Job seeking and job application in social networking sites : predicting job seekers\u27 behavioral intentions

Social networking sites (SNSs) are revolutionizing the way in which employers and job seekers connect and interact with each other. Despite the reported benefits of SNSs with respect to finding a job, there are issues such as privacy concerns that might be deterring job seekers from using these sites in their attempts to secure a job. It is therefore important to understand the factors that are salient in predicting job seekers\u27 use of SNSs in applying for jobs. In this research, a theoretical model was developed to explicate job seekers\u27 intentions to use SNSs to apply for jobs. Two aspects of intentions to use SNSs to apply for jobs were examined: (i) the likelihood of using these sites to submit applications, and (ii) the likelihood of sharing personal information requested by recruiters and potential employers using SNSs to recruit employees. Factors that could determine preference for the use of traditional job boards over SNSs in applying for jobs were also investigated. The initial theoretical model tested in this research was anchored on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and thus, variables such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence were predicted to have an impact on job seekers\u27 intentions. Other factors hypothesized as having an influence on job seekers\u27 intentions to apply for jobs using SNSs were: privacy concerns; perceived justice (trust that the information revealed in SNSs will be used fairly in the job candidate selection process); perceived risks; and the provision of information on a distinctive function within some SNSs referred to, in this study, as the inside connections feature (which illustrates to job seekers their social network connections to potential employers). Data for this study were gathered through an online survey from 490 registered users (alumni and students hoping to graduate soon) of career services databases managed by two universities in New Jersey, USA. The test of the measurement model of the initial research model suggested that survey respondents did not sufficiently distinguish performance expectancy from intention to apply for jobs using SNSs. Thus, an alternative model with only intention to share information with recruiters and potential employers using SNSs to recruit employees as the dependent variable was developed. The results of the test of the alternative model suggest that performance expectancy and privacy concerns are the most dominant direct predictors, and that social influence specific to image and perceived justice are indirect predictors. However, effort expectancy and risk beliefs did not influence directly the intention to share information with recruiters and potential employers using SNSs to recruit employees. The R2 value for this alternative model was 37.3%. Exploratory analyses suggest that all of the model variables, except the provision of information on the inside connections feature, have a significant influence on intention to apply for job using SNSs and preference for job boards over SNSs. The results of this study suggest that, in efforts to encourage the use of SNSs for securing a job, designers should pay significantly more attention to promoting the usefulness of these sites and to providing job seekers with more control in handling their personal information in order to alleviate privacy concerns. This study provides insights into predictors of job seekers\u27 behavior in SNSs that can inform future research

Formative Evaluation of Job Clubs Operated by Faith- and Community-Based Organizations: Findings From Site Visits and Options for Future Evaluation

Over the past several decades, job search support groups, commonly referred to as “job clubs,” have evolved into one of several important activities used by the public workforce system and faith- and community-based organizations to enhance worker readiness and employability, as well as to provide ongoing support to unemployed and underemployed individuals as they search for jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor\u27s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted in September 2012 with Capital Research Corporation, Inc. and George Washington University to conduct an assessment of job clubs sponsored by faith-based and community-based organizations (FBOs/CBOs). The overall purpose of this evaluation effort was to systematically describe the key characteristics of job clubs being offered by a range of faith- and community- based organizations, document how they differ from and are similar to the job clubs operated by publicly-funded workforce agencies (such as at American Job Centers [AJCs]), and identify potential approaches that might be used for more rigorous formal evaluation of impacts and effectiveness. Findings from the telephone interviews with stakeholders and in-person interviews with facilitators during the site visits indicate that job clubs operated by FBOs, CBOs and public workforce agencies are alike in many ways, with all of them emphasizing the critical importance of: (1) networking during the job search; (2) offering ongoing peer support and sharing of similar experiences among participants; and (3) providing instruction and guidance on the basics of the job search process (e.g., elevator pitches, resume development, job interview practice). Noteworthy differences between the FBO/CBO job clubs and those operated by public workforce agencies are related to staffing patterns and available resources for program operations and services. While public workforce agency job clubs are led by paid professional staff, supported by the full complement of workshops, activities, and other services typically available through AJCs/One-Stop Centers, FBO/CBO job clubs, in most cases, operate with limited budgets or no funding whatsoever. Additionally, compared with public sector agencies, FBOs/CBOs typically collect little in the way of participant-level data, such as participant identifiers, demographic characteristics, service receipt, or outcomes. Finally, although this report suggests several approaches to future rigorous experimental/non-experimental and process/implementation evaluation of FBO/CBO-sponsored job clubs, there are likely to be formidable challenges to implementation of rigorous evaluation methods because these job clubs rarely collect identifying information on participants, such as Social Security numbers, and are generally opposed to random assignment for their programs

