The Role of Procedural Justice and Entitlement in a New World of AI-Controlled Recruitment Solutions

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more present in today’s society than ever before, and the benefits from utilizing its many qualities in a recruitment setting have become a central topic for discussion among researchers over the last couple of years. The purpose of this study was to explore how the use of AI in recruitment may impact candidate’s perception of fairness and likelihood to recommend the company to a friend or reapply sometime in the future if given the opportunity. This purpose led to our research question; “To what extent; (1) Does reconsideration opportunity as a feature of an AI-assisted recruitment process facilitates a better candidate experience? (2) Does exposure to this feature result in a greater experience of reconsideration opportunity, and – in turn, greater intention to recommend a friend to apply or to reapply in the future? Moreover, (3) does psychological entitlement moderate how candidates perceive and react to AI-assisted recruitment and selection decisions, or is it an outcome of a procedurally unjust process?". To answer our research question, we conducted several experiments with a between-subject design, all in classrooms, where we used an online questionnaire to collect the data. We manipulated the experiment by separating the respondents randomly into two conditions, one who got the opportunity to get an HR manager review their results (i.e., reconsideration opportunity), and one group who did not. We found that candidates who received the reconsideration opportunity experienced the recruitment process to be fairer than the ones who did not. Our findings also suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between experienced rconsideration opportunity and interest of reapplying in the future. However, Psychological entitlement was not found to affect the perception of fairness in a AI-assisted recruitment process, suggesting that even if you feel entitled to a position you would not percieve the recruitment process to be less fair. Our research shows how a positive sense of procedural fairness is linked to a higher chance that candidates would reapply in the future, and experienced reconsideration opportunity is found to greatly mediate this relationship.