Social Networking and personality Paul Deakin and Rob Bailey OPP - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Social Networking and personality

Paul Deakin and Rob Bailey OPP Ltd 20th July 2011

Agenda

• A quick overview of the range of our findings
• Social Networking – patterns and implications

Rob Paul

Getting to know you…

What was the purpose of the research?

to ‘bring the 16PF to life’ by identifying links between personality traits and real world outcomes in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and France.

How did we collect the data?

• Nationally representative samples of people of working

age

• 4 countries:
• UK & Ireland (n=1,212)
• France (n=1,140)
• Netherlands (n=558)
• Online data collection (Feb-Mar 2011)
• 16PF personality questionnaire, plus additional survey

items covering a range of topics

• Focus of this webinar is UK & Ireland findings

Key survey themes

Description of theme Social networking

Extent of use, communication modes, use of specific technology, reasons for use, attitudes towards privacy

The workplace

Current role, general work preferences, career progression, job satisfaction, workplace behaviours

Demographic factors

Gender, age, marital status, ethnic origin (UK only), birth order, education level

Leadership

Positions of leadership held outside work, how want to be led

Stress

How stressed by different aspects of life, how stress is managed

Reaction to recession

Concern about recession, how affected, actions taken during recession, taking advantage of situation

Health and wellbeing

General health, accidents, happiness, hobbies, pets

Beliefs and attitudes

Politics, vegetarianism, life after death

Relationships

Personality match with partner, satisfaction with relationship

• Cats and dogs
• Public speaking
• Hobbies by nationality,

personality and gender, etc

Pet ownership

• 59% of people own a pet.
• 32% own a dog
• 27% own a cat
• 10% own BOTH a dog and a cat
• Across all pet categories, women were the more likely gender to own

the pet (with the exception of birds; 66% of bird owners were men.)

• Dog owners:
• work involving „associating with others in a nurturing, sympathetic way, and having

them seek advice or comfort‟ more likely to appeal.

• „working in a highly structured environment, being methodical, systematic and

precise; liking to deal with facts and figures or organising information‟ was less appealing.

• Cat owners:
• Work involving „self-expressive behaviour, e.g. art, music, design, writing, acting

composing etc‟ was more appealing.

Pet Ownership and 16PF – what does your pet say about you?

• Dog owners
• Higher on Warmth
• Higher on Liveliness
• Higher of Extraversion (global factor)
• Cat owners
• Lower on Liveliness
• Lower on Social Boldness
• Higher on Abstractedness
• Higher on Openness to Change
• Higher on Self Reliance
• Lower on Tough Mindedness (global factor)

Stress

What do people find stressful?

Public speaking 81%

– most stressful

Making big decisions 77% Being at work 64% Looking at bank balance 63% Christmas 62% Meeting new people 59% Travelling on public transport 57% Socialising 49% Driving 47% Going on holiday 47% Shopping 45%

– least stressful

• Women find all the above more stressful than men, apart from……..Shopping!
• In fact, 18% of women reported shopping as a stress reliever, compared to only

7% of men

• Women also more likely to „talk to family/friends‟ to relieve stress compared to men

Hobbies

• What do we like to do in our leisure time?

Top 5 in UK & Ireland, Netherlands and France:

• Internet
• Listening to music
• Watching TV
• Reading
• Cooking

Typically 40-60% of us like to do these So, how different are we?

Social Networking

Rapid recent growth of Social Networking Sites (SNS) 540 million users 41 million users

• There is confusion amongst employers and job-seekers

about how best to use SNS

• Great examples and horrible examples
• Often undisciplined and knee-jerk use of SNS

How to use SNS effectively

• A Vision for the Future of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0 (June

2011) Jeffery and McKee, published in the Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership

“This is pretty scary for modern corporations. Business can no longer control what is said. Today there is a shift in the balance of power. Technology is shifting the power away from the publishers, media, the elite, corporation to us, the people. Recruiters need to embrace this, as must as their PR & Marketing departments.”

