Full length articleTechnology adoption in employee recruitment: The case of social media in Central and Eastern Europe
Introduction
Social technologies are used in many organizational functions and for several purposes. Literature reviews of social media research provide evidence on their use in risk and crisis communication (Veil, Buehner, & Palenchar, 2011), sales and marketing (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012), public relations (Khang, Ki, & Ye, 2012), knowledge management and sharing (El Ouirdi, El Ouirdi, Segers, & Henderickx, 2015), and organizational communication (Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin, & Tao, 2015). Social media can also be used in human resource management, including for recruitment and selection (Tufts et al., 2014, Wolf et al., 2014).
The use of social media in employee recruitment, often referred to as ‘social recruiting’, includes different practices and offers several advantages. Recruiters use platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to post job ads, attract and recruit job applicants, and pre-screen applicants (Caers and Castelyns, 2010, Cain et al., 2010, Melanthiou et al., 2015, Ollington et al., 2013, Pike et al., 2013, Zide et al., 2014). As a result of this social media use, the recruitment process becomes more dynamic, relational, and authentic, and the employer brand and attractiveness are enhanced (Carrillat et al., 2014, Girard and Fallery, 2011, Girard et al., 2013, Henderson and Bowley, 2010).
The importance of studying social media use in recruitment and selection stems from the critical role of staffing practices in today's increasingly competitive and global talent market (Ployhart, 2006). The adoption of technology in recruitment is becoming a necessity for employers wishing to have a competitive advantage in the labor market, and attract scarce critical talent (Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2014). The examination of topic will thus provide numerous practical implications for recruiters, and fill several topical and methodological research gaps.
The present study was inspired by four primary gaps in the existing literature on social media use in employee recruitment and selection. First, while social media seem to gain popularity in employee recruitment and selection practices, many scholars noted a significant gap between research and practice, with early academic research being primarily non-empirical and lacking sound theoretical foundations (e.g. El Ouirdi et al., 2014b, Gibbs et al., 2015, Roth et al., 2013, Van Osch and Coursaris, 2015). Moreover, research is particularly needed on social media use in organizational contexts to address questions regarding the factors that facilitate or hinder their adoption (Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015). Second, despite the popularity of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a model of technology adoption in the organizational context, only a small number of studies applied it empirically (Dwivedi et al., 2011, Taiwo and Downe, 2013), hence the need for further replication. Third, research on technology adoption in recruitment and selection tends to focus on the U.S. context and on the applicants' perspective (Anderson, 2003). This gap prompts the need for more research from the recruiters' standpoint and in other countries. Fourth, given the importance of recruiters' characteristics, such as competence with new technologies, personality, and educational level, and their impact on innovation adoption in selection (Anderson, 2003), there is need to examine more recruiters' characteristics such as managerial position and education. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in three main ways: we contribute to the nascent but growing body of empirical evidence on social media adoption in recruitment; we focus on the recruiters' perspective, and investigate social media usage in the under-researched region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); and we replicate the UTAUT model and extend it by incorporating the recruiters' managerial position and educational level as potential moderators.
In the following sections, the study's theoretical background is presented along with a brief review of previous research on the UTAUT's application to social media adoption. Next, the research hypotheses are presented with a proposed extension of the model with the recruiters' managerial position and educational level as moderators, followed by the data analysis and findings. Finally, the results are discussed and research limitations highlighted. Future research suggestions and managerial implications are also presented.
Section snippets
Theoretical background
There are several user acceptance models that can serve as theoretical frameworks for studying technology adoption (Venkatesh, Davis, & Morris, 2007). Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003) developed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) based on the conceptual and empirical similarities of eight prominent models. The models incorporated in the UTAUT are the theory of reasoned action, the technology acceptance model, the motivational model, the theory of planned
Research model
The UTAUT attempts to explain the intention to use a technology as well as subsequent usage behavior, in mandatory or voluntary organizational settings, with four key constructs (Venkatesh et al., 2003). These constructs are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Previous research on social media acceptance provides preliminary support for some of the hypothesized positive impacts of these constructs on behavioral
Procedure and sample
The target population for this study consisted of human resource professionals involved in recruitment. Data were collected between March and June 2014, by an international human resources consulting firm, as part of a large research project on social recruiting. An email invitation to participate in the study was sent to the firm's database of recruiters. This procedure ensured consistency across countries in terms of instrument format, data collection, and survey timing (Schaffer & Riordan,
Sample characteristics
A total of 224 complete answers of recruiters from 10 CEE countries, including Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, were retained for this study (see Table 1). Respondents were over-represented by women (78.6%), young professionals born after 1981 (62.5%), non-managers (63.4%), and recruiters with no training on social media (68.8%). The participants were mostly university-educated with only 8.5 percent having a high school degree or less, and the majority reported being free to choose whether to use
Discussion
In this study, we applied the UTAUT model to social media adoption in employee recruitment in Central and Eastern Europe. In line with the hypotheses of the UTAUT model, the results of the present study showed that the intention to use social media in recruitment was reliant on the perception of their potential job-related gains, their perceived ease of use, and their perceived importance by socially influential individuals. The finding that performance expectancy was the strongest predictor of
Limitations and future research
This study's findings should be interpreted in light of the following limitations. First, our study used a cross-sectional dataset that relied on self-reporting for all variables. Despite the absence of common methods bias in this study, we recommend that future research include additional constructs from other sources, and employ longitudinal or experimental designs to infer causality. Second, the size of the sample was relatively small. A larger and randomized sample of participants in future
Conclusion and managerial implications
In conclusion, the present study applied the UTAUT to social media use in recruitment, and extended it by incorporating two additional moderators, namely the recruiters' managerial position and educational level. Despite its few limitations, this study's findings contribute to our understanding of technology adoption in organizational contexts, especially in the CEE region.
The findings of this study provide guidance to managers interested in introducing new technologies to their human resources
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