Shall We Go Digital or Stay Where We Are?

Abstract

Recent technological advancements have changed the way in which people communicate in general, and in business and management practices specifically. Digital personnel selection is one of the areas that has dramatic changes recently, where many companies shifting to use digital interviews as a screening tool to assess their job applicants using artificial intelligence rather than human assessors. Yet, limited research had examined applicant reactions to such novel technology or compared it to the video-conference and face-to-face interviews from the applicants’ point of view. This study used a sample of job applicants and assessed their fairness reactions to these procedures. The results showed that applicant favour and perceived face-to-face interviews significantly higher than video-conference and digital interviews. Also, applicants with high procedural justice perceptions were attracted to the organizations using face-to-face and digital interviews, however, their perceptions did not increase their intentions to accept the job offer. The implication for research and practice are discussed. Applicant’s high on openness to experience had a higher rating for process favorability of online interviews, whereas no significant differences were found for digital and face-to-face interviews.