Organisational Behaviour: Social Media's Role in Employment Decisions

This essay delves into the ethical considerations surrounding the use of social media in employment decisions. It examines the importance of obtaining employee consent before accessing their social media profiles, highlighting the moral correctness of transparent communication and the application of utilitarian and Kantian ethical theories. The essay also addresses the ethical concerns of using personal information for employment determination, emphasizing the need for employee notification and the potential violation of corporate social responsibility. It explores legal frameworks, such as NSW and ACT surveillance laws, and the limitations of collecting information without consent. The essay further suggests alternative methods for gathering relevant information, such as utilizing LinkedIn for professional networking and employing traditional recruitment strategies to avoid ethical dilemmas and ensure privacy rights. The analysis emphasizes the need for ethical practices and the importance of adhering to human resource policies.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational Behaviour
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1. Asking the permission of the employee to check the social media site has good
consequences than not asking the permission. In this case taking permission is considered with
consent as morally correct, as the job role of the employee is directly related with the social
media presence skills. It will help establish transparent communication with client. In this case
the job performance is directly related to the information to be obtained from the employee’s
social media site. Based on the utilitarian ethical theory, there are good consequences when
employer approach in morally correct manner in social-media based decision making. Although
with the permission of the employee, weighing the advantages and the disadvantages of
accessing the employee’s personal information on social media to make the job decisions, I
would consider acting in a non-discriminatory manner. It is because the worst consequences will
prevail over the good in case of acting in discriminatory manner and not taking the consent. The
bad consequences may be in the form of the legal liability. Acting in non-discriminatory manner
would be morally correct as the information would only be used for legitimate business reasons
as per the Kantan’s ethical analysis. In this scenario, taking consent would preserve the
employee’s dignity and respect (Holland & Jeske, 2017).
2. It would be morally and ethically wrong to use the personal information of the
employee given on social media for employment determination. Not notifying the candidates in
this case can be considered treating the employee without dignity and respect. It will violate the
corporate social responsibility, which, is the part of organisational behaviour. NSW and ACT
surveillance laws in Australia inform abut notifying the employees. I could consider notifying
the candidates than not notifying as it will allow the candidates to rectify any incorrect or
inaccurate information as well as explain the situation (Prichard et al., 2015). On the other hand,
employees may have information on social media that made me truly public. If a company has

2ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
no social media screening policy then it may be technically correct to not notify the candidates.
In such situation it may be fair and moral to make employment determinant based on the social
media as it may not constitute the invasion of privacy. However, it is difficult to assume that the
social media profile of the employee has public access. According to the Personal Information
Protection Act and guidelines of BC employees may complaint and take legal actions on
suspicion that the employer has used personal information on social media as background check.
Moreover, any information posted by the employee on the social media is subjected to BC’s
personal information protection laws. There are limitations of collecting information without
consent. It is the accuracy of the online information being questionable. There is less possibility
of collecting the relevant and updated information. There is also high likelihood of uncovering
the material that the employee may not wish to divulge (Thomas et al., 2015).
3. The desired information can be taken by the employer in any alternative format if there
is no option to look at the social media site of the employee. It is only in a matter of time that the
social media screening in employment has begun. Not all the companies has the social media
screening policy, so LinkedIn can be used for hiring and not background check. It is the
universally accepted site to check the candidates CV and scrutinise their qualifications. It is the
professional networking site and eliminates the chance of inaccurate/unreliable information
gained by the social media platforms like Facebook, and Twitter (Buettner, 2016). It will prevent
breach of privacy rights and legal actions. Alternate option would be simply recruiting through
company’s websites, job boards, job search engines, Newspapers, walk in applications and
referrals. It will eliminate the ethical and practical dilemmas of social media recruiting. These
methods are age old practices and constitute effective as part of strategic HRM management
theories and outcome depends on effective human resource policies (Ekwoaba et al., 2015).

3ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
References
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