Abstract
The technology of machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, will enable organizations to analyze their use and deployment of human resources (HR) in new ways that ultimately will allow them to manage more effectively, but it will also present challenges for HR managers who are unprepared. In this paper we discuss some of the legal and ethical concerns in the HR context that accompany machine learning. Legal concerns include possible violations of both US employment discrimination laws and the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation, while ethical concerns for HR revolve around employee desires for privacy and justice. We assess that some data analysis activities that are legal nonetheless might not be appropriate in some cases and might be demotivating to employees, resulting in lowered performance or even counterproductive behaviors if HR mishandles the context. We conclude by offering guidelines for HR managers to assess the appropriateness of machine learning projects.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We should also note that the impact on GDPR from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU is not currently fully known, especially in the employment context.
References
Adams, J. S. (1963). Toward an understanding of inequity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 422–436.
Algorithmia. (2020). How machine learning works. https://algorithmia.com/blog/how-machine-learning-works. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Angrave, D., Charlwood, A., Kirkpatrick, I., Lawrence, M., & Stuart, M. (2016). HR and analytics: Why HR is set to fail the big data challenge. Human Resource Management Journal, 26, 1–11.
Armstrong, M. (2016). Handbook of strategic human resource management (6th ed.). Kogan Page.
Barocas, S., & Selbst, A. (2016). Big data’s disparate impact. California Law Review, 104, 671–732.
Berry, C. M. (2015). Differential validity and differential prediction of cognitive ability tests: Understanding test bias in the employment context. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology & Organizational Behavior, 2, 435–463.
Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. S. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (pp. 43–55). JAI Press.
Black, S., Stone, D., & Johnson, A. (2015). Use of social networking websites on applicant’s privacy. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 27, 115–159.
Blumenthal, E. (2018). Facebook’s latest privacy scandal: What we know about the company’s handling of user data. USA Today. December 19. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/12/19/facebooks-latest-privacy-scandal-what-we-know-now/2361257002/. Accessed 16 Nov 2019.
Call, M., Nyberg, A., Ployhart, R., & Weekley, J. (2015a). The dynamic nature of collective turnover and unit performance: The impact of time, quality, and replacements. Academy of Management Journal, 58, 1208–1232.
Call, M., Nyberg, A., & Thatcher, S. (2015b). Stargazing: An integrative conceptual review, theoretical reconciliation, and extension for star employee research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 623–640.
Card, D. (2017). The “black box” metaphor in machine learning. https://towardsdatascience.com/the-black-box-metaphor-in-machine-learning-4e57a3a1d2b0. Accessed 21 Apr 2021.
Chakravorty, T. (2016). How machine learning works: An overview. https://thenewstack.io/how-machine-learning-works-an-overview/. Accessed 16 Nov 2019.
CNBC. (2019). Starbucks CEO talks artificial intelligence. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/01/25/starbucks-ceo-talks-about-how-artificial-intelligence-is-informing-businessstrategy.html?&qsearchterm=Starbucks%20CEO. Accessed 25 Jan 2019.
Cohen, I., & Mello, M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st century. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.5630. Published online May 24, 2018.
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. E. (2001). The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 278–321.
Colquitt, J. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 386–400.
Cropanzano, R., & Stein, J. H. (2009). Organizational justice and behavioral ethics: Promises and prospects. Business Ethics Quarterly, 19, 193–233.
Davison, H., Maraist, C., Hamilton, R., & Bing, M. (2012). To screen or not to screen: Using the Internet for selection decisions. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 24, 1–21.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (2020). Explainable artificial intelligence. https://www.darpa.mil/program/explainable-artificial-intelligence. Accessed 21 Apr 2021.
Dethlefsen, J. (2019). The ethics of machine learning and discrimination. https://vce.usc.edu/volume-3-issue-2/the-ethics-of-machine-learning-and-discrimination/. Accessed 16 Apr 2021.
Dobias, N. (2021). Virginia's Consumer Data Protection Act: What you need to know. https://www.pactsafe.com/blog/virginias-consumer-data-protection-act-what-you-need-to-know Accessed 14 Apr 2021.
