The impact of reputation and identity congruence on employer brand attractiveness

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend research on employer branding in the recruitment context. The authors develop a model that integrates research from employer branding, social identity theory, and person-organization fit in order to investigate the impact of company reputation and identity congruency between organizations and their job applicants on the attractiveness of an employer brand. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted to test the theoretical model in a recruitment context in the Norwegian offshore industry. Structural equation modelling is employed in the data analysis. Findings – A key finding is that a company’s reputation and identity congruence between applicants’ self-identities and their perceived organization identity affect job applicants’ job pursuit intentions through mediation of cognitive social identity. Moreover, identity congruence predicts applicants’ cognitive identification with the company. Practical implications – The study suggests that managers should try to map and understand central characteristics that describe job applicants’ identities and strive to provide applicants with access to necessary information about the company to form cognitive identification with the company. Originality/value – The authors extend research on employer branding by incorporating social identity and attitude as mediators between symbolic and instrumental attributes of an employer brand and its attractiveness. This study also deepens research on social identity by including explicitly a comparison process between applicants’ self-identities and their perceived organizational identity, which leads to applicants’ identification with the company.

Employer Brand Building: Using Social Media and Career Websites to Attract Generation Y

“…Highhouse et al (1999) even underline the fact that the overall perception of a company's reputation is the most important factor influencing the choice of potential employees. Research has shown that reputation is indeed a significant factor in the recruitment process (e.g., Berthon et al, 2005;Lievens et al, 2007, Xie et al, 2015. Millennials have become potential employees with different characteristics and expectations than previous generations (Ollivier & Tanguy, 2008).…”

“…Attracting "the best and the brightest" is one of the most crucial activities companies worldwide put a great deal of effort into (Weiss & MacKay, 2009). Human capital is vital for a company's survival and development, since human capital is its most valuable resource (Xie, Bagozzi & Meland, 2015). It is well known that firms with better reputations attract more as well as higher quality applicants (Cable & Turban, 2003).…”

Processes of Communication With Candidates in Employer Branding

“…Secondly, the recruitment forms require the candidates to be involved and the time devoted to completing them. On the other hand, if a candidate completes the form 30 .…”

The Connection of Employer Branding to Recruitment: A Critique

“…The instrumental attributes are described as the job or organization in terms of objective, concrete and factual attributes that the job or organization either has or does not have (Xie, Bagozzi & Meland, 2015). The examples for the instrumental attributes depicted are pay, bonuses, benefits, and possibility for career development.…”

“…Attracting the best and the brightest is vital for a company's survival and development since the human capital is a valuable resource that does contribute for the organization success (Xie, Bagozzi & Meland, 2015). As the talent shortage has been increased within the global context, to attract and retain the best talent in organizations the 'employer brand' has been significantly used during last three decades (Theurer, Tumasjan, Welpe & Lievens, 2016).…”