SJT, a receiver does not have access to any direct
information about the topics or behaviors. SJT has threecategories of positions: the latitude of
acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment (Sherif and Hovland, 1961;Sherif and Sherif,
1967). The basic principle of this theory is that individuals’prior attitudes and behaviors
serve as evidence to judge whether they would accept or reject others’evaluations (Lee and
Chun, 2016). When individuals perceive others’attitudes and behaviors similar to their own,
their latitude of acceptance will increase; however, when attitudes and behaviors are opposite
from their own, their latitude of rejection is likely to increase (Ledgerwood and Chaiken, 2007).
Slight to moderate discrepancies between the receiver’s beliefs and others’attitudes and
behaviors will cause changes in perceptions, but huge discrepancies will not (Mahfouz, 2009).
This means that when shared with the same issue, different people will derive different
meanings from the messages and will react differently. These factors will cocreate different
zones of positions one person can have toward an issue.
According to SJT (Sherif and Hovland, 1961), individuals’own beliefs or opinions play a
vital role in their judgment toward others’attitudes and behaviors (Lee and Chun, 2016). For
example, an HR professional or hiring manager is likelier not to have a favorable opinion
about the applicants when they perceive an opposite religious belief, political opinion, ethical
value, etc., in their SM posts. This situation reflects the latitude of rejection, including
statements and ideas the receiver judges as objectionable or unacceptable. Individuals’
latitudes of acceptance and rejection are heavily influenced by their beliefs and opinions on an
issue (Mallard, 2010). A message in SM posts too discrepant from the receiver’s (e.g. HR
professional or hiring manager) attitude may fall within the latitude of rejection.
Social judgments related to job application references have been concerned with the
attitudes and behaviors generated in a situation in which two persons with similar or
divergent thoughts about a given philosophy of work life are required to work out
agreements. An essential process in recruitment is evaluating the candidate’s job references.
A job application reference is provided by an individual who claims to know the candidate
ER
45,2
458
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