Job‐Seeker Reactions to Selection Process Information in Job Ads

Using a policy‐capturing methodology, the current study examines if and to what extent individuals utilize selection process information contained in job ads in making evaluations of organizational attractiveness and decisions to apply. Results show both indirect and direct evidence that individuals do attend to and use these cues when presented in job ads in making initial job‐pursuit evaluations. Additionally, the results are consistent with a model derived from the organizational justice literature suggesting that perceptions of selection procedures' measurement accuracy may drive the observed effects. Specifically, ratings of organizational attractiveness and intentions to apply were significantly associated with perceptions of a given selection method's assessment accuracy for those ads that specified its use. Policy‐capturing results also show direct evidence that participants attend to and rely on selection process information in job ads to make job‐pursuit evaluations, and that perceptions of measurement accuracy are related to the degree to which, and how those cues are utilized. Research and applied implications are discussed.     

A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN JOB INFORMATION SOURCES, APPLICANT PERCEPTIONS OF FIT, AND WORK OUTCOMES

This longitudinal field study was designed to examine the relationships between job information sources, self-esteem, and perceptions of person-job (P-J) and person-organization (P-O) fit, as well as the relationships between perceptions of fit and work outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, intentions to quit, stress symptoms, and turnover). The results indicate that the number of formal job information sources and self-esteem were positively related to perceptions of P-J fit, and formal job information sources were positively related to perceptions of P-O fit. Perceptions of P-J fit were positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, and negatively related to stress symptoms and intentions to quit. Perceptions of P-O fit were negatively related to intentions to quit and turnover. In addition, perceptions of fit mediated the relationships between job information sources and self-esteem with job satisfaction, intentions to quit, and turnover. These results highlight the job applicant's perspective of fit, and demonstrate the importance of both P-J and P-O fit perceptions.     

Applicants' and Employees' Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moderating Effects of First‐Party Justice Perceptions and Moral Identity

This research explored individuals’ reactions to perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a multimotive framework. In 2 studies, the authors explored the boundary conditions of CSR effects among job applicants and internal employees. A scenario‐based experiment (N = 81) showed that the effect of CSR perceptions on job applicants’ job pursuit intentions was mitigated by applicants’ first‐party justice experiences, whereas it was amplified by their moral identity (Study 1). Survey data from 245 full‐time employees (Study 2) further supported the interactive effects revealed in Study 1. Specifically, first‐party justice perceptions attenuated the positive relationship between employees’ CSR perceptions and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB); and the relationship between CSR perceptions and OCB was more pronounced among employees high (versus low) in moral identity. Our findings bridge the CSR and organizational justice literatures, and reveal that the effects of individuals’ CSR perceptions are more complicated than previously thought. The findings shed light on micro (employee)‐level CSR phenomena and offer implications for both research and practice.     

Recruiting Global Travelers: The Role of Global Travel Recruitment Messages and Individual Differences in Perceived Fit,Attraction, and Job Pursuit Intentions

Organizations often require managers to travel globally to fill international roles. Attending to fit with an organization's need for international mobility and global openness during recruiting could increase the proportion of effective global managers in an organization's applicant pool. We use recruitment research and theory to develop and test a conditional process model of the relationship between recruitment messages and job seeker perceived fit, attraction, and job pursuit intentions, depending on job seekers’ global openness and willingness to travel globally. Recruitment messages include information about a job's travel requirements and the global presence of the business. Two studies were undertaken to test our hypotheses. Analyses were conducted with conditional process modeling using nonlinear bootstrapping. Study 1, involving 230 job seekers, found that applicants’ willingness to travel interacted with recruiting messages about a job's global travel requirements to relate to job pursuit intentions through perceived job fit and job attraction. Study 2, involving 260 participants recruited through Mechanical Turk, indicated that global openness interacted with a global recruitment message, and willingness to travel interacted with a travel recruitment message, to relate to job pursuit intentions through job and organizational dimensions of perceived fit and attraction.     

