Social Networking and Selection: An Ethical Perspective Essay

This essay examines the ethical considerations surrounding the use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook and Twitter in employee selection. It analyzes the acceptability of recruiters actively searching candidate profiles and the responsibility of candidates to maintain a favorable online presence. The study uses a case study approach to address these questions, considering legal boundaries and potential biases. The essay concludes that while SNS can offer valuable insights into a candidate's character and skills, recruiters must be mindful of privacy and discrimination issues, and candidates should be aware of the impact of their online activities on their job prospects. The rise of social media has added value to the hiring and selection process. The information shared on social media sites is vital to hire the applicants based on their professionalism on the site.

Running head: SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SELECTION
Social networking and selection- a question on ethics
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Case Study...................................................................................................................................2
3. Acceptable for recruiters to actively search candidates profiles on SNS....................................3
4. Responsibility of candidates to maintain favorable and employee character on sites like
Facebook and Twitter......................................................................................................................4
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
The business people are increasing the social network sites (SNS) for hiring employees
throughout corporate platforms and open websites like Facebook and Twitter. SNS is used by
various members of the society included people of all form of ages as well as social classes. SNS
is popular for the job seekers as well as employers (Spiekermann, 2015). The researcher can seek
to understand and evaluate the recruiters with regards to utilize SNS for taking employee
selection decisions.
The paper is based on analyzing two questions based on selected case study on social
networking and selection- a question on ethics. It summarizes the acceptance of the recruiters to
look for the candidate’s profiles on SNS and responsibility of the candidates to uphold positive
and employee nature on sites.
2. Case Study
In the fluctuating labor market, selection of employees from diverse pool of the job
application is a challenge for the business organizations. Due to technological advancements, the
social media sites can alter the interaction and communication purposes. New online space can
become characterize for recruitment as well as selection purposes for the business organization
so that they can easily recruit the employees based on their skills and knowledge as per job
requirements (Borgatti, Everett, & Johnson, 2018). In the current years, SNS is growing
exponentially so that the employers at smaller or larger organizations visit the sites for viewing
the profiles of the job applicants.

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The applicants should provide a employee character on the SNS as pictures of the job
applicants on SNS should provide a real reflection of the person’s character. They should
determine the managerial power of the candidates to perform the job. It is pointed that usage of
SNS can able to get better visibility of the job seekers so that they can identify the applicants
(Kosinski et al., 2015). The information which is obtained throughout SNS search may be
suffered from lack of the job relevance. The information which is obtained throughout SNS is
being evaluated without finish as well as contextual background.
3. Acceptable for recruiters to actively search candidates profiles on SNS
The employers are used social media sites for evaluating the job candidates or applicants
throughout social media search. When a favorable content in SNS is included then a good
character, professional image, high-quality communicational skills as well as originality are also
included. The recruiters are liked when the candidates can interact with the social media
accounts of the business organization (Dierksmeier et al., 2016). The recruiters are searching for
the information on the social media sites either by referenced by the applicants as well as
previous employment websites owned by the company and applicants. The employers can
employ something they can access into the course of employment decisions if it is not violating
the laws. There are laws that the employers are not using information found online in order to
discriminate based on the protected classifications such as gender, genetic information, disability
and others (Metcalf & Crawford, 2016). There are existing laws as well as social media
regulations to determine boundaries behind utilizing the social media for screening the applicants
as well as human resource department. SNS becomes an easier way for the college students as
well as companies to interact, and sometimes it becomes a legal issue for the recruiters to look

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for for the candidates concerning on privacy in addition to discriminations. It is satisfactory that
the recruiters can look for for the candidates outline into SNS. The findings of the study
indicated that the young job seekers as well as human professionals tend towards Facebook and
older are utilized for Twitter (Ananny, 2016). The higher educational levels are associated
towards Linkedin for job seekers. The job boards are effective tool for the job seekers.
From the study, it is investigated that there is an impact of the SNS postings as well as
recruitment evaluations. The job organization can evaluate the candidate based on the resume as
well as personal web pages of the candidate. The users are engaged into the social media site
throughout earlier stage of the job search processes by means of resources to the research and
conduct the searchers. There is higher degree of awareness of the job seekers using SNS by the
recruiters and actions that the job seekers are taking in response. In the current days, there is
high requirement to check the current employees so that on better skills as well as knowledge
based, the candidates are selected (Weller, 2015). The human resource managers are using the
social media accounts of the applicants as the screening tool. Sometimes, the job seekers think
not to offer job to the applicants after going through the social media accounts due to
inappropriate content, posts about the drinking and drugs as well as discriminatory comments
into the account. It provides a bad effect on applicants; therefore the organization is not
interested in this case to hire those applicants who have bad habits.
4. Responsibility of candidates to maintain favorable and employee character
on sites like Facebook and Twitter
In most of the organizations, the job seekers are searching the candidates based on their
presence and image in the social media accounts. Therefore, it is the main responsibility for the