Duhigg, C. (2012). How companies learn your secrets. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html. Accessed 1 Oct 2017.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (1978). Uniform guidelines on employee selection procedures. Federal Register, 43, 38290–39315.
European Commission. (2018). The GDPR: New opportunities, new obligations. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/data-protection-factsheet-sme-obligations_en.pdf. Accessed 20 June 2018.
Federal Trade Commission. (2016). Big data: A tool for inclusion or exclusion? Understanding the issues. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/big-data-tool-inclusion-or-exclusion-understanding-issues/160106big-data-rpt.pdf. Accessed 20 June 2018.
Frosh, B. (2021). Guidelines for businesses to comply with the Maryland Personal Information Protection Act. https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/Pages/IdentityTheft/businessGL.aspx. Accessed 14 Apr 2021.
Greenberg, J. (2011). Organizational justice: The dynamics of fairness in the workplace. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial/organizational psychology, 3 (pp. 271–328). APA.
Guzzo, R., Fink, A., King, E., Tonidandel, S., & Landis, R. (2015). Big data recommendations for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8, 491–508.
Hamilton, R., & Sodeman, W. (2020). The questions we ask: Opportunities and challenges for using big data analytics to strategically manage human capital resources. Business Horizons., 63, 85–95.
Heath, T. (2016). This employee ID badge monitors and listens to you at work — except in the bathroom. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/09/07/this-employee-badge-knows-not-only-where-you-are-but-whether-you-are-talking-to-your-co-workers. Accessed 24 Mar 2018.
Hewlett Packard Enterprises. (2016). Real-world applications of video analytics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72-R090y0pY. Accessed 26 Dec 2018.
IBM. (2015). IBM intelligent video analytics overview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUKpGLk9Ml8. Accessed 26 Dec 2018.
IBM. (2020). What is machine learning? https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/machine-learning. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Illingworth, A. (2015). Big data in I-O Psychology: Privacy considerations and discriminatory algorithms. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8, 567–575.
Konovsky, M. (2000). Understanding procedural justice and its impact on business organizations. Journal of Management, 26, 489–511.
Krotov, V. (2017). The Internet of Things and new business opportunities. Business Horizons, 60, 831–841.
LaForgia, M., Confessore, N., & Dance, G. (2018). Facebook rebuked for failing to disclose data-sharing deals. New York Times, December 18. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/technology/facebook-data-privacy-criticism.html. Accessed 16 Nov 2019.
Levenson, A. (2018). Using workforce analytics to improve strategy execution. Human Resource Management, 57, 685–700.
Loi, R., Lam, L., & Chan, K. (2012). Coping with job insecurity: The role of procedural justice, ethical leadership and power distance orientation. Journal of Business Ethics, 108, 361–372.
Marler, J., & Boudreau, J. (2017). An evidence-based review of HR analytics. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28, 3–26.
Mathworks. (2020a). What is deep learning? 3 things you need to know. https://www.mathworks.com/discovery/deep-learning.html. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Mathworks. (2020b). What is machine learning? 3 things you need to know. https://www.mathworks.com/discovery/machine-learning.html. Accessed 21 Mar 2021
McAbee, S., Landis, R., & Burke, M. (2017). Inductive reasoning: The promise of big data. Human Resource Management Review, 27, 277–290.
McIver, D., Lengnick-Hall, M., & Lengnick-Hall, C. (2018). A strategic approach to workforce analytics. Business Horizons, 61, 397–407.
Minbaeva, D. (2018). Building credible human capital analytics for organizational competitive advantage. Human Resource Management, 57, 701–713.
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2019). State social media privacy laws. http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/state-laws-prohibiting-access-to-social-media-usernames-and-passwords.aspx. Accessed 19 Nov 2019.
Nyberg, A., & Ployhart, R. (2013). Context-emergent turnover: A theory of collective turnover. Academy of Management Review, 38, 109–131.
Office of the Attorney General. (2021). California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). https://www.oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa. Accessed 14 Apr 2021.