MANAGING DIVERSITY: HOW ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORTS TO SUPPORT DIVERSITY MODERATE THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ON AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT

Using the interactional model of cultural diversity, we examined whether the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on affective commitment can be mitigated by perceived organizational efforts to support diversity. Across 3 studies, we found that perceptions of workplace racial discrimination are negatively related to affective commitment. In 2 out of 3 studies, this negative relationship was attenuated as employees perceived more organizational efforts to support diversity. Studies 1 (mostly Whites) and 2 (mostly Hispanics) showed that organizational efforts to support diversity attenuate the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on affective commitment. However, in Study 3 (African Americans), results showed that when organizational efforts to support diversity are high, the negative relationship between perceived racial discrimination and affective commitment became stronger. Studies 2 and 3 also extended these results by showing that the interaction of perceived racial discrimination and organizational efforts to support diversity indirectly influences turnover intent.     

Work-life benefits and job pursuit intentions: The role of anticipated organizational support

The current study examined the impact of two work-life benefits, work schedule flexibility, and dependent care assistance, on applicants' intentions to pursue jobs with potential employers. The study also explored whether anticipated organizational support would mediate the relationships between these two work-life benefits and job pursuit intentions. Results indicated that although work schedule flexibility, dependent care assistance, and salary were all related to job pursuit intentions, only schedule flexibility, and dependent care were related to anticipated organizational support. Findings also indicated that anticipated organizational support fully mediated the effects of work schedule flexibility and dependent care assistance on job pursuit intentions. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of organizational support as a mediating mechanism through which work-life benefits influence more distal outcomes, and in terms of implications for organizational recruiting strategies.     

The Influence of Diversity Context on White Men's and Racial Minorities' Reactions to Disproportionate Group Harm

Abstract

The author examined the influence of organizational diversity management on White men's and racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when members of their identity group were disproportionately harmed in a layoff. Using a scenario design, the author studied the reactions of 284 White male and racial minority layoff survivors under 2 different diversity contexts. White men saw the layoff as less fair to their group when other White men were laid off disproportionately in an active-diversity context versus an inactive-diversity context. Racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when other minorities were laid off disproportionately were not influenced by the diversity context, but they perceived the layoff as more fair to their group in an active-diversity context when White men were laid off disproportionately. The findings suggest that during layoffs or other significant organizational changes where job insecurity is heightened, different identity groups might perceive diversity management differently.     

A Longitudinal Study of Applicant Reactions to Multiple Selection Procedures and Job and Organizational Characteristics

This longitudinal field study aimed to: (a) examine the relative importance of reactions to psychological tests compared to interviews; (b) compare reactions to selection procedures with perceptions of job and organizational attributes; and (c) examine the relative importance of job acceptance intentions assessed at different stages. Graduate applicants were surveyed at four time points: pre‐selection, after an external interview, after psychological tests and internal interviews, and after actual job acceptance decision. Reactions to psychological tests were unrelated to attractiveness and acceptance intentions, whereas mixed findings were reported on reactions to interviews. Mostly, the findings showed that perceptions of job and organizational attributes explained significant variance in attractiveness and job acceptance intentions, whereas reactions to selection procedures were unrelated. The hypothesis that acceptance intentions closest in time to job acceptance decision would be more strongly related to job acceptance decision compared to intentions assessed at early stages was not supported. In general, the results emphasised the relative importance of initial attitudes of applicants in understanding applicant reactions.     

The influence of ethnic identity on perceptions of organizational recruitment

This study adapts an information processing perspective and incorporates the construct of ethnic identity (Phinney, 1990) into research on perceptions of one method of organizational recruitment, the use of recruitment brochures. Based on theory in developmental and cross-cultural psychology, we posited ethnic identity moderates the impact of recruitment brochures on recruitment outcomes (i.e., inferences about the organization and job pursuit intentions). Quantitative and qualitative data provided moderate support for this proposition. Regardless of race, individuals with higher levels of ethnic identity made more positive socio-emotional inferences about the nature of work life in an organization (i.e., the organization’s treatment of employees and the relationships among employees) and had greater job pursuit intentions when recruited with a brochure that contained a diversity initiative than when recruited with a brochure without a diversity initiative.     

Are You Attracted? Do You Intend to Pursue? A Recruiting Policy-Capturing Study

This study examines the relative importance of four factors: job factors of pay and promotion, and two organizational image factors: lay-off policy and ecological rating, on recruits' attraction or job pursuit. We identify that factors determining potential job recruits' attraction to an organization may not equate with the factors that prompt job pursuit intentions. Using a sample of business students and policy-capturing methodology, results show ecological rating most strongly predicted attractiveness, while pay most strongly predicted job pursuit intentions.     

