The Reactions of Generation Y to the Use of Social Networking Websites in Personnel Selection in China

Abstract

This study examines the reactions of Generation Y to the use of social networking websites (SNW) in personnel selection of in China. In particular, the roles of perceived privacy invasion, fairness perceptions and intentions of job pursuit of participants and the influence of the presence of justifications for SNW screening on participants’ reactions are examined. Because using SNW to screen and select applicants is increasingly popular in organisations, it seems to be helpful to study the reactions of Generation Y to the use of this selection tool when they are in the scenario of being applicants. Organisations can decide whether to use SNW as a selection tool or not and realise how to influence the applicants’ reactions to this selection tool according to the results of current study. The study employs an experimental research in which 654 participants were allocated to read one of three different scenarios before completing the survey questions of perceived privacy invasion, fairness perceptions, intentions of job pursuit and demographic information. The results show that when an organisation uses selection process involving SNW screening, the participants are likely to consider the selection process to be invasive to personal privacy and less fair. Besides, they are also less likely to pursuit jobs within this organisation. However, when the justifications for SNW screening are provided, the levels of fairness perceptions of participants are higher. Another finding of the study is that fairness perceptions can mediate the effect of perceived privacy invasion on intentions of job pursuit as well as the effect of the presence of justifications for SNW screening on intentions of job pursuit. In conclusion, Generation Y in China generally have negative reactions to the use of SNW in personnel selection. However, the negative reactions can be reduced by measures which can improve the fairness perceptions of applicants, such as providing the justifications for using SNW as a selection tool. This is because the mediation effects of fairness perceptions on the outcomes of using SNW as a selection tool can be rather powerful