This chapter illustrates the conclusion and discussion of the study, followed by research and practical implication, as well as limitation and suggestions for future research in the end.
Conclusions
High turnover in Taiwan has consistently been a critical issue being discussed. The current research aimed to discover an effective tool for both job applicants and companies to lower the discrepancies in expectations before and after an individual enters an organization; thus, the purpose of study was to examine the effectiveness of realistic job preview (RJP) and compare its influence with traditional job preview (TJP) on job applicants’ perception of role clarity and unmet expectation in pre-hire phase. In order to answer the research questions, a quasi-experimental approach was adopted in the present study and the sample data was collected through online questionnaire with given scenario for participants. To compare the differences of an RJP and a TJP, participants were exposed to either an RJP video or a TJP video while answering the online questionnaire. After collecting data, there were 298 valid responses and the research analyzed the data through conducting SPSS and AMOS for the examination of research hypotheses and questions.
Through conducting SPSS and AMOS, there were four main results of the analyses. Firstly, Pearson’s correlation analysis helped the researcher have an initial understanding of the relationship between different variables which supported other approaches of analyses afterward. Secondly, the result of paired-samples T-test showed that participants had significantly better understanding of the role of marketing specialist in the job preview video in post-test than in pre-test, and it was agreed that unmet expectation, participants’ discrepant
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perception of job attraction between pre- and post-test, showed the significant difference.
Thirdly, the result of independent samples indicated that there were insignificant differences between RJP and TJP when it came to their influence on participants’ experience in role clarity and unmet expectation. Last but not least, path analysis showed that job preview did have direct effect on unmet expectation. In addition, by affecting role clarity, job preview also had indirect effect on unmet expectation, which supported the research hypotheses. Nevertheless, when Sobel test was conducted to examine whether role clarity had mediating effect of job preview on unmet expectation, the result was not significant.
Discussion
The present study found that job preview videos help individuals understand the role on a job as well as experience unmet expectation earlier in pre-hire phase instead of encountering reality shock after being hired. Even though the result shows that role clarity is not a mediator between job preview and unmet expectation, it does have a negative effect on unmet expectation. In this way, it was found that if a person is able to get more clarity on a position through a job preview in advance, it is possible for him or her to have lower unmet expectation.
Moreover, the findings of the research also include the differences between RJPs and TJPs through the comparison between two experimental groups though the results indicated there were not significant differences between RJPs and TJPs on increasing job applicants’
perception of role clarity and unmet expectation.
From the results of the analyses for the present study, it could be found that even though job preview videos in the study helped individuals increase role clarity of the position and experience unmet expectation earlier, there was not a significant difference between RJP approach and TJP approach. In this way, it might be explained that both videos in current study
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brought effective influence on participants’ understanding of marketing specialist, which did not bring the different effect on two experimental groups. Also, as most participants were not marketing-related major, both introductions of the job preview videos of marketing specialist gave participants unexpected impression on the job in certain degree; consequently, this would be another reason why there was not a significant gap between RJP video and TJP video.
With findings of the current study, it was in agreement with previous studies’ conclusions that effective job previews increased individuals’ role clarity about the job (Saks & Cronshaw, 1990; Khattak, Rehman, & Reman, 2014), and it indicated that organization adopting job preview videos for job seekers would recruit new hires with better understanding of the position, which subsequently lower possibilities of dropping out of the job due to low job performance and satisfaction. In addition, this study indicated the importance of role clarity since it effectively decreased individuals’ unmet expectation. As a result, it is implied that a well-edited job preview video should help reviewers clarify the role on the job effectively.
Research Implications
The findings of the current study support several previous researchers’ conclusions. For example, it was believed that RJP lower expectation and ambiguity before an individual was hired (Meglino et al., 2001) The findings of the present study showed that RJP helps individuals increase their unmet expectation and role clarity, which in other words supported previous researchers points of view. As a result, job preview is thus proved to be the antecedent of role clarity and unmet expectation as it has significant positive effect on the two variables.
Another finding of the current study was the negative relationship between role clarity and unmet expectation. As Sobel test indicated there was no mediating effect of role clarity between job preview and unmet expectation, there was only direct effect of role clarity on
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unmet expectation. In spite of the fact that role clarity was significantly affecting individuals’
perception of unmet expectation, it was found that the higher an individual’s score on role clarity, the lower his or her unmet expectation was. This finding shows that the effect of job preview on unmet expectation is not mediated by the mediator, role clarity, but rather has a more direct effect on unmet expectation. As previous research concluded, job preview could positively affect role clarity (Saks & Cronshaw, 1990; Khattak, Rehman, & Reman, 2014), and while a job applicant has better picture of a position which meant he or she understand the job contents and responsibilities after entering the organization, it would effectively lower his or her unmet expectation before being hired and thus lower the tendency to leave the job because of unmet expectation after being hired.
