Greet Van Hoye

Investigating Web-Based Recruitment Sources: Employee Testimonials vs. Word-of-Mouse

Although the internet has dramatically changed recruitment practices, many web-based recruitment sources have not yet been investigated. The present study examines the effects of web-based employee testimonials and web-based word-of-mouth (i.e., word-of-mouse) on organizational attraction. The source credibility framework is used to compare these company-dependent and company-independent recruitment sources. In a sample of potential applicants for a head nurse position, word-of-mouse was associated with higher organizational attractiveness than web-based employee testimonials. However, potential applicants were more attracted when testimonials provided information about individual employees than about the organization. Conversely, word-of-mouse was associated with higher organizational attractiveness and more organizational pursuit behavior when it focused on the organization instead of on employees. Most of these effects were mediated by credibility perceptions.

Moving beyond job search quantity: Towards a conceptualization and self-regulatory framework of job search quality

Job seeking is an important aspect throughout people’s careers. Extant theory and research has focused on one particular dimension of job search, that is, intensity/effort (i.e., job search quantity), posing that intensity/effort importantly affects employment success. The present conceptual paper extends job search theory by arguing for the importance of job search quality in explaining job search and employment success. We conceptualize job search quality as consisting of process quality and product/behavior quality, and propose that high-quality job search products/behaviors are more likely with a high-quality job search process. A four-phased cyclical self-regulatory model is presented, specifying the components of job search process quality. We build theory regarding the interrelations between quality components, the antecedents and outcomes of job search quality, and the moderators of these relations. This theory offers new and more detailed explanations for previous findings, directions for future research, and practical guidelines regarding (re)employment success and services.

The effects of sexual orientation on hirability ratings: An experimental study

Despite its rising importance, empirical research about sexual orientation in the workplace is still scarce. This experimental study examined if gay candidates, with the same work-related qualities as heterosexual candidates, would be judged less favorably in a personnel selection context. Written candidate profiles were varied in a 3 × 3 between-subjects factorial design, with candidate quality and sexual orientation as experimental variables. Our results indicated that the hirability ratings of 135 selection professionals were based on candidate quality and that no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation occurred. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Recruiting Through Employee Referrals: An Examination of Employees’ Motives

As previous research focused on the outcomes of employee referrals, not much is known about its determinants. This study examined employees’ intrinsic, prosocial, and extrinsic motives for encouraging versus discouraging others to apply with their employer. In a sample of 232 employees from two organizations, job satisfaction, the desire to help job seekers find good fitting jobs, the desire to help the organization find good fitting employees, and rewards predicted positive referrals. Negative referrals were motivated by job dissatisfaction and the desire to help job seekers avoid bad fitting jobs. Moreover, in the organization rewarding employees for making referrals, more positive and less negative referrals were made than in the organization without referral program.As previous research focused on the outcomes of employee referrals, not much is known about its determinants. This study examined employees’ intrinsic, prosocial, and extrinsic motives for encouraging versus discouraging others to apply with their employer. In a sample of 232 employees from two organizations, job satisfaction, the desire to help job seekers find good fitting jobs, the desire to help the organization find good fitting employees, and rewards predicted positive referrals. Negative referrals were motivated by job dissatisfaction and the desire to help job seekers avoid bad fitting jobs. Moreover, in the organization rewarding employees for making referrals, more positive and less negative referrals were made than in the organization without referral program.

Social Influences in Recruitment: When is Word‐of‐Mouth Most Effective?

We apply a policy‐capturing design to examine the conditions under which word‐of‐mouth is most effective in recruitment. The effect of monetary incentives is compared to other key characteristics of word‐of‐mouth (the source, recipient, and message content) that might affect its impact on organizational attractiveness. In a first study, unemployed job seekers (N = 100) were less attracted when they knew a monetary incentive was offered to the source of positive word‐of‐mouth. Conversely, they were more attracted when word‐of‐mouth was provided by a more experienced source (employee) and by a stronger tie (friend). These findings were replicated in a second study among employed job seekers (N = 213). These results offer various implications for how recruiting organizations might make effective use of word‐of‐mouth.

