Abstract

This paper analyses a number of published articles that focus on social networking sites which work as a recruitment tool for employers due to the prevalence of online personal profiles on these online platforms. These articles, however, vary in their explanations of the benefits of a job-related social networking sites such as LinkedIn, and the issue of inauthenticity in representations of professional self. Utz (2015) observes the positive aspects of LinkedIn regarding professional informational benefits and the success in referment to career opportunities. Other articles draw attention to the reasons why online profiling may be unreliable sources for recruitment. This paper examines Utz’s (2015) ideas about this job-related network in comparison to the suggestions in other research articles that recruitment decisions should not necessarily be made on such platforms due to inauthenticity of self-presentation and the prevalence of impression management, arguing that LinkedIn is not a reliable recruitment tool due to the influences of false identities and the lack of authenticity of one’s professionalism.

Keywords: social networking sites, recruitment, personal profiles, inauthenticity, LinkedIn

Introduction

Although social networking sites like LinkedIn can be used as recruitment tools, the online profiles of users are constructed identities and there demonstrate inauthentic representations of a professional self.  Professional self-presentation online relates to the way in which one presents themselves through an online profile in a respectful and appealing manner to make a strong first impression for a professional audience such as potential employers (Mistry, 2016). Numerous studies have been conducted on the reliability of using social networking sites, specifically job-related, as a mode of recruitment for employers by the information displayed on one’s personal online profile (Utz, 2015; Aresta, 2015; & van de Ven, 2017). Results from these researches are contradictory as there are suggestions that social networking platforms provide accurate representations of professional self-identity whilst some other studies reveal that such platforms experience significant issues involving inauthenticity of self-presentation and impression management. Notably, the discussion of this paper falls under the stream of ‘Identity in Communities and Networks’ as it explores the aspect of identity within a job-related social network. Utz (2015) takes a positive approach by observing the successfulness of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool through the exploration of professional informational benefits, whilst other studies suggest a disadvantaging argument on the topic. To properly understand the authenticity of self-presentation in online profiles, it is important to consider the core purpose of a job-related social networking sites like LinkedIn is as well as the influences of impression management and inauthentic profiles. This paper explores the value of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool through comparing the studies either revealing LinkedIn’s positive influence on job seeking or its limitation involving some users’ inauthentic profiles.

To contribute to a greater understanding of the social networking site LinkedIn, Ford and Lim (2011) provide an introduction to the social media tool; explaining how it works and why it is a helpful and beneficial network to be used in any profession (p.48). Creating a LinkedIn profile requires a user to display their name and photograph along with descriptions of previous experience, education, any recommendations and an executive summary and skill set (Ford & Lim, 2011, p.49). It is also explained that the networking platform allows beneficial connections to be made between hopeful employees and potential future employers (Ford & Lim, 2011, p.49).

Utz’s (2015) article uses a framework involving social capital to determine how and whether the use of a publicly accessible networking platform such as LinkedIn is related to professional informational benefits (p.2685). In this case, social capital is related to LinkedIn users’ achievements based on the information and influence that their profile has on the groups or individuals that access the profile (Utz, 2015, p.2686). This was determined through an online survey among a representative sample of Dutch online users. The findings of this research suggest that users of LinkedIn achieve higher informational benefits when compared to non-users (Utz, 2015, p.2685). Utz suggests that informational benefits in a professional context include ease in accessibility of important information, ability to receive information faster than others, and increased possibility of referrals e.g. being recommended to others for a job or promotion (Utz, 2015, p.2686). The results of this study may be congruent with the belief that social network platforms such as LinkedIn are valuable sources for employers to use when recruiting.

Van de Ven, Bogaert, Serlie, Brandt and Denissen (2017) investigate the accuracy of concluding the self-rated personality traits of an online profile owner based on the profile they have created for themselves on a job-related social networking site (p.418). Online users are more likely to be more cautious when posting information or content on a job-related social networking sites like LinkedIn as opposed to a network like Facebook (van de Ven et al., 2017, p.420).  Van de Ven et al.’s (2017) findings suggest that profile owners on job-related networking sites are likely to be aware of the people that may view their profile including colleagues, potential employers or customers, resulting in them posting online more deliberately and carefully (p.420).