Another finding was the comparison between RJPs and TJPs, though there were many studies conducted to compare the two kinds of job previews, they mainly investigated their influences on job acceptance and turnover rate as RJP had stronger effect on lowering both job acceptance rate and turnover rate than TJP did (Heneman III et al., 2015; Reilly et al., 1979;
Williams, 1988). Even though both job preview videos in the present study had brought significant differences between pre- and post-test of role clarity as well as job attraction, the current study did not support that RJP had significantly better effect than TJP on role clarity and unmet expectation. The result of the analysis might be because of characteristics of edited job preview videos and the background of participants. As 256 of 298 participants (84.6%) were not marketing-related major, both video’s illustration of job contents could have brought them a huge gap of expectation, which caused the insignificant differences between RJP and TJP.
With the findings of the current study, it should be taken into consideration while conducting similar research related to job preview video since there were already some different results of studies comparing RJPs and TJPs. For example, some studies revealed that
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RJPs had better effect on satisfaction and performance (Premack & Wanous, 1985; Heneman III et al., 2015) while some were not (Dugoni & Ilgen, 1981). As a result, in a video approach, current study showed the effectiveness of job preview on job seekers’ role clarity and experience of unmet expectation before entering the organization; however, the differences between RJP and TJP were not significant which did not support some of previous studies’
findings. Accordingly, participants may distinguish between RJP and TJP only when they are exposed to both job preview videos at the same time, which could testify the different effect of two kinds of job previews.
Practical Implications
The main purposes of the present study aims to compare the effectiveness of RJPs and TJPs on individuals’ perception of unmet expectation and role clarity, and to discover a way for job seekers among young generations to find a job on which they could stay longer instead of dropping out from the organization in a short period of time. As a result, from the findings of the research, there are consequently practical implications from the perspective of organizations and job seekers.
On one hand, if companies could recruit new hires with low turnover rate and help job applicants clarify their role in a position and experience unmet expectation earlier in pre-hire phase, it would bring positive effect for an organization. As the current research found that effective job preview videos could increase individuals’ role clarity as well as experience
“reality shock,” unmet expectation, it would be suggested that a job preview video being exposed to a job seeker before he or she decides to apply for the position. In this way, companies are able to recruit those who already have a good picture of the job with well-clarified idea of the position, and as the literature suggested, employees with higher role clarity
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and lower unmet expectation after being hired could have higher job satisfaction and job performance (Premack & Wanous, 1985; Heneman III et al., 2015).
On the other hand, it is better for job seekers to find a company willing to reveal job information before they are going to apply for the position. As mentioned in the introduction, gap between expectation and reality as well as not meeting interest were two of the reasons that led new recruits to drop out from the organization. This phenomenon indicates that unclear role clarity and unmet expectation are critical factor influencing later the high turnover rate.
Consequently for job seekers, it is important to clarify the role of the job in order to lower later unmet expectation after being hired.
Limitations
There are several limitations of the present study, and they are discussed in the following.
Firstly, even though the study was designed to be conducted through a quasi-experimental approach, the sample data was collected through online questionnaire with snowball and convenient sampling approach, this might cause some bias among groups. Secondly, in order to compare the difference between RJP and TJP, the researcher recorded two types of job preview video based on the characteristics of realistic job preview and traditional job preview;
however, the way videos edited and presented to participants might still lead to discrepancies between research and reality since it was a virtual scenario for participants. On the other hand, the given position in the video was marketing specialist, characteristics and job information of which were collected through job bank and interview with marketing-related employees;
however, there might still be some bias existing because of subjective opinions from different people. In addition, as the current study was conducted under the scenario before recruiting, and unmet expectation, according to previous studies, were defined as the discrepancies
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between individuals’ expectation before and after being hired. Consequently, the measurement of unmet expectation in the present study might cause some bias as it was measured in an earlier stage before employment instead of the comparison between pre-hire and after-hire phase. Last but not least, CMV posed a possible problem for the current study as some variables were collected from self-reporting methods. Through conducting Harmon’s single factor test, the largest factor accounted for 42.95% of the variances, which indicated that CMV problem was not a serious concern with the measurementsin this study.
Suggestions for Future Research
Based on the research limitations, there are some suggestions for future research. Firstly, in order to avoid bias in experimental research, researchers should try to target sample from different areas and backgrounds, which could consequently avoid the potential problem of the current study. As for the presentation of job preview video, if a study could cooperate with a real company and make a well-edited job preview video with the help from the company; for instance, if the research aims to present the job preview of marketing specialist, it is better to consult the marketing department in order to provide a more accurate information and more objective perspective of the position. Also, by cooperating with real enterprises, future study could measure unmet expectation in a post-hire phase and enables participants to experience the discrepancies on a job. If a job preview is provided in a more real approach instead of a virtual scenario, it might have a better contribution to the field of the research.
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