This Chapter describes the background of the study, problem statement, research purposes and research questions. First, background of the study describes the importance of organizational attractiveness and the growing trend of web-based recruitment. Then, the problem statement, research purposes and research questions are addressed. The definition of key terms are presented in the final part of this section.
Background of the Study
During the last few decades, organization recruitment emerged as a significant topic in both academic and practical field. According to a recent review, “research interest in the topic of employee recruitment has increased substantially over the last thirty years” (Breaugh &
Starke, 2000). Recruiting activities help organization to enlarge the applicant pool and access potential applicants (Aiman-Smith, Bauer, & Cable, 2001; Rynes & Barber, 1990). Moreover, scholars suggested that because of economic and demographic reasons, it will be more and more difficult to recruit qualified talents. How to attract qualified applicants becomes a crucial and emergent issue for organizations to learn (Chapman, Uggerslev, Carroll, Piasentin & Jones, 2005).
Barber (1998) stressed three stages of recruitment: to generate applicants, to maintain applicants’ interest, and to influence applicants’ job choice decision. Among the stages, the initial stage is the most important because subsequent recruitment activities will not happen if applicants are not attracted at first (Rynes, 1991). In the first stage of recruitment, organizational attractiveness plays a significant role. Therefore, this study focuses on the first stage with discussion on variables which are possible in affecting applicant attraction to organizations.
Scholars indicated that attracting and maintaining qualified applicants can be the decisive
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point of the success of an organization in the increasingly competitive environment. (Jackson
& Schuler, 1990; Offermann & Gowing, 1990; Turban & Greening, 1997). Moreover, retaining a relevant quality of human resource helps organization to increase competitive advantage (Lado & Wilson, 1994; Turban & Greening, 1997). Organization with larger talent pool will have more alternatives and generate greater utility of recruitment practices (Lado & Wilson, 1994).
Organization websites on the Internet possess dynamic and multimedia characteristics, which serve as an ideal platform for recruitment (Cober, Brown, Blumental, Doverspike, &
Levy, 2000; Cober, Brown & Levy, 2004; Dineen, Ash & Noe, 2002). To date, in organization recruitment activities, website is the most commonly used and essential device to access potential applicants.
According to Lee (2005), all Fortune 100 companies have used web-based recruiting method at the time of research. The research from Greenspan (2003) indicates that 94% of Global 500 companies have been recruiting through websites. Moreover, recent studies suggested that recruiting on the Internet has become a growing trend during the decade (Braddy, et al., 2008; Thompson, Braddy & Wuensch, 2008). The uprising popularity of web-based recruiting is probably because of its convenience and reduction of cost (Thompson et al., 2008).
In addition, Internet has changed the nature of recruitment from a “batch mode” to a more efficient “continuous mode” (Lee, 2005). Websites is the most possible way to access potential applicants in the early stage of recruitment (Allen, Mahto & Otondo, 2007). The significant difference between recruitment websites and traditional recruitment method is that websites allows “more information available, using more communication channels, and having potentially greater reach and interactivity” (Allen et al., 2007, p. 1697). Among the predictors of organizational attractiveness, job and organization information appeared to be the most significant ones. There has been broad research about job and organization attributes in
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recruitment studies (e.g., Power & Aldag, 1985; Rynes & Lawler, 1983; Vroom, 1966).Studies suggested that revealed job and organization information would positively predict applicant attraction and pursuit intention of job seeker (Barber, 1998; Rynes, Bretz, & Gerhart, 1991). In addition, a recent meta-analysis conducted by Chapman et al. (2005) showed that information of job and organization characteristics emerged to be strong predictors of applicant attraction.
The existent literature suggested the significant of job and organization information and their essential roles in leading to successful recruitment. Also, it is possible to change applicants’
original attitudes and impressions toward the organizations. Therefore, job and organization information provided on organization websites is proposed to be the moderator named “website content” in this study, testing if it will influence job seekers’ attitude toward the organization.