Impression management is a process of which requires people attempting to influence the image others have of them; being a prominent and important social influence strategy that is used in organisational contexts (Huang, Zhao, Niu, Ashford & Lee, 2013). Huang et al. (2013) argue that job insecurity is a significant prompt in the use of impression management strategies within the workplace. Their study proposes that job insecurity acts as a motive for engaging in social influence attempts by using impression management as these behaviours are employed to protect people’s self-images and influence the perceptions that authorities or significant others may have on them (Huang et al., 2013). It is believable that maintaining a job is generally, for most people, an important goal; therefore, creating a positive workplace image or identity becomes majorly goal-relevant, thus influencing how people present themselves in their online profiles. (Huang et al., 2013). Chiang and Suen (2015) also argue that impression management is primarily studied in the context of employment interviews, however, it has been noted that job seekers may implement online impression management strategies to create the desirable image for their potential employers.

Online environments have emerged and created spaces for individuals to develop on the construction and reconstruction of self-identity (Aresta, Pedro, Santos & Moreira, 2015). Aresta et al. (2015) discuss the importance of building a specific self-representation in online contexts whilst also addressing the differences between one’s identity in both online and physical environments. Social networking sites allow people to construct a version of themselves that can be produced, edited and deleted depending on the individual desires of the user creating a profile. Aresta et al.’s (2015) study proposed the idea of context-driven online identity profiles, that is, an individual will edit his/her profile on an online platform; according to the context and the characteristics of the specific platform. Therefore, in job-related online platforms, job seekers might attempt to demonstrate the traits which are more likely to attract their potential employers.

Michikyan, Subrahmanyam & Dennis (2014) present a study that examines the connection between two different personality types: extraversion and neuroticism and compared the presentation of a reality identity and a false identity in social networking sites. This article suggests that certain characteristics of personalities can be used to predict various forms of online self-presentation (Michikyan et al., 2014). Results of analysis revealed that those who may experience self-doubts are likely to further self-explore online whilst people who suffer from emotional instability may be strategic when creating their online self-presentation to display an ideal and false identity (Michikyan et al., 2014).

Discussion

In 2015, Utz made statements to suggest that social networking sites, specifically job-related ones, such as LinkedIn are valuable forms of recruitment. Whilst this statement is significantly controversial with a large number of additional research and studies examining the disadvantages of online profiles with the issues of impression management and inauthentic self-presentation, there may be a variety of factors that impact on the effectiveness of the counter arguments. Although studies suggest that LinkedIn is a problematic recruitment tool due to issues of profile inauthenticity and false online impressions, considerations of the demographics and sizes of survey samples and user profiles on non-job-related sites should be made when exploring the potential limitations of the argument that LinkedIn is an unreliable form of recruitment.

Limitations of These Studies

Utz’s argument in itself presents a limitation regarding the fact that results from the study remain unclear as to whether LinkedIn as a network platform contributes to and increases informational benefits or whether there happens to be a large majority of successful people using the social networking site. Other limitations relating to the counterargument of this may be results from demographic restrictions, technological constraints, and issues of modality.

Demographic limitations. The study conducted by Utz (2015) suggests that LinkedIn is a successful recruitment tool through comparing three publicly accessible social networking sites; LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. However, the representative sample of online users in this study is limited to a population of Dutch people as the study was conducted in Germany. Although the results emphasise the reliability and success of using LinkedIn for recruitment among Dutch online users, it didn’t consider whether this is the case for the rest of the world. Demographic limitations are also present in Huang et al.’s (2013) review of research on the issue of impression management influencing how people create their online self-presentation on job-related social networks. The study conducted a survey on 271 Chinese employees and supervisors. Its result is also subject to the demographic limitation. Thus, it is unclear as to whether or not the issue of impression management is the same among other countries. Michikyan et al.’s (2014) study examines the link between extraversion and neuroticism with the notions of real, ideal and false self-presentations online involved results of self-written reports from 261 young adults. This demographic does not provide reliable data for the topic of this paper as it is limited to young adults. Whilst many young adults may use the networking site LinkedIn, the larger majority of the demographic of LinkedIn users are above the age of 25. Therefore, a study should be conducted involving people of age 25 and above in order to gain a better understanding of online self-presentations.

