Business Ethics Discussions Essay

Introduction

Social media should not be used to screen potential employees because of the many negatives associated with such. First among these is that such comprise an action which leads to discrimination on the basis of race, gender, among others. Profiles on the social media are rich in personal information. They sometimes include uploaded photos of the person. In the case that the potential employer views the profile, he or she directly views these photos.

The view of the photos can in the end influence the choice of the employer, according to the ideological beliefs held especially those relating to gender and race as these are easily decoded when the photos are appear. If these assessments inform the selection of the employee, then the employee has been discriminated on gender or race, or any other ground, which is unacceptable in employment (Klososky, 2011, p. 61).

Besides the outright discrimination, the idea of ‘popping’ into the potential employee’s profile can also lead to unfair treatment of the potential employee during interview.

It leads to potential employee being treated badly in interviews. This is true thinking of question that may arise such as, “are you such a drinker as you indicated in your profile on a certain social site?’

When one is to hear this during an interview, then such is bound to be angry towards the whole process because these questions relate to personal views and interests and thus cannot be explained to anyone else. Besides, social media is personal. Each individual needs to be given in the advantage of knowing that there is no one spying on them (Bernstein, 2010, p. 9).

Biopolitics theory

This theory defines existence of parts of individual and parts of society as separate. According to the theory, each individual possesses power, as well as sovereign rights which cannot be alienated (Lemke, 2011, p. 45).

According to biopolitics, because individuals make the society, the individual is sovereign to any intrusion by the society. According to the theory, any breach of the powers and sovereignty of the individual by the society has to be voluntarily agreed on by the individual to maintain a proper relationship between the individual and society.

In the context of employee recruitment, the potential employee represents the individual and the social media represents the power and sovereignty which is possessed by such as an individual. In the same situation, the employer represents the society which interacts with the individual. Basing on the biopolitical theory, the norm of the interaction would thus be that the employer first asks permission from the employee on whether they can view their profiles.

This permission is what in the biopolitical theory is referred to as voluntarily agreement. The permission represents the only point at which entrance into the social media right of the employee by the employer could be allowed. In the situation that the intention to use these sites has not been communicated to the employee, the employer would definitely be going against the theory.

According to the biopolitical theory, violation of the power balance has consequences. Such include the influence of ideology to negatively impact the individual. As the theory holds, when these principles of consent and sovereignty are abused, the individual becomes exposed to the prospect of having opinions developed on him or her that he or she does not understand (Lemke, 2011, p. 46). This would evidently be the case when the employee uses the social media without seeking consent.

The impact of this is that the employer would develop an opinion on the employee without the employee knowing the existence of such. Because opinion influences interaction, it basically means that the opinion developed affects how the employer interacts with the potential employee without the former knowing the source of such ideology. This is an abuse to the social interaction rules which require disclosure from both sides.

As another aspect, the biopolitical theory identifies that violation of this theory is not good because such has the potential of influencing the outcome of a vote. In relation to the employee recruitment drive, this case means that the employer though this violation has a high chance of being influenced into taking the employee or declining to employ solely on the basis of what was found out from the social media profile of the potential employee (Klososky, 2011, p. 61).

This would be a sad precedence. This is because it ignores two important points on hiring. First is the point that there is a competently administered interview to select the best among the applicants. When they are voted out from the social media content it is important also to recognize that such is not a competent interview because the interview is not present. Besides, doing this voting from the social media content is comprises not giving each of the applicants a fair chance at the job.

This in the end comprises discrimination because it assumes those who have good profiles are good while those who have non-impressive ones are bad. Considering that the differences between profiles on social media could only be on the ground of choice by each on what to include and what to avoid, the whole selection process could come out as a failure on the part of the employer because it is based on wrong assumption, ideology and attitudes on the employee.

Conclusion

After the above discussion, it is true to conclude that the use of the social media to look for information on employees, though sometimes well intended, will always lead to abuse of the right and privileges of the potential employee as a person.

As discussed, this act will comprise discrimination of the employee on unconfirmed grounds as well as on gender and racial divide. According to the paper, such should be avoided because besides the above, it may also leads to the employer getting wrong assumptions on the potential employee or even hire cheats.

References

Bernstein, D. A. (2010) Essentials of psychology. S.l., Wadsworth Pub Co.

Klososky, S. (2011) Manager’s guide to social media. New York, McGraw-Hill.

Lemke, T. (2011) Biopolitics: an advanced introduction. New York, New York University Press.