Problem Statement
There were a large amount of studies researching the relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness during recruiting process. For instance, existent research explored the relationships among organization image, recruiting image and of job choice intension (Gatewood, Gowan & Lautenschlager, 1993). Also there were research investigating the impact of corporate reputation on applicant attraction (Turban, Forret, &
Hendrickson, 1998).
Moreover, some recent studies investigated the relationship among corporate image, corporate employment image and pursuit intentions (Lemmink, Schuijf, Streukens, 2003), also some studies investigated about the relationships between organization image and applicant attraction (Van Hoye & Saks, 2011).
During the last decade, there has been an increasing concern and a stream of studies about web-based recruitment, indicating that it has become the mainstream in organization recruitment (e.g., Allen, Mahto & Otondo, 2007; Cober, Brown, Keeping & Levy, 2004; Cober, Brown, Levy, Cober & Keeping, 2003; Thompsom et al., 2008). Due to the growing popularity
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of web-based recruitment, developing and maintaining a qualified corporate website appeared to be an essential factor in organization recruitment. Although there has been quite a large amount of research about how organizational image and organizational websites influence applicant attraction respectively, few studies examined organization website contents in an experimental design to see its impact on organizational attractiveness. In addition, few studies investigated the moderating effect of organizational website on the relationship of organization brand and organizational attractiveness. It is unclear whether job and organization information presented on organization website will change the applicant’s original attitude toward the organization as a potential employer.
Previous research indicated that general impressions about the organization are originally the fundamental predictor of applicant attraction. However, the key factors of applicant attraction may now include the perceptions toward the organization websites (Cober et al., 2004;
Turban & Greening, 1997). The previous literature inspired this study to test whether website content of the organization will change job seekers attitudes and applicant attraction toward the organizations.
Research Purposes
The first purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between organization brand and organizational attractiveness. More importantly, the study mainly aims to compare the differences of organizational attractiveness before and after the participants examined the organization website contents. It also aims to examine the moderation effect of organization website on the relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness. The organization brand, including the organization’s reputation and the impressions job seekers have toward an organization, has been an important factor in affecting applicant attraction.
However, due to the growing trend and common use of web-based recruitment, the quality of organization websites has become another criterion when evaluating the organizations.
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Therefore, based on the previous research, the organization brand is proposed as an independent variable which positively predicts organizational attractiveness. In addition, this study compared the level of perceived organizational attractiveness before and after examining the website content to see if website content would affect job seekers’ perceptions toward the organization. Furthermore, it investigated if website content has a moderating effect on the relationship of perceived organization brand and organizational attractiveness. The results of this study may help organizations figure out whether websites with good quality will help attract more applicants and lead to successful recruitment practices.
Research Questions
Based on the problem statement and research purpose, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:
1. What is the relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness in Taiwan?
2. Is there a significant difference between pretest and posttest of organizational attractiveness after job seekers examine the website contents.
3. Is there a moderating effect of website contents on the relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness?
Limitations and Delimitations
There are delimitations and limitations of this study. First, this study is delimited to job seekers of new generation in Taiwan. In addition, the variable website content focuses on the amount of job and organization information. The sample population is limited to all the junior and senior students and graduate students majoring in business schools in colleges in Taiwan.
It is expected to apply the result to all the job seekers of new generation in Taiwan. All the data reflects job seekers’ perceived attitude to the organization brand and organizational attractiveness. Therefore, the findings about these two variables can be only applicable to the
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Definition of Key Terms Organizational Attractiveness
This study derived the definition of organizational attractiveness from Turban & Greening (1997). It refers to the degree of applicant attraction toward a certain organization which is also the operation definition in this study.
Organization Brand
This study derived the definition from Kotler (1979). Organization brand refers to a component of a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or either combination of them. Its purpose is to be identified by consumers and also to be differentiated from other competitors. The operational definition including two dimensions in this study, including organizational familiarity and organizational image (Allen, Mahto, & Otondo, 2007; Collins & Stevens, 2002;
Keller, 1993).
Website Content
This study adapted the idea from Allen et al. (2007). Website content refers to the amount of job and organizational information provided on business website which is also the operation definition in this study.
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