Self-presentation and hiring recommendations in online communities: Lessons from LinkedIn

We built a field study with 14 self-presentation categories of job seekers.Self-presentation messages with higher argument quality affect P-J and P-O fits.Self-presentation messages with higher source credibility increase perceived P-P fit.Perceived P-J fit and P-O fit affect recruiters' hiring recommendations.Perceived P-P fit does not affect recruiters' hiring recommendations. This study investigated how a job seeker self-presentation affects recruiter's hiring recommendations in an online communities and what categories of self-presentation contribute to fit perceptions for obtaining hiring recommendations. The study participants viewed potential candidates' LinkedIn profiles and responded to questions regarding the argument quality and source credibility of their self-presentations, fit perceptions, and hiring recommendations. The results show that recruiters make inferences about job seekers' person-job fit and person-organisation fit on the basis of argument quality in specific self-presentation categories, which in turn predict recruiters' intentions to recommend job seekers for hiring. Although certain specific categories of self-presentation offering source credibility have positive associations with person-person (P-P) fit perception, there is a non-significant relationship between perceived P-P fit and hiring recommendations.