Factors influencing informal cross-border knowledge sharing via enterprise social software

Knowledge sharing is an essential activity for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in today’s multinational companies (MNCs). The difficulty for an MNC’s geographically and functionally dispersed knowledge workers to informally share their knowledge across borders gives rise to enterprise social software platforms (ESSPs) and their tools to facilitate the sharing activity. In light of knowledge worker reluctance to contribute to these tools, this research analyzes determinants of an ESSP’s tools adoption and usage behaviour. This research addresses one main research question with three sub-questions. The main question investigates the factors that influence a knowledge worker’s willingness and contributions to informal cross-border knowledge sharing via an ESSP’s tools. The sub-questions explore a knowledge worker’s attitude, behavioural intention, and behavioural usage, through identifying motivational drivers and inhibiting barriers. Exploratory qualitative research was employed within this empirical study to answer the research questions through conducting nine semi-structured interviews. All interviewees were knowledge workers within one case company which provided an ESSP with the following tools exhibiting varying usage: user profiles, a wiki, and a discussion board. Content analysis of the data was structured around the theory of planned behaviour, the unified theory of the acceptance and use of technology, and social relationship theories. This resulted in the development of an integrative framework which illuminated the interrelated influence of individual, technological, and social factors resulting in a knowledge worker’s adoption and behavioural usage of an organization’s ESSP’s tools for informally sharing their knowledge across borders. In addition to individual attitudinal determinants, behavioural intention was found to be influenced primarily by the existence of technological motivational drivers in the form of perceived valued outcomes and inhibiting barriers embodied by one’s perceived effort. These were moderated by social factors related to one’s perceived social influence for each tool and the perceived support from the contextual organizational environment.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Job Applicants\u27 Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Socia Media for Candidate Screening

For human resource (HR) departments, screening job applicants is an integral role in acquiring talent. Many HR departments have begun to turn to social networks to better understand job candidates’ character. Using social networks as a screening tool might provide insights not readily available from resumes or initial interviews. However, requiring access to an applicants’ social networks and the private activities occurring therein—a practice currently legal in 29 U.S. states (Deschenaux, 2015)—could induce strong moral reactions from the job candidates because of a perceived loss of information privacy. Subsequently, such disclosure requests could induce job candidates to respond in a multitude of ways to protect their privacy. Given that an estimated 2.55 billion individuals will use social media worldwide by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013), the repercussions from requests for access social media environments have potentially far-reaching effects. In this research, we examine how one such disclosure request impacted six information privacy protective responses (IPPRs) (Son & Kim, 2008) based on the job candidates’ perceived moral judgment and the perceived moral intensity of the HR disclosure request. These responses occurred when we asked respondents to provide personal login information during a hypothetical interview. By modeling data derived from a sample of 250 participants in PLS-SEM, we found that the five IPPRs (i.e., refusal, negative word of mouth, complaining to friends, complaining to the company, and complaining to third parties) were all significant responses when one judged the request to be immoral and perceived the moral intensity concept of immediate harm. The amount of variance explained by these five IPPRs ranged from 17.7 percent to 38.7 percent, which indicates a solid initial foundation from which future research can expand on this HR issue. Implications for academia and practice are discussed

Job Applicants’ Information Privacy Protection Responses: Using Social Media for Candidate Screening

For human resource (HR) departments, screening job applicants is an integral role in acquiring talent. Many HR departments have begun to turn to social networks to better understand job candidates’ character. Using social networks as a screening tool might provide insights not readily available from resumes or initial interviews. However, requiring access to an applicants’ social networks and the private activities occurring therein—a practice currently legal in 29 U.S. states (Deschenaux, 2015)—could induce strong moral reactions from the job candidates because of a perceived loss of information privacy. Subsequently, such disclosure requests could induce job candidates to respond in a multitude of ways to protect their privacy. Given that an estimated 2.55 billion individuals will use social media worldwide by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013), the repercussions from requests for access social media environments have potentially far-reaching effects. In this research, we examine how one such disclosure request impacted six information privacy protective responses (IPPRs) (Son & Kim, 2008) based on the job candidates’ perceived moral judgment and the perceived moral intensity of the HR disclosure request. These responses occurred when we asked respondents to provide personal login information during a hypothetical interview. By modeling data derived from a sample of 250 participants in PLS-SEM, we found that the five IPPRs (i.e., refusal, negative word of mouth, complaining to friends, complaining to the company, and complaining to third parties) were all significant responses when one judged the request to be immoral and perceived the moral intensity concept of immediate harm. The amount of variance explained by these five IPPRs ranged from 17.7 percent to 38.7 percent, which indicates a solid initial foundation from which future research can expand on this HR issue. Implications for academia and practice are discussed

