Ethics of using Facebook as a recruitment tool

Ethics are the underlying values, beliefs and principles which guide a person’s actions as they navigate through the world (Robbins et al. 2009). As these values, beliefs and principles are unique to each individual there are differing interpretations as to what constitutes ethical behaviour (Schermerhorn et al. 2011). Another distinction that can be made about ethical behaviour is that while an act may not be considered illegal it can be still interpreted as unethical (Driver 2007). As new technologies and social trends are developed the law is often slow to act in regulating its usage, leaving it to be guided by a person’s or organisation’s ethics (Lory 2010). In the following TED Talks (2011) Damon Horowitz raises this issue and questions the need for the development of a “moral operating system” to help govern the ethics of these new technologies.

 

A social trend which is currently experiencing an ethical debate is the use of social media site Facebook as a recruitment selection tool (Lory 2010). There are many media reports of Facebook being used as a recruitment tool for assessing candidacy fit with the organisation which has resulted hiring decisions being negatively impacted (Christofides, Muise & Desmarais 2009). Research by Lory (2010) has indentified that many organisation which utilise Facebook as a selection tool do so under the utilitarian ethics approach; meaning they do not consider breaching privacy of an applicant’s site provided that outcome results in hiring for the greater good of the company. Smith and Kidder (2010) have argued that to access an applicant’s Facebook site leads to potentially unethical behaviour of the employer. In the below video, I discuss this article further as it highlights some key ethical questions faced by both the employer and job applicants. 

References

Christofides, E 2009, 'Information Disclosure and Control on Facebook: Are They Two Sides of the Same Coin or Two Different Processes?', CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 341-345. 

Driver, J 2007, Ethics: the fundamentals, Blackwell Publishing, Carlton, Victoria.

Lory, BE 2010, ‘Using Facebook to Assess candidates during the recruiting process: Ethical implications’, NACE Journal, vol. 71, no. 1, pp.37-40, viewed 28 January 2016, http://cla.umn.edu/sites/cla.umn.edu/files/Facebook_in_Hiring_Ethical_Implications(1).pdf

Robbins, SP, Bergman, R, Stagg, I & Coulter, M 2009, Foundations of management, 3^rd edn, Pearson, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales.

Schermerhorn, JR, Davidson, P, Poole, D, Simon, A, Woods, P & Chau, SL 2011, Management, 4th Asia Pacific edn, Wiley, Milton, Queensland.

Smith, WP, & Kidder, DL 2010, ‘You’ve been tagged! (Then again, maybe not): Employers and Facebook’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 5, pp.491-499.

TED Talks 2011, Damon Horowitz calls for a “moral operating system”, video, 6 June, viewed 27 January 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG3vB2Cu_jM&feature=youtu.be