Interactive influence of work–life balance benefits, employee recommendation, and job attributes on employer attractiveness and job pursuit intentions: two experiments

Abstract

Drawing on signaling theory (Spence 1978), we propose that communicating work–life balance benefits offered along with favorable employee recommendations and valued job attributes could be construed as signals organizations deliberately use to influence potential applicants' perceptions of employer attractiveness and enhance job pursuit intentions. We test these ideas in two experiments. In study 1, using carefully constructed vignettes to manipulate work–life balance (WLB) benefits, employee recommendation, and job attributes in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design and with data gathered from 320 Indian MBA students, we found support for the direct and interactive effects of these variables on employer attractiveness. In study 2, using a 3 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design and data from 360 Indian MBA students, we examined the influence of three different alternative work arrangements, a form of WLB benefit, and how such benefits interact with employee recommendations and job attributes to influence job pursuit intentions. We discuss implications for theory, research, and practice.

Future of Employer Branding in the Era of Bard, ChatGPT, Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence

“…Organisations like Accenture, Coca-Cola and Starbucks have pursued employer branding and have become the preferred destination for work among job aspirants (Moroko & Uncles, 2008). Theories like resource-based view, brand equity theory, human capital theory, person–organisation fit theory, psychological contract theory and signalling theory are popular in employer branding literature (Ahamad et al, 2022; Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Banerjee et al, 2020; Saini & Jawahar, 2019; Saini et al, 2022; Sonu et al, 2022). The employer branding parameters were organisation identity, culture, associations, image and attraction (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004).…”

Does information source interact with information content and valence in influencing employer attractiveness and job pursuit intention?

“…Further, the company-independent information sources are more widely accessible due to social media sharing. As mentioned earlier, the organizationindependent information sources such as employee recommendation and word-of-mouth are considered more credible as they are less likely to be manipulated by organizations (Ahamad et al, 2022;Van Hoye and Lievens, 2007), thus, providing a more realistic assessment of an employer.…”

“…The company-dependent information sources such as company website, company's social media page and job advertisements provide a lot of information but these are considered less trustworthy as it may focus only on the positive aspects about an employer (Ahamad, 2019;Van Hoye and Lievens, 2007). On the other hand, the companyindependent information sources such as word-of-mouth, employee recommendation, online reviews are considered more credible as they are less likely to be manipulated by organizations (Ahamad et al, 2022;Van Hoye and Lievens, 2007), thus, providing a more realistic assessment of an employer.…”

“…Using the symbolic-instrumental framework (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003), recruitment information content can be categorized into two different types, that is, instrumental and symbolic, which influences job search behaviour of applicants. Though, the effects of these two types of information content may vary depending on the source of information, it is still unknown how the type of information would interact with information source or vice-versa (Ahamad, 2019;Ahamad et al, 2022). For example, whether job seekers would perceive symbolic information (e.g.…”

Employer Branding: A Critical Review and Future Research

“…It should be noted that employer branding literature is skewed in studying the outside target audiencejobseekers, compared to the internal target audience-employees (Theurer et al, 2018;Yu, Dineen et al, 2022), leading to a general perception of associating employer branding discipline to the study of preemployment phase (i.e., pre-recruitment and recruitment activities) and related unabundant literature (Ahamad et al, 2022;Banerjee et al, 2020;Gupta & Saini, 2018;Kumari & Saini, 2018;Saini et al, 2015;Sonu et al, 2022). This view is also reflected in some of the definitions of employer brand, for example, an employer brand refers to the perception that outsiders have regarding the desirability of a firm as a place to work, mainly in terms of its familiarity, image and reputation (Cable & Turban, 2001).…”