Recruitment‐Related Information Sources and Organizational Attractiveness: Can Something Be Done About Negative Publicity?

Abstract

The present study begins to fill a gap in the recruitment literature by investigating whether the effects of negative publicity on organizational attractiveness can be mitigated by recruitment advertising and positive word-of-mouth. The accessibility-diagnosticity model was used as a theoretical framework to formulate predictions about the effects of these recruitment-related information sources. A mixed 2 Â 2 experimental design was applied to examine whether initial assessments of organizational attractiveness based on negative publicity would improve at a second evaluation after exposure to a second, more positive information source. We found that both recruitment advertising and word-ofmouth improved organizational attractiveness, but word-of-mouth was perceived as a more credible information source. Self-monitoring did not moderate the impact of information source on organizational attractiveness.

Tapping the grapevine: A closer look at word-of-mouth as a recruitment source.

“…Our results probably best generalize to well-known large organizations with a strong employer brand. Whereas our findings with respect to positive wordof-mouth are consistent with previous recruitment research in other contexts (Collins & Stevens, 2002;Van Hoye & Lievens, 2005), the results are less consistent for negative word-of-mouth (Van Hoye & Lievens, 2007). Given the scarcity of previous research, additional research is needed to investigate word-ofmouth in other settings and countries.…”

“…In a student sample, Collins and Stevens (2002) observed a strong effect of receiving positive word-of-mouth on perceived organizational attractiveness and self-reported application decisions. Furthermore, a lab study by Van Hoye and Lievens (2005) found that exposure to positive word-of-mouth enhanced students' perceptions of organizational attractiveness after receiving negative publicity. However, neither study considered negative word-of-mouth, even though both positive and negative word-of-mouth have been found to influence consumers' attraction to products (Bone, 1995).…”

“…According to the accessibility-diagnosticity model, company-independent sources such as word-of-mouth are more credible and therefore more diagnostic than company-dependent sources such as advertising (Pornpitakpan, 2004;Van Hoye & Lievens, 2007). In addition, the framework suggests that personal sources such as word-of-mouth are more accessible than impersonal sources such as mass media publicity (Herr et al, 1991;Van Hoye & Lievens, 2005). Therefore, we expect word-of-mouth to account for incremental variance in organizational attraction beyond potential applicants' exposure to other sources.…”

Whom to Believe: Recruiting Information Source Credibility and Organizational Attractiveness

“…Indeed, the number of sources of information has increased significantly with the advent of the internet as a tool for gathering information about organizations (Dineen, Noe, & Ash, 2002). In addition, researchers have noted that both positive and negative information is available in the labor market (Van Hoye & Lievens, 2005), which would make it likely that applicants will find a significant amount of conflicting information about organizations. For example, perhaps the organizational recruiter indicated that the organization maintained an employee-friendly culture, while a recent business magazine reported on a sexual-harassment lawsuit.…”

“…First, one gap in our understanding of how information about job attributes influences organizational attractiveness deals with a lack of information about the source from which organizational attribute information is received (Van Hoye & Lievens, 2005). Recent research has illustrated that the behavior of job seekers evaluating organizations is consistent with the elaboration likelihood model (Jones, Shultz, & Chapman, 2006), suggesting that heuristic cues, such as information source, may have a significant impact on the way in which they process job and organizational information.…”