Applicant–Employee Fit in Personality: Testing predictions from similarity‐attraction theory and trait activation theory

We extend prior research by examining whether, and how, applicant–employee fit in the personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion affect organizational attractiveness. We test hypotheses based on similarity‐attraction theory and trait activation theory. Results from two studies indicate that applicants high in valued traits are more attracted to organizations when employees are more similar to them in those personality traits, whereas employees’ trait levels do not affect attraction for applicants low in valued traits. The effects of objective applicant–employee fit in personality on attractiveness were mediated by perceived applicant–employee fit. The pattern of the observed applicant–employee fit interactions was best predicted by trait activation theory and, thus, provide an important extension to similarity‐attraction theory.

Development and test of an integrative model of job search behaviour

Research on job search and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) has identified job search attitude, subjective norm, and job search self-efficacy as the most proximal determinants of job seekers’ search intentions and subsequently job search behaviours. However, we do not yet know how more distal individual differences (e.g., personality) and situational factors (e.g., social context) might help to predict these key TPB determinants of job search behaviour. In an integrative model of job search behaviour, we propose specific relationships between these distal variables and the TPB determinants, which in turn are expected to mediate the effects of individual differences and situational factors on job search behaviour. The hypothesized model is tested in a large representative sample of 1,177 unemployed Flemish job seekers using a two-wave design and provides a satisfactory fit to the data. Extraversion, conscientiousness, core self-evaluations, employment commitment, financial need, and social support are found to differentially relate to instrumental job search attitude, affective job search attitude, subjective norm, and job search self-efficacy. In addition, all distal variables are indirectly related to job search behaviour through their effects on the TPB variables. These results support our expanded and integrative model of job search behaviour.

Getting bang for your buck: the specificity of compensation and benefits information in job advertisements

Abstract Even though some organizations are trying to attract high-level applicants through offering superior compensation and benefits, reward statements in job advertisements are sometimes rather general and vague. On the basis of person-environment fit theories, we examine whether providing more specific information on attractive reward packages in job advertisements leads to higher perceived person-reward fit and subsequent job pursuit intentions. Furthermore, based on signaling theory, we propose that person-reward fit allows job seekers to make inferences about broader person-organization fit. Applying an online experimental design among 283 experienced potential applicants, we find that more specific compensation and benefits information results in higher job pursuit intentions and that this relationship is fully mediated by person-reward fit perceptions. In turn, the effect of person-reward fit is partially mediated by perceptions of person-organization fit, indicating that people might use reward information as signals for other organizational attributes in early stages of recruitment.

The image of psychology programs: the value of the instrumental-symbolic framework.

ABSTRACT As competition for funding and students intensifies, it becomes increasingly important for psychology programs to have an image that is attractive and makes them stand out from other programs. The current study uses the instrumental–symbolic framework from the marketing domain to determine the image of different masters programs in psychology and examines how these image dimensions relate to student attraction and competitor differentiation. The samples consist of both potential students (N = 114) and current students (N = 68) of three psychology programs at a Belgian university: industrial and organizational psychology, clinical psychology, and experimental psychology. The results demonstrate that both instrumental attributes (e.g., interpersonal activities) and symbolic trait inferences (e.g., sincerity) are key components of the image of psychology programs and predict attractiveness as well as differentiation. In addition, symbolic image dimensions seem more important for current students of psychology programs than for potential students.

Job search behavior as a multidimensional construct : a review of different job search behaviors and sources

The Oxford Handbook of Job Loss and Job Search offers a first comprehensive and timely overview of the state of the art thinking and empirical knowledge in the areas of job loss and job search. Multidisciplinary in nature, the 31 chapters in this handbook offer insights into the diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives from which job loss and job search have been studied, such as psychology, sociology, labor studies, and economics. Discussing the antecedents and consequences of job loss as well as further circumstances besides job loss that may call for an intense job search, the handbook presents in depth and up-to-date knowledge on antecedents and consequences of job loss and on methods and processes of job-search and further points readers towards stimulating directions for future research. It also addresses the unique circumstances faced by different populations during their job-search, such as entrants to the labor market, job-to-job, unemployed, and mature-aged job seekers, as well as international job-seekers or people with a career in temporary employment.