Job seekers' attitudes toward cybervetting in China: Platform comparisons and relationships with social media posting habits and individual differences

Abstract

Cybervetting, or reviewing applicants' social media profiles, has become a central part of the hiring process for many organizations. Yet, extant cybervetting research is largely limited to Western platforms and samples. The present study examines the three core elements of attitudes toward cybervetting (ATC-perceived justice, privacy invasion, and face validity) using a sample of 200 Chinese job seekers providing their views on three popular platforms in China (WeChat, QQ, and Weibo). Attitudes were negative across all platforms, although slightly more positive for WeChat. ATC were associated with job seekers' social media posting habits (e.g., posting positive content more frequently) and individual differences (i.e., gender and extraversion). Organizations should be mindful that cybervetting might impede the recruitment of talents.

Employer and employee perceptions of cybervetting as a selection method

“…Recent meta‐analytic evidence suggests that women have higher privacy concerns than men on social networking sites (Tifferet, 2019). Combined with previously observed gender differences in Turkey (Akbulut et al, 2008, 2017) and its potential in hiring decisions (Koch et al, 2015), a significant gender difference in the fairness and invasiveness of cybervetting might be expected (Roulin & Liu, 2023). However, none of the gender analyses in the current study were significant.…”

“…That is, while the majority of employers view cybervetting as either necessary or inevitable in today's technology-rich world, employees view it as unfair, unreliable, and invasive of their privacy (Cook et al, 2020;Hurrell et al, 2017). We also observe that a Turkish sample is not as comfortable as other Eastern samples (Gruzd et al, 2020;Roulin & Liu, 2023), one of which was given the same questionnaire but had more favorable means in terms of face validity and perceived justice (Roulin & Liu, 2023).…”

“…Positively framed information that was consistent with qualifications was viewed favorably, while conflicting details were viewed negatively (Hartwell & Campion, 2020) At the same time, employers are more vigilant about aligning their hiring practices with cultural and governmental norms to avoid potential complications. Consequently, research on cybervetting in this understudied and distinctive context is of considerable value, similar to notable work in similarly understudied areas (e.g., Hedenus et al, 2021;Roulin & Liu, 2023).…”

“…Combined with previously observed gender differences in Turkey (Akbulut et al, 2008(Akbulut et al, , 2017 and its potential in hiring decisions (Koch et al, 2015), a significant gender difference in the fairness and invasiveness of cybervetting might be expected (Roulin & Liu, 2023).…”

“…Responses to statements ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). It has recently demonstrated acceptable measurement fit in China (Roulin & Liu, 2023). We used a back‐translation procedure, in which the first author translated the items into Turkish and two bilingual researchers independently retranslated them into English to confirm that the translations were identical and to resolve any inconsistencies.…”