Understanding internet recruitment via signaling theory and the elaboration likelihood model

When the influencer says jump! How influencer signaling affects engagement with COVID-19 misinformation

With signaling theory, credibility, and social media engagement (SME) as guiding frameworks, this study used an experiment to examine how social media influencers (SMIs) affect how people engage with COVID-19 misinformation. SMI-promoted information elicited more SME, credibility, and purchase likelihood than non-SMI promoted information. The most effective message was a post promoted by an SMI that contained detailed information about an authentic product. However, data indicated nuance regarding the effect of SMIs. The authenticity of the information as well as the amount of detail in the post played a role. Additionally, mediated effects analysis showed that the impact of SME on purchase likelihood was higher among non-SMI followers. Data suggests that using a multi-signal messaging approach is suitable regardless of promotion by an SMI. This has important implications to public health messaging and the author discusses how health agencies may effectively signal information to the public.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now: How Realistic Previews of Onboarding Influence Self-Selection and Expectations

Extending research on realistic job previews (RJPs) and signaling theory, we propose realistic previews of onboarding as an essential, but often overlooked, component of RJPs, particularly in situations for which there may be unique, challenging, or displeasing aspects of the newcomer onboarding experience. Using a sample of over 200 working adults in various industries, we empirically tested two mechanisms explaining the effects of realistic onboarding preview during the recruitment phase—the self-selection effect and adjustment of expectations effect—in a randomized vignette experiment. We found realistic previews of a potentially disagreeable onboarding period increased withdrawal of candidacy decisions of participants and lowered their expectations. Our findings suggest that a realistic onboarding preview as part of the RJP has a significant impact on both the decision to stay in (vs. drop out of) a candidate pool as well as candidates’ expectations regarding the hiring organization.

Team Belonging: Integrating Teamwork and Diversity Training Through Emotions

With the worldwide focus shifting toward important questions of what diversity means to society, organizations are attempting to keep up with employees’ needs to feel recognized and belong. Given that traditionally team and diversity trainings are provided separately, with different theoretical backgrounds and goals, they are often misaligned and ineffective. We review 339 empirical articles depicting a team, diversity, or emotional management training to extract themes and determine which methods are most effective. Although research has demonstrated the importance of belonging for providing positive workplace outcomes, we found that the traditional design of these trainings and lack of emotional management prevent a balance between team and diversity goals, preventing belonging. We propose an integrative training with emotional management to help teams foster optimal belonging, where members can unite together through their differences. Accordingly, our themes inform this training model that can inspire future research into more effective training.

Onboarding new hires: recognising mutual learning opportunities

Purpose

The onboarding stage of new hires represents a unique opportunity for mutual learning between the new hires and the organisation regardless of the company size. The current paper aims to address these learning opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors reflect on current practice, draw on recent literature and their experience with recruitment and selection processes in the industry to generate new insights and identify opportunities for practitioners and new hires alike.

Findings

Today's new hires expect onboarding experiences that allow for a much greater degree of flexibility, customisation and personalisation. Similarly, many new hires expect hiring, onboarding, and learning and development to be interconnected to generate new learning and career opportunities. However, these expectations require changes in the way in which onboarding is implemented, evaluated and connected to other human resource practices, specifically with the dramatic (and successful) increase in remote work arrangements in 2020 in response to the global impact of the pandemic.

Originality/value

The current paper provides readers with an overview of potential learning opportunities, outlines specific success factors and highlights a variety of pointers for practice and further professional development.

JOB SEEKERS’ ACCEPTANCE TOWARDS PRODUCING VIDEO RESUMES FOR COMPANY’S RECRUITMENT

The purpose of this study is to explore the job seekers’ acceptance towards producing video resumes for the company’s video-based recruitment. The study aims to analyse the moderating effect of self-video resumes by experienced and non-experienced applicants’ in terms of their perceived stress and coping strategies in creating the videos when applying for jobs. The quota sampling method was used to collect data from four faculties in a private university. The conceptual model was developed with constructs consisting of perceived stress, problem-focused coping, self-efficacy, self-presentation and acceptance of video resumes. The model was validated by two-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Subsequently, the moderation effects between the two groups of applicants were computed to uncover different group behaviours. The perceived stress and problem-focused coping responses were found to be significantly related to self-presentations for video resumes. A direct positive relationship was also found between the applicants’ self-efficacy and their acceptance of video resumes. The results of the moderation analysis indicate a significant difference in perceived stress between groups but not in the problem-focused coping strategies.

