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Social Media in Employee-Selection-Related Decisions

Philip L. Roth1; Philip Bobko2; Chad H. Van Iddekinge3; Jason B. Thatcher1

1 Clemson University · 2 Gettysburg College · 3 Florida State University

Journal of Management 2016

Social media (SM) pervades our society. One rapidly growing application of SM is its use in personnel decision making. Organizations are increasingly searching SM (e.g., Facebook) to gather information about potential employees. In this article, we suggest that organizational practice has outpaced the scientific study of SM assessments in an area that has important consequences for individuals (e.g., being selected for work), organizations (e.g., successfully predicting job performance or withdrawal), and society (e.g., consequent adverse impact/diversity). We draw on theory and research from various literatures to advance a research agenda that addresses this gap between practice and research. Overall, we believe this is a somewhat rare moment in the human resources literature when a new class of selection methods arrives on the scene, and we urge researchers to help understand the implications of using SM assessments for personnel decisions.

DOI
10.1177/0149206313503018
Volume
42 (1)
Pages
269-298
Language
en
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Sources
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