A Compositional Analysis of the Organizational Climate-Performance Relation: Public Schools as Organizations

The present study examined specific aspects of organizational climate related to job satisfaction, employee turnover, and organizational performance in public elementary schools. Survey data were obtained from school staff and students and from school district archives. Hypotheses tested included: (1) Employee perceptions of organizational climate and job satisfaction, when aggregated to an organizational level, would represent group-level constructs; (2) Employee perceptions of positive organizational climate would be associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational performance and with lower levels of employee turnover; (3) Relations of organizational climate to organizational performance and to employee turnover would be mediated by employee job satisfaction; and (4) Employee perceptions of positive organizational climate and job satisfaction would be associated with less achievement disparity between minority and non-minority students. Study results supported all but one hypothesis. There was no evidence for the mediating effects of job satisfaction on relations of organizational climate to organizational performance and to employee turnover. Results were consistent with the broader organizational literature, which has shown the importance of orderly work environments, collegial relations, and supportive leaders for effectively functioning groups and organizations.     

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION: ARE DIVERSITY CLIMATE PERCEPTIONS THE KEY?

Given considerable racial differences in voluntary turnover ( Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 , Table 28), the present study examined the influence of diversity climate perceptions on turnover intentions among managerial employees in a national retail organization. The authors hypothesized that pro-diversity work climate perceptions would correlate most negatively with turnover intentions among Blacks, followed in order of strength by Hispanics and Whites (Hypothesis 1), and that organizational commitment would mediate these interactive effects of race and diversity climate perceptions on turnover intentions (Hypothesis 2). Results from a sample of 5,370 managers partially supported both hypotheses, as findings were strongest among Blacks. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, White men and women exhibited slightly stronger effects than Hispanic personnel.     

Person–job fit versus person–organization fit as predictors of organizational attraction and job acceptance intentions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal field study examined the relationship between perceived person–job (PJ) and person–organization (PO) fit and organizational attraction, intentions to accept a job offer, and actual job offer decision. Data were collected from 193 graduate applicants prior to the selection process, during the selection process, at the end of the selection process, and after job acceptance decision. The findings showed support for the hypothesis that perceptions of PJ and PO fit influenced attraction at different stages of selection. The second hypothesis that the relationship between perceptions of PJ and PO fit and intentions to accept a job offer are mediated by organizational attraction was partially supported. Mid‐selection, the relationship between PJ fit perceptions and intentions to accept a job offer was mediated by organizational attraction; in contrast, at the end of the selection process, there was a direct relationship between PJ fit perceptions and intentions. PO fit perceptions were unrelated to intentions to accept a job offer. PJ and PO fit perceptions (before and during the selection process) were unrelated to actual job acceptance decision. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that applicants have sufficient information about the job during the recruitment and selection process.     

Diversity cues on recruitment websites: investigating the effects on job seekers' information processing

Although job seekers' motivation to process the information encountered during recruitment partially influences recruitment success, little is known about what motivates more thorough information processing. To address this issue, we integrated recruitment and social information processing theories to examine the possibility that diversity cues on recruitment websites influence website viewers' processing of presented information. Utilizing a controlled experiment and a hypothetical organization, Study 1 revealed that both Blacks and Whites spent more time viewing recruitment websites and better recalled website information when the sites included racial diversity cues. These relationships were stronger for Blacks, and organizational attractiveness perceptions mediated these effects for Blacks but not for Whites. Study 2 found similar relationships for Black and White participants viewing real organizational recruitment websites after taking into account perceived organizational attributes and website design effects. Implications of these findings for recruiting organizations are discussed.     

Crossing the Threshold: The Spillover of Community Racial Diversity and Diversity Climate to the Workplace

We examined the spillover of community diversity to the workplace using a sample of 2,045 professionals living in communities across the U.S. Spillover effects were examined using 2 measures of community diversity: the degree to which employees were racially or ethnically similar to others in their community and perceptions of their community's diversity climate. Aligned with theories of group threat and racial segregation, Whites who were racially dissimilar to their communities expressed stronger intentions to leave their communities, and ultimately their workplaces, than those living in primarily White communities. However, community diversity climate offset these relationships; Whites who lived in communities that were racially dissimilar to them, but experienced the climate as inclusive, had lower moving intentions than those in communities that were experienced as racially intolerant. In contrast, for people of color, community diversity climate, rather than racial similarity to the community, predicted moving intentions. For both groups, the diversity climate in the community predicted moving intentions, which in turn predicted work turnover intentions, job search behaviors, and physical symptoms of stress at work. These findings suggest that the intention to leave one's community, and ultimately one's workplace, is influenced by community experiences and the community's perceived diversity climate.     