The role of omnichannel tendency in digital information processing

Purpose

Nowadays some consumers consider themselves as “omnichannels” – they combine both physical and digital channels expecting a seamless shopping experience – since they view their shopping process from a multiple-channel viewpoint. Giving that situation, the aim of this paper is to test the role of consumers’ omnichannel tendency (omni-tendency) in the information processing in the digital channel.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), emotions as well as utilitarian and hedonic experiences are proposed to understand consumer attitude towards the digital store. Through a survey, data were collected from 284 digital shoppers. PLS path modelling and PLS-MGA were used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results confirm that emotions positively affect the evaluation of the experiences, which in turn improves the attitude towards the digital store. Focusing on the differences among consumers, the findings show that for consumers with low omni-tendency the emotions are key to improve the evaluation of their experiences. Moreover, regarding the attitude, consumers with more omni-tendency follow the central route to process the information; and consumers with less omni-tendency follow the peripheral route.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, this research includes the study of omni-tendency, as a consumer trait, in the information processing developed in the digital channel, ignored in the literature. Second, this work contributes to information processing theories in digital context confirming, specifically the applicability of ELM into the omnichannel context. This offers support to the application of traditional theories to explain new phenomena. Third, and in line with the previous contribution, this work goes a step further in understanding ELM theory by including other constructs –the omni-tendency and emotions– to explain the information processing in the digital context.

Well-Being Lessons for Improving Charities' Online Recruitment

In an increasingly competitive context, attracting and retaining the best employees are a real preoccupation and a big challenge for organizations. Online recruitment (OR) is a growing trend, and corporate websites are an important instrument for talent attraction, but academic research on this topic is still scarce, especially in the voluntary sector. To shed light on the topic, this study examines and compares the 100 best companies to work for, published by Fortune, and the 100 largest charities, reported by Forbes. The comparative study focuses the attention and quantifies the web section devoted to careers, concretely information related to goods practices affecting the workers well-being. The results indicated, as essential in the OR process of charities, to understand the relevance of their web content because that affects the intentions of potential applicants. The work concludes that benchmarking efforts can be helpful for increasing the charities' attractiveness in the labor market in the near future.

Comparing digital libraries with social media from the dual route perspective

Purpose

Digital libraries and social media have emerged as two prominent online information sources with different characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to compare digital libraries and social media from the perspective of the dual route model which outlined a general framework of central and peripheral route-induced attitude change.

Design/methodology/approach

Research hypotheses were developed and data collected from users of digital libraries and social media were used for data analysis. The paired samples t-test was employed to compare the means.

Findings

Both central route (information quality) and peripheral route (source credibility and reputation) of digital libraries are higher than those of social media.

Practical implications

The important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources should be propagated by various “marketing” ways. Managers of digital libraries should encourage their users to use both digital libraries and social media so that some unique advantage of social media could usefully complement digital libraries. They should also recognize the challenge brought by social media and try various ways to enhance reputation.

Originality/value

Building on the dual route model, this study compares digital libraries and social media in terms of the central route and peripheral route, which the authors believe presents a new lens for digital library research and practice alike.

Social Media Recruitment: Communication Characteristics and Sought Gratifications

This study examines how social media pages can be used to influence potential applicants’ attraction. Based on the uses and gratifications theory, this study examines whether organizations can manipulate the communication characteristics informativeness and social presence on their social media page to positively affect organizational attractiveness. Moreover, we examine whether job applicants’ sought gratifications on social media influence these effects. A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design is used. The findings show that organizations can manipulate informativeness and social presence on their social media. The effect of manipulated informativeness on organizational attractiveness depends on the level of manipulated social presence. When social presence was high, informativeness positively affected organizational attractiveness. This positive effect was found regardless of participants’ sought utilitarian gratification. Social presence had no significant main effect on organizational attractiveness. There was some evidence that the effect of social presence differed for different levels of social gratification.