Literature Review on SNS Recruitment

SNS recruitment has become one of the hot topics of scholars and business in the past ten years, the focus of which through literature search and analysis is about the present situation, operation mechanism, brand creation of employers, legal disputes and regulation.Cross-cultural research also gradually becomes a new trend. Foreign research in this topic gets enriched from different fields including information technology, sociology, psychology, management and economics. Questionnaire analysis, case study and comparative study are main research methods, that’s to say, normative research and empirical research can be beautifully reached. Compared it abroad, related study in China is lack of empirical research with the limits of time, database selection and research methods, this paper still needs to be improved and possible future research trend can be cross-cultural research, behavior analysis based on large data, corporate social responsibility of SNS and brand creation of employers

Technology acceptance model theory on intention to use e-recruitment

Currently, e-recruitment activities are human resource digitalization activities that not only change the perspective of job seekers about finding and applying for jobs but also change the way organizations attract new candidates to job positions. This study examines and analyzes the intention to use e-recruitment using the development of the theory of technology acceptance model 2. The quantitative method is the research method used in this study. The sample collection used purposive random sampling through an online questionnaire to obtain a sample of 177 respondents. The analysis in this study uses a variant-based structural equation model  with partial least squares. The analysis results indirectly show that someone with a subjective norm will have a higher perceived usefulness of e-recruitment, affecting the higher intention to use e-recruitment. This also happens to someone who has a perceived ease of use of e-recruitment, which will increase the perceived usefulness of e-recruitment, increasing the intention to use e-recruitment. Subjective norm will directly affect someone's intention to use and perceived usefulness of e-recruitment; perceived usefulness will affect intention to use e-recruitment; and perceived ease of use will influence perceived usefulness and intention to use e-recruitment

How small and medium enterprises are using social networks? Evidence from the Algarve region

The evolution of internet created new opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SME), among which are social networks. This work aims at analyzing the potential of these networks for the SME in Algarve, creating a questionnaire for the purpose. The empirical study revealed that some firms have already an integrated business strategy with social networks, as well as a group in the firm responsible for it. Most of their managers consider that social networks enhance performance, but few really measure these results. A categorical principal component analysis identified two dimensions of social networks’ use: social networks for product-client interaction and knowledge; and social networks with potential for marketing. A supplementary analysis (hierarchical clustering) identified three patterns of SME’s involvement in social networks: cluster Social Net Level 1, cluster Social Net Level 2 and cluster Social Net Level 3. These groups validated the results described above, indicating a sustainable methodological approach

Vanishing Without a Trace: Measuring Job Applicant Ghosting Attitudes Across the Stages of Job Pursuit

Ghosting, a phenomenon regularly referred to as ‘no call, no show’ by hiring managers (Cutter, Weber, & Smith, 2022), has become a common trend among job applicants during recruitment (Whitacre, 2019). Job applicant ghosting is defined as an “extreme form of applicant withdrawal in which applicants…completely cease all communication” (Karl, Peluchette, & Neely, 2021: 49) and fail to appear for scheduled appointments, such as interviews, screening activities, or the first day of work. Employers are spending unfruitful time making unanswered or unreturned phone calls, scheduling interviews for individuals that disappear (Driscoll, 2021; Gurchiek, 2019; Express Employment Professionals, 2019a), and offering positions to individuals that vanish before the first day of work (Cutter, Weber, & Smith, 2022). These disappearing applicants can have financial consequences for employers (Cutter, 2018), forcing them to restart the hiring process and delay project progress (Gurchiek, 2019). While the primary method was the quantitative development and validation of a survey, thirty qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted during the pre-test study to ensure survey content, questionnaire structure, and item wording were appropriate for measuring applicant attitudes. After four waves of data collection, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the survey data. Using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), this study empirically tests whether applicant ghosting attitudes influence applicant ghosting behavioral intentions. The main theoretical contribution of this study is the creation of a scale that measures job applicant ghosting attitudes across three stages of job pursuit: extensive search, intensive search, and job choice (Barber, 1998). Findings indicate that applicant ghosting attitudes are best characterized as a single dimension rather than the hypothesized three dimensions. Finally, the practical contribution is a ghosting attitude assessment with easy-to-interpret, built-in respondent feedback, which will allow the instrument to be administered with minimal administrator or participant expertise. The instrument also serves as a diagnostic tool for applicants to reflect on their own ghosting attitudes and to create awareness of possible behavioral modifications that could improve their search strategy. Moreover, the feedback will allow practitioners to create training or coaching interventions that could improve applicant job search effectiveness while minimizing job applicant ghosting