A Mediated Moderation Model of Recruiting Socially and Environmentally Responsible Job Applicants

Socially and environmentally responsible organizations must attend to the fit of employees with the values of the organization. Recruiting practices are a key tool for ensuring fit with an organization's culture and values. We develop and test a model of the process through which recruitment information about an organization's social and environmental responsibility values differentially affect job seeker perceived fit, attraction, and job pursuit intentions depending on job seekers’ desire to have a significant impact through work. Our model of mediated moderation is tested with a sample of 339 actual job seekers using conditional process modeling and nonlinear bootstrapping techniques. Results support expectations that advertisement messages about an organization's social and environmental responsibility values interact with applicants’ desire to have a significant impact through work to influence job pursuit intentions through the hypothesized mediational process. Implications of the model for research on recruitment and organizational social and environmental responsibility are discussed.     

The influence of diversity context on white men's and racial minorities' reactions to disproportionate group harm

The author examined the influence of organizational diversity management on White men's and racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when members of their identity group were disproportionately harmed in a layoff. Using a scenario design, the author studied the reactions of 284 White male and racial minority layoff survivors under 2 different diversity contexts. White men saw the layoff as less fair to their group when other White men were laid off disproportionately in an active-diversity context versus an inactive-diversity context. Racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when other minorities were laid off disproportionately were not influenced by the diversity context, but they perceived the layoff as more fair to their group in an active-diversity context when White men were laid off disproportionately. The findings suggest that during layoffs or other significant organizational changes where job insecurity is heightened, different identity groups might perceive diversity management differently.     

Effects of Pro-Environmental Recruiting Messages: The Role of Organizational Reputation

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a pro-environmental corporate message on prospective applicants’ attitudes toward a fictitious hiring organization. Drawing from signaling theory, we hypothesized that an environmental message on the organization’s recruitment website would increase prospective applicants’ perceptions of organizational prestige, which would then increase job pursuit intentions. Personal environmental attitudes were also examined as a possible moderator. Design/Methodology/Approach  Participants (N = 183) viewed a web site printout that either did or did not contain a message indicating the organization’s environmental support. Participants rated their attitudes toward the environment, perceptions of the organization, and job pursuit intentions. Findings  Findings demonstrated that the environmental support message positively affected job pursuit intentions; further, this effect was mediated by perceptions of the organization’s reputation. Contrary to the person–organization fit perspective, the message’s effects on job pursuit intentions were not contingent upon the participant’s own environmental stance. Implications  These findings highlight the importance of corporate social performance as a source of information for a variety of job seekers. Even relatively small amounts of information regarding corporate social performance can positively affect an organization’s reputation and recruitment efforts. Originality/Value  In general, this research contributes to the growing body of literature on corporate social responsibility. It is the first study to test whether the effects of pro-environmental recruiting messages on job pursuit intentions depend upon an applicant’s personal environmental stance. In addition, this is the first study to demonstrate reputation’s meditational role in the effects of corporate social responsibility on recruitment efforts.     

Web-based recruitment: effects of information, organizational brand, and attitudes toward a Web site on applicant attraction

Recruitment theory and research show that objective characteristics, subjective considerations, and critical contact send signals to prospective applicants about the organization and available opportunities. In the generating applicants phase of recruitment, critical contact may consist largely of interactions with recruitment sources (e.g., newspaper ads, job fairs, organization Web sites); however, research has yet to fully address how all 3 types of signaling mechanisms influence early job pursuit decisions in the context of organizational recruitment Web sites. Results based on data from 814 student participants searching actual organization Web sites support and extend signaling and brand equity theories by showing that job information (directly) and organization information (indirectly) are related to intentions to pursue employment when a priori perceptions of image are controlled. A priori organization image is related to pursuit intentions when subsequent information search is controlled, but organization familiarity is not, and attitudes about a recruitment source also influence attraction and partially mediate the effects of organization information. Theoretical and practical implications for recruitment are discussed.