Does candidates' social media information affect recruitment decisions? An experimental study in the context of evaluator characteristics

This thesis is based on the question "How do candidates' social media contents affect the recruitment decisions of the evaluators and what is the effect of the evaluators' characteristics on these decisions?". The answer to the question was revealed as a result of an empirical study conducted with managers and human resources professionals who are responsible for recruitment in the tourism sector. In this study, which was carried out by creating a fictional scenario, the participants were asked to think of themselves as an official responsible for recruitment in a hotel and to think that they would recruit for the position of sales-marketing manager. In this study conducted with a control group and two experimental groups, they were asked to evaluate two different candidates with standard (Candidate A) and highly qualified (Candidate B) resumes. The resumes and social media content of these candidates were prepared fictionally. In the control group, only the resumes of the candidates were given. In Experiment 1 group, in addition to the resumes of the candidates, non-professional social media content about Candidate A and professional social media content about Candidate B were given. In Experiment 2 group, professional social media content about Candidate A and non-professional social media content about Candidate B were given in addition to candidates' resumes. In this study, the recommendation to hire the candidate was evaluated by the participants according to three independent variables. The first independent variable is the extent to which the candidate fulfils the requirements of the position (knowledge, skills, experience, etc.), i.e. professional competence. The second independent variable is the evaluators' perception of the person-organisation fit of the candidate. Another variable of the research is the personality traits of the evaluators. The manipulation variable of the research is the candidates' social media content. Data were collected from 480 respondents recruiting in the tourism sector from all over Turkey, mainly from the Mediterranean and Aegean regions. IBM SPSS Statistics 26 and Smart PLS 4 statistical analysis programmes were used for data analysis. Frequency analyses, mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis, t-test and ANOVA, explanatory factor analysis and reliability analyses were performed with SPSS; Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was preferred to create and test the validity and relationships between variables in the structural model. As a result of the research, the manipulation effect of social media content was tested in the experimental groups and it was seen that despite the resumes of the candidates, professional and non-professional social media content affected the evaluators' decisions about the candidates. In addition, it was determined that the qualities affecting the preferability in recruitment differed depending on the social media content of the candidates. Another result of the study is that the personality traits of the evaluators affect their intention to hire candidates and this effect differs according to the social media content of the candidates. It was observed that different personality traits of the participants in the control, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 groups affected their intention to hire candidates. The theoretical background of the study is based on Signalling Theory. When the results of the study were examined, it was seen that the evaluators perceived the information obtained from the social media profiles of the job applicants as signals regarding the professional competencies of the candidates and the person-organisation fit. In the light of all the results, it is thought that the study will contribute to the literature in terms of theory and practice. Keywords: Recruitment, social media, person-organisation fit, professional competence, personality, Signaling Theory, experimental study.