Kristin Backhaus

Conceptualizing and researching employer branding

Employer branding represents a firms efforts to promote, both within and outside the firm, a clear view of what makes it different and desirable as an employer. In recent years employer branding has gained popularity among practicing managers. Given this managerial interest, this article presents a framework to initiate the scholarly study of employer branding. Combining a resource‐based view with brand equity theory, a framework is used to develop testable propositions. The article discusses the relationship between employer branding and organizational career management. Finally, it outlines research issues that need to be addressed to develop employer branding as a useful organizing framework for strategic human resource management.

Exploringthe Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance and Employer Attractiveness

Building on existing studies suggesting that corporate social performance (CSP) is important in the job choice process, the authors investigate job seekers’perceptions of importance of CSP and explore effects of CSP dimensions on organizational attractiveness. Job seekers consider CSP important to assessment of firms and rate five specific CSP dimensions (environment, community relations, employee relations, diversity, and product issues) as more important than six other CSP dimensions. Using signaling theory and social identity theory, the authors hypothesize differences in effects of CSP data on ratings of employer attractiveness and find that environment, community relations, and diversity dimensions have the largest affect on attractiveness ratings.

An Exploration of Corporate Recruitment Descriptions on Monster.com

This article explores the ways in which corporations describe themselves in recruitment materials. Specifically, the study examines corporate descriptions provided to job seekers by firms advertising on the Internet site, Monster.com. The study also explores elements of corporate image presented in the descriptions and the way in which firms market their employer brands. The findings demonstrate how analysis of corporate descriptions reveals interesting insights into organizational recruitment tactics. Results suggest that firms focus predominantly on firm attributes and secondarily on employee advancement. Various industries approach recruitment advertising differently, with significant differences emerging between high-tech organizations, service organizations, and consumer product firms in the emphases of their corporate descriptions. Few firms present a distinct employer brand but tend to cluster together in brand types.

COGNITIVE STYLES AND APPROACHES TO STUDYING IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

This article examines the role of intuition and/or analysis cognitive styles and approaches to studying in business education. The Cognitive Style Index (CSI) and Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI) were administered to 222 American undergraduate business students. The authors found a relationship between analytic orientation and grade point average. Furthermore, the authors found a correlation between academic performance and higher scores on the Deep, Strategic, Metacognitive Awareness, and Academic Self-Confidence Scales of the RASI. Women adopted a more analytic style and scored higher on the Surface and Strategic Scales of the RASI. The authors discuss implications of these findings for management education.

Importance of Person-Organization Fit to Job Seekers.

This study investigates the importance of person‐organization fit to job seekers. The study hypothesizes that as job experience increases, importance of fit will also increase. Further, it hypothesizes that desire for personal control will be positively associated with importance of fit. Results suggest that while number of years of work experience is not related to the importance placed on person‐organization fit, having an experience of perceiving poor fit with an organization does relate to the importance placed on fit in future job searches. Findings also suggest that desire for personal control is positively associated with importance placed on fit. The study suggests that disposition as well as situational factors influence the assessment of organizational attractiveness.

Cognitive Style Index: Further investigation of the factor structure with an American student sample

The present study investigates the factor structure of the Cognitive Style Index (CSI), comparing the unitary, bipolar continuum of intuition–analysis, the theory upon which the CSI is predicated, with the two‐factor theory of cognitive style. We conducted both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses on data from a sample of 222 American university business students. There was a lack of fit for the unifactorial model. Our results suggest the instrument is tapping multiple dimensions of cognitive style, the implications of which are discussed.

Employer Branding Revisited

abstract In 1996, employer branding was introduced into the lexicon of human resources and marketing. Twenty years later, many of the foundational concepts of employer branding have been researched. Despite the volume of literature on employer branding, many key aspects still warrant investigation. This article provides an overview of the work that has been done on employer branding, highlights recent developments in the research, and suggests future research directions.

From Micro to Macro: Examinations of Individual Level Work–Family Conflict and Organizational Level Entrepreneurial Orientation

This issue contains three articles in the Current Empirical Research section. Two of these examine aspects of work/family conflict, drawing our attention to underlying factors that contribute to this all too common problem. In the first, “Older-Worker-Friendly Policies and Affective Organizational Commitment,” Crowne, Cochran and Carpenter investigate work/family conflict as it relates to older workers. With the “graying” of the workforce, there is an increased need to understand the factors that impact older workers, their job satisfaction and their commitment to their jobs. Crowne and colleagues focus on the impact of older-workerfriendly policies, including phased retirement, workplace accommodations, and retirement health insurance, on job satisfaction, work/family conflict, and organizational commitment. The authors hypothesize that the availability of older-worker-friendly benefits reduces strainbased work/family conflict thereby increasing job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. They found that indeed, the greater the level of older-worker-friendly policies, the lower the strain-based work/family conflict. Further, older-workerfriendly policies were related to higher levels of job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for organizations that seek to retain valuable seasoned employees. The second article, “Linking Interactional Justice to Work-to-Family Conflict: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion” by Ivy A. Kyei-Poku looks at the ways in which perceptions of interactional justice affect work-to-family conflict. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, Kyei-Poku proposes that perceptions of unfairness in interactions with supervisors cause employees to experience emotional exhaustion. In turn, according to Kyei-Poku, emotional

The Effects of Group-Level and Individual Contributions on Business Simulation Team Performance

Studies of team performance in business simulations have not investigated the effect of a “star member” of the team on team performance outcomes. This article reports the findings of a study examining the role of team composition variables, team function variables and the effect of a star player on team score in an undergraduate business simulation. As hypothesized, team performance is associated with the performance of a single outstanding player. Among team composition variables, only intrinsic motivation of team members is associated with team score. A composite measure of team function that included team trust, communication and goal clarity was also significantly related to team performance. We discuss the implications of this for team projects and business simulations in particular.

Approaches to Corporate Sustainability

We are pleased to present one article in the Current Empirical Research section of the summer issue of OMJ. This article nicely demonstrates the macro-analytical approach with an organization theory article. Here, we introduce this intriguing and informative article exploring the factors that underlie an organization’s decision to adopt sustainable practices. In “Institutional Theory and Corporate Sustainability: Determinant Versus Interactive Approaches,” Jeffrey Gauthier examines two competing arguments within institutional theory. Determinant arguments suggest that a firm’s institutional environment constrains firm strategic choices. Conditions dictate the actions that firms must take to maintain legitimacy. Over time, firms within the same organizational field begin to take on similar characteristics as a result of environmental forces. Interactive arguments, on the other hand, suggest that firms have