AI no matter what? A recruiter’s perspective on the use of artificial intelligence in personnel selection
Zusammenfassung
AI-based systems are reshaping personnel selection by promising significant gains in efficiency and decision objectivity. Yet, their deployment also introduces substantial technical, ethical, and psychological challenges. Despite recruiters’ pivotal role in implementing and enacting these systems in practice, their perspective remains underexplored. Prior research has largely relied on technology acceptance models focused on functional drivers, often neglecting the normative, affective, and contextual complexities of AI-based personnel selection. To address this gap, we draw on the Extended Valence Framework (EVF) and conduct a theory-informed, codebook-based thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews with recruiters. Our findings show that recruiters’ attitude toward the use of AI-based systems reflects an ambivalent and context-dependent evaluation shaped by perceived benefits, perceived risks, and trust. We further demonstrate that transparency constitutes a central, multidimensional basis for trust formation and that contextual factors shape how perceived benefits, risks, and trust translate into recruiters’ attitude. We contribute to research by refining and contextualizing the EVF for AI-based personnel selection, showing that its core constructs take on context-specific meanings and that recruiters’ attitude is structured by transparency and contextual boundary conditions. In doing so, we provide a more nuanced understanding of how recruiters evaluate AI-based systems in personnel selection contexts.
Schlüsselwörter
Artificial Intelligence (AI); Personnel Selection; Recruiters’ Perceptions; Technology Acceptance; Extended Valence Framework (EVF)