Pande, A. (2017). Future of video analytics with cloud, big data and machine learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5Uyeg0DUE. Accessed 26 Dec 2018.
Peck, D. (2013). They’re watching you at work. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/12/theyre-watching-you-at-work/354681. Accessed 1 Oct 2017.
Porter, M., & Heppelmann, J. (2014). How smart, connected products are transforming competition. Harvard Business Review, 92, 64–88.
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Reuters. (2018). Amazon ditched AI recruiting tools that favored men for technical jobs. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/10/amazon-hiring-ai-gender-bias-recruiting-engine. Accessed 10 Jan 2019.
Reuters. (2019). Facebook’s Zuckerberg grilled in U.S. Congress on digital currency, privacy, and U.S. elections. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-congress/facebooks-zuckerberg-grilled-in-u-s-congress-on-digital-currency-privacy-elections-idUSKBN1X2167. Accessed 16 Nov 2019.
RSIP Vision. (2021). Exploring deep learning and CNNs. https://www.rsipvision.com/exploring-deep-learning/. Accessed 10 Mar 2021.
Sackett, P. (2002). The structure of counterproductive work behaviors: Dimensionality and relationships with facets of job performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 10, 5–11.
Saarikko, T., Westergren, U., & Blomquist, T. (2017). The Internet of Things: Are you ready for what’s coming? Business Horizons, 60, 667–676.
Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2016). Understanding counterproductive knowledge behavior: Antecdents and consequences of intra-organizational knowledge hiding. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20, 1199–1224.
Shell, E. R. (2018). The employer-surveillance state. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/10/employee-surveillance/568159. Accessed 10 Apr 2019.
Sheng, E. (2019). Employee privacy in the US is at stake as corporate surveillance technology monitors every move. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/employee-privacy-is-at-stake-as-surveillance-tech-monitors-workers.html. Accessed 27 Apr 2019.
SHRM. (2014). Code of ethics. https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/pages/code-of-ethics.aspx. Accessed 16 Feb 2021.
Spitznagel, E. (2019). Inside the hellish workday of an Amazon warehouse employee. https://nypost.com/2019/07/13/inside-the-hellish-workday-of-an-amazon-warehouse-employee/ Accessed 10 Mar 2021.
Stewart, M. (2019). Handing discriminatory biases in data for machine learning. https://towardsdatascience.com/machine-learning-and-discrimination-2ed1a8b01038. Accessed 16 Apr 2021.
Stone, M. (2020). IoT security explained. https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/security-essentials/internet-of-things-security-explained. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Stringfellow, A. (2019) The 52 best mobile apps for human resource (HR) managers. https://www.wonolo.com/blog/best-hr-apps/. Accessed 20 Dec 2019.
Thibodeaux, W. (2017). This artificial intelligence can predict how you’ll behave at work based on social media. https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/this-artificial-intelligence-can-use-social-media-to-tell-hiring-managers-about-your-personality.html Accessed 16 Nov 2019.
Thompson, S., & Warzel. C. (2019) Twelve million phones, one data set, no privacy. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html. Accessed 20 Dec 2019.
Tomczak, D., Lanzon, L., & Aguinis, H. (2018). Evidence-based recommendations for employee performance monitoring. Business Horizons, 61, 251–259.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 50(236), 433–460.
Walsh, D. J. (2019). Employment law for human resource practice (6th ed.). Cengage.
Warren, S., & Brandeis, L. (1890). The right to privacy. Harvard Law Review, 4, 193–220.
Waters, S., Streets, V., McFarlane, L., & Johnson-Murray, R. (2018). The practical guide to HR analytics. Society for Human Resource Management.
Zimmerman, L., & Clark, M. (2016). Opting-out and opting-in: A review and agenda for future research. The Career Development International, 21, 603–633.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Human and Animal Study
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Conflict of Interest
There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hamilton, R.H., Davison, H.K. Legal and Ethical Challenges for HR in Machine Learning. Employ Respons Rights J 34, 19–39 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09377-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09377-z