The Effect of Different Rejection Letters on Applicants’ Reactions

Abstract

Organisations appear to pay little attention to rejection letters, considered a special form of organisational communication, despite a growing body of literature that shows they play an important role in terms of employer branding. This study aims to empirically test how applicants’ perceptions are affected by differently manipulated rejection letters. In detail, a sample of 138 rejected candidates filled in an ad hoc questionnaire on perceived selection procedure fairness and satisfaction, after receiving a rejection letter where we had manipulated time latency, the politeness formula and customisation. Results suggest that providing a timely, customised and informal notification is something agreeable, which is able to affect, above all, fairness perceptions and intention to re-apply. In detail, the time latency in giving feedback appears to affect the relationship between fairness perception and organisational recommendation and acts more as a mediator rather than an antecedent variable. Considering that providing feedback is a relatively low-cost activity that at the same time has a big impact on job applicants, our results show that organisations should be sensitive to negative feedback communication, especially in relation to response time, in order to support their employer branding.

What Type of Explanation Do Rejected Job Applicants Want? Implications for Explainable AI

“…Earlier research has documented similar behavior [17]. Rapid feedback increases the likelihood of future applications [5] and female applicants are less likely to apply again after being rejected [4].…”

“…Only 14 of the 74 responses can be categorized as neutral or indifferent. 5 Of the 60 respondents who expressed negative feelings, 13 used the word "frustrated" or "frustrating", and 9 used the word "disappointed" or "disappointing". Examples of the responses expressing negative feelings are shown below.…”

Writing letters and emails in English: correspondence for the editorial office

“…Though it may be tempting to employ a letter template to reject a submission, Cortini et al [9] have shown that customizing a rejection letter affects the perception of fairness and intention to re-apply. Editors may customize a letter by addressing the recipient formally using the author's name and title ("Dear Professor Smith, " not "Dear Lisa, "); including the title of the submission; offering some lines of sincere praise for worthy aspects of the paper; and providing a gentle explanation as to why the manuscript is not suitable at this time.…”

Organizaciones justas: ¿es posible construirlas?

“…El uso de una rúbrica de evaluación, pruebas estandarizadas y un proceso de entrevistas que pueda ser realizado por al menos un miembro independiente de la organización pueden aumentar la percepción de justicia del futuro trabajador. Desde el punto de vista comunicativo, se debe explicar al aspirante cómo funciona el proceso de selección y cuál es el perfil esperado para el candidato a ocupar la posición vacante (Giannantonio Cristina, 2019; Konradt et al, 2015;McCarthy et al, 2017), estas explicaciones se ha visto que aumentan la percepción de justicia procedimental (Melchers & Körner, 2019), sin embargo, en la literatura científica se expresa que aún falta investigación sobre los mensajes, el contenido y las consecuencias de presentar esta información a las personas interesadas en un cargo (Cortini, Galanti, & Barattucci, 2019).…”