Branding messages…

• There's a reason that The Home Depot is ranked No. 25 on the Fortune 500 List
• f Companies in 2009 — Customer Service. In addition to being consistently

recognized as one of America's favorite specialty retailers, we're also one of the largest employers of military personnel in the U.S. and Canada. And, we've established seven associate resource, led by teams of our associates to implement initiatives developed to support diversity within our company. So, why are we such stringent supporters of hiring military personnel and fostering diversity within our ranks? It's simple: We believe the greater the diversity of our people, the greater our ability to serve our customers. But don't just take our word for it. See what our associates have to say.

• As a retired military member that served as a the U.S. Marine Corps Officer for 21

years, I’ve had the pleasure, privilege and opportunity to work in positions of increasing responsibilities with The Home Depot since my employment in September

• 2003. I’ve held positions of leadership in the store and now as a business partner at

the Store Support Center (corporate office). It’s been an exciting and fun journey because The Home Depot emphasizes and embraces the same core values taught in my former professional career as well as my family upbringing.

• O. Emerson III, Government Compliance Manage, Store Support Center, Atlanta, GA

Time for research and policies

• Inconsistent use by employers

is a major cause for concern

• It opens employers up to

perfectly reasonable legal challenges

• There is a need for guidance
• We‟ll cite Brown and Vaughn

(2011) The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: The Use of Social Networking Site in Hiring Decisions

• Today, we will look at

personality and SNS use

Findings

• We will discuss these points:
• Where and how did we get the data?
• Who‟s using SNS, what are they like?
• Who would look at the SNS profile of

employees?

• Who wouldn‟t want to be looked at?
• What attitudes are there towards

privacy?

• What did we find about integrity and

impression management online?

How did we collect the data? – a reminder

• Nationally representative samples of people of working

age

• 4 countries:
• UK & Ireland (n=1,212)
• France (n=1,140)
• Netherlands (n=558)
• Online data collection (Feb-Mar 2011)
• 16PF personality questionnaire, plus additional survey

items covering a range of topics

• Focus of this webinar is UK & Ireland findings

Social networking findings

• 93% of people communicate via email in their personal lives
• 54% use social media
• 38% instant messenger
• 35% internet phone
• Females spending significantly more time using social media than

males

Social networking findings

Personality traits linked to higher usage:

• Relating to others

+ Warmth – attentive to others + Social Boldness – socially confident – Self Reliance – team-oriented – Privateness – willing to self-disclose + Liveliness – energetic & exuberant

• Thinking style

+ Warmth – takes account of feelings of others + Sensitivity – emphasises subjectivity + Abstractedness – takes a broader view, reflective + Openness to Change – open to new experiences & change

• Other factors

– Emotional Stability – less calm than most – Rule-Consciousness – less bound by rules

Audience question 1:

Facebook at your work. Is it: (a) prohibited (b) encouraged (c) neither (d) I don‟t know

Audience question 1:

Facebook at your work. Is it: (a) prohibited (39%) (b) encouraged (7%) (c) neither (38%) (d) I don‟t know (16%)

Audience question 2:

Have technological advances (e.g. social media, smart phones) improved or reduced the standard

• f communication?

(a) improved (b) reduced (c) no difference

Audience question 2:

Have technological advances (e.g. social media, smart phones) improved or reduced the standard

• f communication?

(a) improved (50%) (b) reduced (34%) (c) no difference (16%)

Who feels standards of communication have been improved? In short…… Extraverts!

Online privacy

How concerned are we with online privacy when putting personal information on social networking sites?

• 27% very, 30% moderately, 33% slightly, 10% not concerned at all

Those showing less concern:

• exhibited a more unrestrained style

+ Liveliness – more spontaneous + Abstractedness – more reactively focused – Rule-Consciousness – less bound by rules – Perfectionism – less concerned with planning

• were also:

– Vigilance – more tolerant of others – Apprehension – less self-critical – Privateness – more willing to self-disclose – Sensitivity – more logical

‘Lindsay’

Boss: “Hi Lindsay, I guess you forgot about adding me on here?... you also seem to have forgotten that you have 2 weeks left on your 6 month trial period. Don't bother coming in tomorrow. “I'll pop your P45 in the post and you can come in whenever you like to pick up any stuff you've left here. And yes, I'm serious.”

