Cyber Vetting: Psychological Contract Implications for Red

This report examines the use of cyber vetting in the recruitment process for an organization named Red, analyzing its impact on the psychological contract of new employees. It evaluates three scenarios: informing applicants about cyber vetting, using cyber vetting without informing applicants, and not using cyber vetting at all. The analysis considers the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario in terms of validity, procedural fairness, trust, privacy, organizational commitment, and the decision to work for the employer. The report concludes that cyber vetting can be an ethical and significant practice if the organization gathers information from publicly available content without explicitly informing applicants, as this approach balances the benefits of social media screening with potential drawbacks related to privacy and transparency.

Running head: CYBER VETTING FOR THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Cyber vetting for the recruitment process
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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CYBER VETTING FOR THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Cyber Vetting.............................................................................................................................2
Cyber vetting as a selection method...........................................................................................2
Impacts of cyber vetting on psychological contract...................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Cyber vetting is the concept of gathering data from the social media regarding the
employees and the applicants in the organization. This is the practice that helps the
organization to know more about the employees and their natural instincts. On the basis of
this evaluation the organization can decide if the employees are capable of doing the work in
the selected organizational culture (Hunter et al., 2017). The main objective of this paper is to
evaluate the cyber vetting situation for the organization named Red. The conclusion is based
on the identified factors in the discussion.
Cyber Vetting
Cyber vetting also known as internet vetting is the process that analyses the social
image of the possible employees through their accounts in social media platform such as
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Cyber vetting as a selection method
Cyber vetting is used extensively by the organizations while hiring the potential
employees. This practice has helped the organizations to improve the trust upon the
employees joining in the organization (Holland & Jeske, 2018). Cyber vetting has become a
part of the selection filter. It has been seen that the activities in the of the social media
platform of the employees reflect the true social image of the employees (Rosengren &
Svanå, 2017). This images and the activities can be beneficial for the organizations to
understand the intention of the employees and their goals and objective in life. It has been
seen that the organizations cyber vet for three reason. The first reason is that the cyber vetting
is a convenient way for the organization for the gathering of the information. Another reason
for using the cyber vetting is that organizations can collect the information about the
employees those are beyond the information provided in the resume (Lewis, Thomas &

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James, 2015). The third reason for the cyber vetting of by the organizations is that the
organizations check if the employee is suitable for the organization and is capable of
maintaining the reputation of the organization.
Impacts of cyber vetting on psychological contract
There are certain psychological effects of cyber vetting. Cyber vetting is apparently a
new concept and most of the employees are not aware of this thing (Böhmová & Chudán,
2018). However, it has been seen that creation of the concept regarding cyber vetting has mad
the employees to improve their bi-data in different social media platforms like LinkedIn.
The new employees are aware about the cyber vetting practice in Red. They are aware
about maintaining the social image on the social media platform. Apart from that they are
maintaining the profile image on the social media platform.
1. Organization informs the applicants that they are using the cyber vetting during
the process of recruitment and they will check the background of the applicant
through social media platform. The applicant in the organization will have the
certain psychological impact after knowing this fact. The employees in the
organization may feel that their social media account can be evaluated in the same
process. Some of the applicant may feel that it is the violation of the privacy
(Duvenage, Jaquire & von Solms, 2016). However, in this case they can use the
security filters on the social media platforms to restrict the visibility of certain
content. On the other hand some of the employees can improve their profile in the
business platform of the social media such as LinkedIn (Yannakogeorgos & Geis,
2016). However, it can be said that declaring the fact of cyber vetting by the
organization may not reflect the right impact as the applicants may improvise or
modify the content on their social media platform.

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2. In the second scenario, the organization is using the cyber vetting, organization is
not going to inform about the cyber vetting to the applicants. Red assumes that
the organization collects the information through the contents those are public in
nature. This can be beneficial for the organization for getting the right information
about the applicant regarding their social image and behaviour. Moreover, the
practice cannot be regarded as unethical as the information is collected from the
contents those are public. The applicants are not aware of the practice of cyber
vetting in this case. So, that they may not feel the extra pressure and the feeling of
being monitored will not happen to them. This can be regarded as the best way or
policy for the cyber vetting in the organization during the recruitment process.
3. In the third solution, Red is not using the cyber vetting for the recruitment process.
In this case, the Red is using the traditional recruitment process. In this case, the
relevance of the cyber vetting will not be applicable for the organization. Apart
from that the organization has to relay on the information written in the resume of
the applicant. In this process Red will have to evaluate the potential of the
employees through the face to face evaluation with the applicants and the analysis
of the resume (Jeske & Shultz, 2019). From this process the organization may not
know the different social aspects of the applicants. Apart from that the
organization may not evaluate if the respective applicant is suitable for the
organizational culture and is capable for doing the working in the working
environment of the organization.
Conclusion
The discussion is regarding the use of the cyber vetting in the recruitment process of
Red. In this case, there are three situations are given regarding the use of cyber vetting in the
organization. It can be said from the discussion that the cyber vetting can be an ethical and

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significant practice for the recruitment process if the organization gather the information
through the contents which are public in nature. Apart from that the use of the cyber vetting
can help the organization to understand the social activities of the employees. However, there
are certain limitations and the problems in cyber vetting. If Red informs the applicants
regarding the use of cyber vetting in the recruitment process, the applicants may modify the
contents of their social platforms. In this case, Red may not get the right information
regarding the applicants. In this case, it can be said that second situation may be suitable for
Red where the information are gathered from the public contents and the employees are not
informed regarding the application of cyber vetting in the recruitment process.

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References
Böhmová, L., & Chudán, D. (2018). Analyzing Social Media Data for Recruiting
Purposes. Acta Informatica Pragensia, 7(1), 4-21.
Duvenage, P., Jaquire, V., & von Solms, S. (2016, June). Conceptualising Cyber
Counterintelligence: Two Tentative Building Blocks. In ECCWS2016-Proceedings fo
the 15th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (p. 93). Academic
Conferences and publishing limited.
Holland, P., & Jeske, D. (2018). Case 1: To Cyber-Vet or Not to Cyber-Vet: An Ethics
Question for HRM. In Strategic Human Resource Management and Employment
Relations(pp. 157-162). Springer, Singapore.
Hunter, S. T., Shortland, N. D., Crayne, M. P., & Ligon, G. S. (2017). Recruitment and
selection in violent extremist organizations: Exploring what industrial and
organizational psychology might contribute. American Psychologist, 72(3), 242.
Jeske, D., & Shultz, K. S. (2019). Social media screening and content effects: implications
for job applicant reactions. International Journal of Manpower.
Lewis, A., Thomas, B., & James, S. (2015). A critical analysis of the implementation of
social networking as an e-recruitment tool within a security enterprise. Cogent
Business & Management, 2(1), 1104904.
Rosengren, J., & Svanå, S. (2017). Like it or not-The Recruitment Practises of Today A
qualitative study on how Social Network Sites are used within recruitment.
Yannakogeorgos, P. A., & Geis, J. I. (2016). The Human Side of Cyber Conflict: Organizing,
Training, and Equipping the Air Force Cyber Workforce. Air Force Research Institute
Maxwell AFB United States.

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Bibliography