Social constructionism is a body of knowledge of sociology and communication that scrutinizes the growth of a jointly constructed understanding of the world. According to Gergen (1992), it is a standpoint that understands human life to mainly exist as it does because of the social and interpersonal influences. There are two distinguishing factors of social constructionism; that of rejecting assumptions as pertains nature of mind and causality models and emphasizing the complexity and correlations between the multiple facets of people within their communities. According to Mills, Bonner, and Francis (2006), even though causality may exist within particular cultures, a lot of work is needed to do before describing this interconnectedness with any certainty. As such, social constructionism is perceived to involve challenging most of the common sense knowledge of people and the world they live in.
This paper is intended to examine how social constructionism can contribute to people’s understanding of recruitment practices. It explores the impact of current recruitment practices on the identities of individuals and uses social constructionism to challenge and question the mainstream view of these practices.