Job seekers' attitudes toward cybervetting: Scale development, validation, and platform comparison

Abstract

The present research describes the development and validation of a measure of job seekers' attitudes toward cybervetting (ATC). Study 1 involved a sample of participants completing an initial pool of items focusing on one platform (i.e., Facebook) and conducting an exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 included a confirmatory factor analysis and an exploratory structural equation model to establish convergent and discriminant validity. Results of both studies confirmed that the hypothesized three‐factor structure (perceived justice, privacy invasion, and face validity) provided a good fit to the data, explained over 67% of total variance, with all three factors demonstrating high internal consistencies. Study 3 examined the measurement equivalence of the ATC measure, and demonstrated its factor structure and reliability, across four social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram). Comparing applicants' attitudes across platforms showed significantly more favorable perceptions toward LinkedIn‐based cybervetting than for the other three platforms.

Social Media Screening and Procedural Justice: Towards Fairer Use of Social Media in Selection

“…In turn, even individuals who were given a job may develop a negative attitude towards the hiring organization if they perceive the selection process as unfair (Alder and Gilbert 2006). It should therefore be in the interest of any organization to consider the perceived fairness of its recruitment methods very closely (Cook et al 2020).…”

“…Some users even create a public page with their real name and a separate "pseudo site" for their friends, which contains content specifically targeted at them (Clark and Roberts 2010). As a result of this kind of impression management, chances are that potential employers are unable to obtain the expected information (Cook et al 2020) and may misinterpret fit (Hoek et al 2016).…”

“…Questions concerning the scope of the social media search should also be clarified in advance: For instance, it should be determined whether or not to limit the search to the applicants' sites or to extend it to their lists of friends (Slovensky and Ross 2012). To increase job-relatedness of information obtained through social media, several authors recommend limiting the scope of social media sites used for screening to professionally-oriented networks, such as LinkedIn, because these types of networks are job-related and less focussed on personal information (Thomas et al 2015;Hurrell et al 2017;Cook et al 2020).…”

“…While the sheer opportunity for voice as well as gestures of appreciation are considered helpful in this context, it should be noted that applicants' perspectives towards social media screening need to be truly considered and understood before engaging in it. For this reason, Cook et al (2020) recommend to quantify applicants' perceptions of social media screening beforehand. For example, it may be assessed whether they perceive it as an invasion of privacy.…”

“…Applicants' reactions towards (in-)justice can have significant impact on individual and organizational outcomes such as job acceptance decision-making, job satisfaction, psychological well-being of applicants, self-esteem, recommendation intentions, loyalty, commitment, compliance, cooperativeness, organizational citizenship behaviour, the quality of the applicant pool, performance, and overall post-hire attitudes and behaviour (Gilliland 1993(Gilliland , 1994Ryan 1997, 1998;Conlon and Ross 2012). As past research on the justice of social media screening has demonstrated, the perceived justice of this practice represents an important factor for job applicants (Cook et al 2020). For this reason, it is the aim of this article to evaluate whether employers' engagement in social media screening is acceptable from a fairness point of view.…”