Lindsay: “OMG, I HATE MY JOB!! My boss is a total pervvy *******…”

Almost two-thirds of people (63%) stated that they wouldn‟t change their character when online. Of those who use social networking sites,

• nly 9% believed that their presence on

these sites had ever compromised their professional reputation.

is not immune

“My old dad, God rest his soul, always told me “If you have nothing good to say about someone (or something), say nothing." “Obviously, your dad either taught you something else or you weren't

• listening. My guess is you weren't listening, 'cos you're not able to listen

to anyone else's view here.” “Give it a rest, before you start to look ridiculous.”

is not immune

Can you substantiate any claims with actual, verifiable independent

• numbers. Yes or No.

Time to put up or shut up.

Questions to consider

• 1. How likely would you be to look at a potential

employee‟s online presence prior to interviewing them? 2: How comfortable would you feel if someone interviewing you researched your presence on social networking pages?

Our survey results

• 1. How likely would you be to look at a potential

employee‟s online presence prior to interviewing them? 45% not likely 29% somewhat likely 18% likely 9% very likely

Our survey results

• 2. How comfortable would you feel if someone interviewing you

researched your presence on social networking pages? 27% not comfortable 26% somewhat comfortable 28% comfortable 19% very comfortable Interestingly, 11% of people stated that they would be „likely‟ or „very likely‟ to look at an interviewee‟s social networking information, but would NOT be comfortable with an interviewer looking at their social networking information.

Unauthorised downloading

Do you download unauthorised files (music, films, and applications) from the Internet?

• Approx 20% say „Yes‟

Significant gender difference – men were significantly more likely to download unauthorised files from the Internet than women. People who downloaded unauthorised files from the Internet were (amongst other things):

• Lower on Warmth
• Lower on Rule Consciousness
• Lower on Apprehension
• Lower on Impression Management

They were, however, high on…..honesty!

Implications

We will now discuss implications for:

• HR Policy
• How employers could use SNS

positively

• Advice for candidates
• Differences between LinkedIn

and Facebook

SNS isn’t something to take seriously?

• Consider SNS searches in pre-employment
• Risk of adverse impact
• Ideal for covert discrimination: private, biased, not

recorded; it could help weed out people, e.g. for:

• Colour
• Gender
• Age
• But not those who don‟t use Social Networking
• Could unwittingly contravene The UK Equality Act 2010

An example inspired by Brown and Vaughn (2011)

• You search for an applicant‟s SNS presence and

find a picture of him, a young man, unconscious

• n the bathroom floor
• What do you think of that?
• What do you do with his application?

Interpretations

• He‟s drunk at a party
• It‟s a joke photograph, willingly posed by the

young man

• Friends have made a practical joke by

photographing him after he fell asleep there

• He has a medical condition
• He has alcohol dependency

Apply the same standards as to other assessments

• Is it fair?
• Is it valid?
• Is it reliable?
• Have you documented the process?
• Is there a policy?
• What constitutes a reason for screening out?
• What constitutes a reason for sacking an existing

employee?

Our recommendations

• Candidates should lock down their Facebook

privacy settings

• LinkedIn should be used openly and professionally
• Employers should ban pre-employment searches of

Facebook and Google for candidates and should have considered approaches to the use of LinkedIn

• Consider how existing policies of gross misconduct

and bringing the organisation into disrepute cover SNS use

More information available…

• www.opp.eu.com
• Click on 16PF

Conclusion

• Social networking sites are not naturally

respectful of privacy, reputation and control

• Employers and employees need to take care!

Conclusion

• Thank you for getting to this slide!
• Expect more from us on other topics soon
• Thank you to the team at OPP, but especially to

Heather Coop for her careful analysis of data

Questions and answers