Public social network sites and social recruiting

Abby Peters, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

Social network sites (SNSs) are an increasingly popular form of social media used by individuals and organizations. As these platforms continue to transform the way people communicate with one another, they are simultaneously revolutionizing the way individuals interact with organizations. Part of this dramatic change is apparent in the processes by which organizations are recruiting employees and job seekers are pursuing employment. To investigate these phenomena, I employed the diffusion of innovations theory in a SNS context to examine the relationship between organizations' use of their corporate career website and their use of SNSs as recruiting sources. Subsequently, I used employer brand equity theory to test the relationship between job seekers' exposure to organizations' e-recruiting sources and their subsequent employer knowledge. I also paired employer brand equity theory with signaling theory to test for relationships among job seekers' organizational attitudes, application intentions, and job search behaviors, including the likelihood that individuals would make a connection to organizations on SNSs. Theoretical and practical implications from this study were drawn from testing how organizational use of SNSs fits into e-recruiting practices and influences job seekers, and how a shift to social recruiting may affect the recruiting function and the way individuals search for work.

Subject Area

Management|Information Technology

Recommended Citation

Peters, Abby, "Public social network sites and social recruiting" (2014). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI3636295.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI3636295

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