Summary of the Social Media Use in HRM

Kluemper,
Kluemper, D.
D. H.,
H., Mitra,
Mitra, A.,
A., &
& Wang,
Wang, S.
S. (2016).
(2016). Social
Social Media
Media use
use in
in HRM.
HRM. Research
Research in
in
Personnel and Human Resources Management, 153–207.
Personnel and Human Resources Management, 153–207.

The authors in this study assessed the rapid evolution of social media has impacted the

field of human resource management in numerous ways. Social media are digital Web 2.0

applications that facilitate interactive information, user-created content, and collaboration

(see Elefant, 2011). Social media exists entirely on the Internet or portals that can access

the Internet (e.g., computers, tablets, and cell phones). Applications are different

technological mechanisms to connect people and information. The most popular and

well-known social media applications are SNWs. SNWs are a subset of social media and

meet the following three broad criteria: (1) they are an online service that allows users to

build a profile within the network, (2) they allow users to build a list of other users that

they share a connection with, and (3) they allow users to view and to navigate the

information created by other users on the social network (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

The focus of the research study is to discuss the existent research, describe the

theoretical foundations of such work, and summarize key research findings and themes

into a coherent social media framework relevant to HRM. Finally, this research study

offer recommendations for future work that can enhance knowledge of social media’s

impact in organizations.
 The HRM-related social media concepts are organize into four categories. The first

includes external organizational stakeholders, such as branding, organizational image,

and attraction of job applicants. The second includes employment selection using SNWs,

which includes a range of topics such as privacy, discrimination, negligent hiring,

validity, reliability, generalizability, impression management, applicant reactions, and

possible screening approaches. The third category consists of social media use to improve

organizational functioning and includes the topics of productivity, engagement and

teamwork, training, knowledge management, social capital, organizational culture, and

leadership. The final category introduces how social media may lead to counterproductive

work behaviours such as cyberloafing and the potential for employee disciplinary action.

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) create a classification scheme by creating three categories

for “social presence/media richness” (low, medium, high) and two categories for “self-

presentation/self-disclosure” (low, high). This creates six categories of social media: (1)

blogs (low/high), (2) SNWs (medium/high), (3) virtual social worlds (high/high), (4)

collaborative projects (low/low), (5) content communities (medium/low), and (6) virtual

game worlds (high/low). The researchers expand on this classification scheme, including

aspects of social media that are related to human resource management, such as project

management systems, information sharing systems, virtual learning environments, and

engagement development platforms. This is to identify the categories of social media that

are pertinent to each of the HRM-related concepts and to clarify the types of social media

relevant to a broad range of HRM-related literatures.

The conclusion that social media is an important asset to organizations, which if handled

strategically, can benefit them by simplifying and augmenting several critical human

resource management functions and processes encompassing personnel selection,

employee engagement, teambuilding, employee productivity, and organizational image.

At the same time, social media also serves as a potential liability for organizations, which

likewise needs to be managed effectively. As such, the researchers believe that social

media is in the early stages of what is likely to be a continually changing dynamic for

nearly every aspect of human resource management. Despite the dynamic and impactful

impact of social media on the organizational environment, more academic study is

needed in virtually every area of this nexus between social media and HRM.

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