Question

You are the personnel manager of ‘ AllCure Pharmaceuticals’. It’s a busy time and the guys in the product approval department have called you up because they desperately need to hire a new team member to assist them with the clinical tests of what could become the next blockbuster drug for the company. You get to work and within a week have actually managed to get three well-qualified applicants for the job. The interviews went well and there are two really good applicants. Both are women, recent college graduates, and you find it hard to decide among them.

The clinical trials that the new hire will work on are very important. They require a very reliable, meticulous work attitude, but also good social skills to manage the different relations between the clinics, the approving authorities, and various departments in the company. A colleague suggests you check the two finalists out on MySpace, Facebook, or any other social networking site. Later at home, you go on Facebook, and yes, one of them is there! Surfing through the posts and her photos you see a very sociable, obviously well-travelled individual. The other candidate is a bit more difficult to locate. This is too bad, as she already has some work experience and is slightly better candidate of the two. Her details are only available to friends, but browsing through her list of some 400 friends, you find that one of your current interns is actually on her list. Next morning you ask you intern, who it turns out briefly met this second candidate on a course they took together at college years ago, whether you could have a look at the facebook page of the second candidate. Doing so, you make some interesting discoveries: not only do you find a number of photos of her at parties with precious few clothes on, but there are even two pictures where she enjoys what undoubtedly looks like a line of cocaine.

You thank your intern for her help and walk back to your office wondering what to do. You certainly do not want to hire someone who has this kind of reputation or where patients in trials or people from approving bodies say: “Heard about Dr. X? You really have to see these pictures….”

What are the main ethical arguments for and against the use of social network sites for potential employers in this situation? Use ethics terms and show the ramifications of choices made. Also look at all those involved.

Answer 1

Hiring shoudl be done for a candidate who is capable and qualified. During hiring there are many personnel managers who go through the social media pages like facebook of the candidate to decide whether the candiidate should be hored or not. But there are many questions that have been aoused on the point wheather it is ethical to use fb and instagram pages to decide over the hiring the candidate.

1. Pictures and content on social media pages no where reflect the professional qualification and the expertie of the candidate in the field of work. therefore, taking the decision on the basis of the information provided on the facebook pages can not be considered reliable for the work effectiveness. thus, choosing the candidate on such information is not ethical. looking to the pictures which is related to their personal life can actually influence the decision of te empoyer, as happened in this case also

2. Seeing the information on social media can impact the decision of hiring the candidate on the basis of wheather the candidate will be suitable of not. but deciding on the base of the information provided on social media it is not ethical and correct to decide the suitability of the candidate.

3. Another important ethical consideration that takes place is wheather the candidate should know that employer is surfing through the information on his or her profile. if the profile is public this ethical consideration can set back but for the private profiles, where the employer found someone common and look the profile, is a major consideration of wheather this is ethical? As happened in the above case the manager seek through the profile with the help of intern who was common friend. But the question is to what extent this was ehtical.

4. in addition to the situation where the employer is actually surfing through the profiles of the employee, there are also chances where employer post the vacancy or the job opening in the organaization. the question that arise, or the ethical consideration for this situation is who should post in behalf of the organization?

5. another reason for questioning the ethical is hacking. hacking the social media accounts these days is very common. it is not easy for the employer, to decide wheather the information provided is by the employee or the hacker.

along with teh negatives of using the social media there are many positive aspectes also,

for example,

1. social medias are good and large pool of employees and the upcoming candidates, such pool, make the work easier for the HR personnel as well as give themh more candidate options to HR.

2. looking at the social media sites can help the HR to point out if any inappropriate behavior is pointed