Technological limitations. This same study by Michikyan et al. (2014) focuses more specifically on the social networking site Facebook. As Facebook is not a job-related networking platform, the information that users provide in their profiles may be different to the information they provide on LinkedIn as both platforms target different audiences; friends and family, and future employers, respectively. Thus, the results reviewing personality characteristics and their effects on online self-presentation are not completely valid when discussing inauthentic online profiles on job-related social networking sites and their effects on job recruitment. Van de Ven et al.’s (2017) research focusing on whether personality traits are able to be predicted by looking at one’s online profile on a job-related networking site like LinkedIn also has technological limitations. Results from the study explain that traits can be predicted on social networking sites such as Facebook, however, it remains unclear as to whether or not this is possible with job-related platforms as it was only found that LinkedIn profiles may predict forms of self-presentation to a certain degree.

Modality limitations. Ford & Lim (2011) simply addresses the affordances of the social network LinkedIn and the benefits that may be experienced by users instead of focusing on any disadvantages that may result from the inauthenticity of online profile creations and false identities being displayed through impression management. The statements made by Ford & Lim (2011) are led by assumptions that all users create realistic profiles with an unedited or manipulated self-presentation. If this was definitely the case, it would be fair to conclude that LinkedIn is a beneficial networking site for recruitment, however, it can not be known for certain whether all user profiles are completely authentic and not false, idealistic presentations of one’s self; therefore, this conclusion is not entirely effective. To gain a better understanding on the reliability of the success of LinkedIn, the factors of inauthentic professional self-presentations and impression management should be considered.

Suggestion for Future Study

To be able to obtain a complete understanding of the effects of inauthentic self-presentations and impression management in online profiles on job-related social networking sites such as LinkedIn, it is necessary to conduct a study that covers some aspects of both the positive and negatives of the networking platform itself as well as the prevalence and significant influences of identity manipulation or misrepresentation in online profiles. Although it is merely impossible to conduct a survey involving an entire population, it may be useful to examine larger samples of LinkedIn users and compare the profiles of these users with their online profiles on other networking platforms, as this may make the process of concluding more valid results that determine how online profiles can affect recruitment on job-related networking sites a lot easier.

References

Aresta, M., Pedro, L., Santos, C., & Moreira, A. (2015). Portraying the self in online contexts: context-driven and user-driven online identity profiles. Contemporary Social Science, 10.

Chiang, J. K-H., & Suen, H-Y. (2015). Self-presentation and hiring recommendations in online communities: Lessons from LinkedIn. Computers in Human Behavior, 48.

Ford, C., O., & Lim, J. (2011). Are You Linked In? Journal of Accountancy, 211(3), 48-51.

Huang, G., Zhao, H., H., Niu, X., Ashford, S., J., & Lee, C. (2013). Reducing Job Insecurity and Increasing Performance Ratings: Does Impression Management Matter? Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(5).

Michikyan, M., Subrahmanyam, K., & Dennis, J. (2014). Can you tell who I am? Neuroticism, extraversion, and online self-presentation among young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 33.

Mistry, L. (2016). Personal Presentation – An Overview. Youth Employment UK.

Utz, S. (2015). Is LinkedIn making you more successful? The Informational benefits derived from public social media. New Media & Society, 18(11), 2685-2702.

van de Ven, N., Bogaert, A., Serlie, A., Brandt, M., J., & Denissen, J., J.A. (2017). Personality perception based on LinkedIn profiles. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 32(6), 418-429.