Background of the Case
Major players: Myself, job applicants, online job portals.
Background: With the advent of the social media and websites pertaining to social networking, several ethical dilemmas have come up. For instance, most employers these days have started checking or looking up the profiles of the prospective employees online. According to Stephen Bonner, Barclays Head of Information Risk Management, “We all know that Human Resources are not supposed to look at the Internet for information about job applicants – but most of them do” (Doyle, 2011). Being an HR (Human Resource) professional in charge of recruiting new employees, I have often faced this situation myself wherein I face a dilemma about the rightness of looking up the job applicants online.
Ethical question: “Is it right for an employer to look up the prospective employees / job applicant on social networking sites?”
In order to understand and reach a conclusion with regards to the correctness of the dilemma, we will have to reconsider the same with the help of the ethical theories presented to us by some of the philosophers. The section to follow will discuss the dilemma in view of these ethical theories and principles.
Ethical Principles Evaluation
According to Valerie Alia (2004, p.15), the ethical theories majorly surround four facets:
(1) Good consequences for all,
(2) Duties,
(3) Human rights, and
(4) Virtues and responsibilities
In the case of our discussion, let us evaluate each of these theories and establish the right direction for the dilemma faced. According to the first theory, also called as the utilitarian theory, as long the consequences are good for all concerned, nothing bad comes from doing the task involved. In the case mentioned above, looking up the prospective employees online does not provide the applicants with any harm – physical or mental – whatsoever. In fact, the company hiring is rather benefitted as it gets to know the job applicant even better. As said by Crane and Mitten in their book Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in The Age of Globalization (2007), “Even the most clairvoyant personnel managers and the toughest assessment centres are not unable to fully disclose the true capabilities of a future employee. From applicant’s real character upto issues like his or her health – these are still uncertain when the corporation hires a staff and commits to invest expensive training into them.” Hence, by way of this theory, there is nothing wrong in me / employer looking up a job applicant online.
Some theorists are of the view that duty should never be preceded by wont for own profit (Christians, Rotzoll, Fackler, McKee, & Woods, 2005, p.62). Even by way of this theory, since I am in a position of a recruiting manager, it is my duty to hire the best personnel for my company. The best way to ensure the same is by checking up the profiles of the job applicants and understanding the focus and aptitude of each, finally selecting the ones best suited for the job. Hence, even by virtue of duty, the ethical dilemma can be disregarded as well.
It is rather the third facet that becomes a concern for us when analyzing the ethical dilemma in question. When an employer looks up a job applicant online, it is a clear breach of privacy of the job applicant. This clearly makes way of violation of the human right and hence, makes a strong argument against the practice of the employers looking up the job applicants online.
Lastly, while by way of virtue, it is wrong for anyone to impeach upon the privacy of another fellow human being; by way of responsibility I am bound by the company I work for to hire best personnel.
Another theory as propounded by Kohlberg ad mentioned in Alia’s Media Ethics and Social Change (2004, p.17) says that motive is what matters most. As long as the motive is not negative, no action can be termed derogatory. In this sense, even if someone got accidentally murdered, since the motive was not murder, it may hence be pardoned as a simple mistake. In the case under discussion, since the motive is purely a gain for the company I work for, the actions taken by me in this respect cannot be admonished in their own right. What is more, my intention was not to harm the job applicant. The sole intention or motive on my behalf was to secure complete information about the job applicant so as to make the right choice when hiring and selecting people.
It may hence be propounded that employer looking up the job applicants online is not a negative thing as such. It simply enables the companies hire better personnel while making informed choices.
References
Alia, V. (2004). Media ethics and social change. London: Routledge
Christians, C.G., Rotzoll, K.B., Fackler, M., McKee, K.B., and Woods, R.H. Jr. (2005). Media Ethics: Cases And Moral Reasoning (7th ed.). London: Pearson Education Inc.
Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2007). Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in The Age of Globalization. London: Oxford University Press
Doyle, Eric (2011). A Chilling Message For Well-Connected Social Networkers. Eweekeurope.com http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/comment/a-chilling-message-for-well-connected-social-networkers-46677
