Question

Is it ethical for an organization to post a job in which it has little to no intention of filling? Why or why not?  

Answer 1

Today, in many organizations, it has become a common practice to invite applications from candidates for the positions that are already occupied or are vacant, but the organization has no intention of filling the vacant positions. The objective for indulging in such an unethical behaviour varies from company to company. However, a common reason that most of the modern day recruiting managers would admit is to interview the candidates from the competing firms and take out information about their respective company’s internal strategies, future plans, etc. The candidate from a particular industry with relevant experience with leading firms are invited and are directly shortlisted for the interview without any formal hiring structure. The candidates are then asked questions on their current projects, the strategies that they are deploying, what are the resources they are utilizing, etc. The candidates with the hope of getting the job makes sincere revelations and in the process, end up revealing sensitive information about their employer to its competitors.

These are some of the new tools of doing competitor analysis and taking out first hand, credible information from the key people who are actually involved in strategic projects of the company. It is completely unethical for an organization to post a job in which it has little to no intention of filling. Not only does it hurts the sentiments of the candidates coming for the recruitment process, it also wastes their valuable resources such as time, money and energy. Such unethical practices puts bad light on the whole industry and results in one firm gaining undue competitive advantage over other firms in the industry. There have also been instances when organizations invite applications from the candidates for a particular position and end up offering some completely unrelated position at the time of hiring. All these practices are unethical in nature and the human resource managers should refrain from incorporating these practices in their organizations.