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candidates to maintain a favorable as well as employee characters so that it can provide a
positive image of the respondents on the SNS. At the same time, it is utilized that the social
media provides wrong effect while there is a negative impact on the career of the applicants. The
human resource manager can utilized the social media more as compared to screen the
prospective of the employees. Hence, the candidates should provide a better reflection on the
social media site which could be reviewed by the employer. As per the society for the human
resource management, it is found that most of the job seekers are recruiting via the social media
and the employers are screening the job candidates throughout the social networks as well as
search engines (Hajli et al., 2017). The social media policy can provide guidelines to interact
with the customers as well as protect the personal safety and reputation of the business where
they are already employed. The social media policy is strict based on the business in addition to
knowledge of the employees. It is responsibility of the applicants not to provide proactive as well
as inappropriate photos, videos as well as information. They should be professional in the social
networking sites by not providing any information related to candidate’s drinking, smoking and
others. They should not provide any discriminatory related to religion as well as race and others.
They should not provide any bad mouthed about the previous company or any other person
which provides bad effect on their self-image.
The social networks are providing advantage to the applicant, if the provided information
is positive, well-organized as well as professional. Therefore, the job seekers should be interest
to hire them. The social media provides greater insights in the applicant’s capability to meet with
needs of the job position. The candidates can provide real time information related to the skills of
the applicants plus the work samples (Shen et al., 2016). Twitter is also a great platform for the
applicants to interact with the business organization. The social media sites such as Facebook

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and Twitter can allow the employers to get information of the applicants outside of the
information from the resume, cover letter and interview. The sites can provide the outer
information about the applicants such as how they are interacting with others, what are the habits
of them and other information related to their behavior and career. Half of the job seekers are
active on the sites on regular basis; therefore the candidates should provide good images in their
account and will not post anything which would provide huge effect on their career. In all phases
of the selection processes, the resource manager as well as recruiters can use social media so
they can understand their candidates by their hobby, interested area and other information. The
social media is becoming a medium for the vehicle of communication so that before hiring the
applicants, they should gather information related to the candidates. It becomes an easier process
to recruit the applicants for the organization.
5. Conclusion
It is concluded that the social media site like Facebook and Twitter provides the recruiters
information related to their behaviour, attitudes and interested. Throughout rapid advancement of
the digital age as well as evolution of the globalized networks, the social media has added value
to the hiring and selection process. The resource manager can get information about the
applicants related to both professional as well as personal. It is summarized that the applicant
has opportunity to communicate to the resource manager in form of the blogs, strategic relations,
additional skills and others. The information which are shared on the social media sites is vital
to hire the applicants or not based on their professionalism in the site.

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References
Ananny, M. (2016). Toward an ethics of algorithms: Convening, observation, probability, and
timeliness. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 41(1), 93-117.
Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G., & Johnson, J. C. (2018). Analyzing social networks. Sage.
Dierksmeier, C., Amann, W., Von Kimakowitz, E., Spitzeck, H., Pirson, M., & Von
Kimakowitz, E. (Eds.). (2016). Humanistic ethics in the age of globality. Springer.
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Hajli, N., Sims, J., Zadeh, A. H., & Richard, M. O. (2017). A social commerce investigation of
the role of trust in a social networking site on purchase intentions. Journal of Business
Research, 71, 133-141.
Kosinski, M., Matz, S. C., Gosling, S. D., Popov, V., & Stillwell, D. (2015). Facebook as a
research tool for the social sciences: Opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations,
and practical guidelines. American Psychologist, 70(6), 543.
Metcalf, J., & Crawford, K. (2016). Where are human subjects in big data research? The
emerging ethics divide. Big Data & Society, 3(1), 2053951716650211.
Shen, G. C. C., Chiou, J. S., Hsiao, C. H., Wang, C. H., & Li, H. N. (2016). Effective marketing
communication via social networking site: The moderating role of the social tie. Journal
of Business Research, 69(6), 2265-2270.
Spiekermann, S. (2015). Ethical IT innovation: A value-based system design approach.
Auerbach Publications.

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Weller, K. (2015). Accepting the challenges of social media research. Online Information
Review, 39(3), 281-289.