Question

My son plays basketball for a small private college in Iowa. During the recruiting process, the college coaches face an information asymmetry problem -- they can observe a recruit's playing skills by watching games and practice sessions, but they cannot gather full information about other personal characteristics that are important in college athletics (e.g., academic ability, work ethic and emotional maturity). For this reason, the college coaches use a variety of sources to learn about the recruits, including social media posts. Accordingly, the recruits are advised to be careful about what they post on social media. Many employers also use social media to learn about job candidates due to information asymmetry problems. Is this practice fair? Should employers use this sort of personal information to make decisions about potential work performance?

Answer 1

I think it is fair. Personal traits affects the overall performance in a great way. For example, let's say coaches recruits a person and finds out that he is very much into alcohol and drugs. This may increase their possibility of using performance enhancing drugs as well, which is prohibited.

Or if a person has joined many teams but has been thrown out do to disciplinary issues.

Therefore, these things will help one to get overall information to be aware. But the selection for team should take place only on the basis of game, rest can be mentored.