Screening Job Candidates with Social Media Twenty-first Americas Conference on Information Systems, Puerto Rico, 2015 1 Screening Job Candidates with Social Media: A Manipulation of Disclosure Requests Full Paper John R. Drake East Carolina University drakejo@ecu.edu Christopher Furner East Carolina University furnerc@ecu.edu Abstract In an attempt to find better employee organization fit, recruiters have turned to screening job candidates in part by reviewing their social media accounts. Job candidates may view these practices in a variety of ways, depending on the type of access requested and the individual characteristics of the job candidate. In this study, we measured changes in trust in the employer based on three increasingly intrusive disclosure requests and four individual characteristics. Findings from 162 participants suggest that a request for social media account logins reduces the trust in the employer, whereas collectivism, perceived privacy protection competence, and social media production increases trust in the employer. These findings have important implications for privacy research and for human resource screening practices. Keywords Social media, human resource, privacy, trust, culture Introduction The use of social networking sites (SNS), which facilitate web-content creation by non-technical users has been growing substantially over the past decade (Dewan and Ramaprasad 2014; Wu 2013). Of SNS, Aral et al. (2013, p. 3) contend “They represent one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business, both within and outside firm boundaries.” According to the Bureau of National Affairs (2000), the recruiting, selection and placing of new employees have been rated as the top three priorities of Human Resource (HR) professionals for over 15 years. Recruiters are faced with a complex search and optimization problem under uncertainty: they must attempt to match the skill sets of job candidates with the skill needs of their organization, while constrained by their ability to attract candidates given their financial resources and under uncertainty about the ability and motivation of the candidate to perform the activities which the organization needs to be performed. While the recruiters are likely to have a strong sense of the requirements of the jobs which they are attempting to fill, the majority of the uncertainty that they likely face is in regard to the ability and motivation of each candidate. In the interest of securing offers, job candidates endeavor to present themselves in the most positive light possible, often times engaging in deception (Furner and George 2012; Weiss and Feldman 2006). Increasingly, recruiters are using the social media profiles and activities of candidates a means to reduce uncertainty about the candidates (Brown and Vaughn 2011). Through SNS, recruiters may be able to determine if an individual spends their free time studying or engaging in recreational behavior, as well the relative stability of their personal relationships, their use of drugs and alcohol as well as their proclivity to use language which might not reflect well on the company. Indeed, a few recent stories have indicated that recruiters have even gone so far as to request the SNS passwords of individuals applying for jobs (i.e. O'Dell 2012). Job candidates are also faced with a complex optimization problem under uncertainty: they must attempt to elicit offers from multiple companies, then make tradeoffs between compensation, potential career growth opportunities and potential job satisfaction. Assessing potential career growth and satisfaction is wrought with uncertainty, and as such, job candidates must form attitudes about the employer based on