A study on the effectiveness of aesthetically appealing print recruitment advertisement

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the nature of intervention of job seeker’s perception of organizational attraction and attitude toward ad and organization in the application intention produced by aesthetics of print job ads.

Design/methodology/approach

An aesthetically appealing faculty-opening job advertisement was used as stimuli and around 250 responses to an administered questionnaire were collected from among job seekers in the academic domain. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesis.

Findings

According to the results of the study, aesthetic features of print recruitment ad, even though insignificant in directly inducing job seeker intention to apply, significantly enhanced their organizational attraction and attitudes, and thereby, their application intention. Therefore, job seeker’s perception of organizational attractiveness and attitude were found to full mediate this relationship, regardless of the job seekers’ degree of familiarity with the organization.

Practical implications

This study encourages recruiters in the academic job sectors to design and administer aesthetically appealing job advertisements to maximize the high talent pool of applicants from which to choose.

Originality/value

This study is the first of its kind in the Indian context in terms of print recruitment advertising. This study is also original in reporting organizational attraction and attitude towards ad and organization as mediators of application intention produced by ad aesthetics.

The Influence of Recruitment Websites on Job-Seeker Perceptions of Organization and Job Fit

This article describes how the uses of websites to recruit and communicate with job-seekers is a well-established practice that has been increasing in frequency. How the website functions can influence job-seekers' perceptions of how well they will fit into the organization as well as match the requirements of a specific open position. The primary research question in this article is how job-seekers' fit perceptions obtained from using the recruitment website, influence their website satisfaction and intentions with respect to the organization. To explore this question and others, a theoretical model with corresponding hypotheses was developed. The empirical analysis of the theoretical model used 199 questionnaire responses and structural equation modeling. The findings offer support for the view that the website's content, job-seeker knowledge of the organization, and the job-seeker's social network influence positively perceptions of fit to the organization and the job in meaningful ways.

Dimensions of job advertisement as signals for achieving job seeker’s application intention

Purpose

Grounded in the concept of signaling theory and instrumental-symbolic framework, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model to examine the impact of print job advertisement (ad) dimensions (message contents) and organizational familiarity on job seeker’s perception of attitude, organizational attractiveness, and application intention.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a theoretical exploration based on existing literature.

Findings

The presence of instrumental and symbolic attributes in print job advertisement such as job and work characteristics, aesthetics, employee testimonial/picture, corporate image enhancing statements, organizational culture-enhancing statements, and human resource offerings are more likely to play influential roles in creating favorable attitude, organizational attractiveness, and application intention in a job seeker. Apart from this, organizational familiarity plays a moderating role on job seeker’s attitude formation and in gaining organizational attractiveness.

Practical implications

The study offers a clear guideline to recruiting organizations, HR managers, recruitment agencies, or consultants on how to design a recruitment advertisement to pool a large number of potential applicants. The study also throws light on testing the effectiveness of a recruitment advertisement, similar to commercial ads. Moreover, the outcome of testing would help the recruiters understand the pulse of the job seeker toward the ad, job, and organization.

Originality/value

This study theoretically clarifies the role of instrumental and symbolic attributes or dimensions of job ads and the role of organizational familiarity in inducing positive attitude formation and organizational attractiveness, in the process that cultivates application intention in a potential job seeker.

Sustainability reports in Brazil through the lens of signaling, legitimacy and stakeholder theories

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the applicability of stakeholder, legitimacy and signaling theories by examining to what extent proactive corporate social responsibility disclosures are interrelated to attempt to gain and maintain legitimacy, to gain support of the stakeholders and to reduce information asymmetry.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the theoretical arguments, a longitudinal approach over a five-year period of 145 companies’ sustainability reports and statistical analysis was applied to investigate the evolution of their quality.

Findings

The results show a significant increase in the quality of sustainability reporting, and the experience gained while writing these reports can contribute to this. Based on signaling and legitimacy theories, this paper suggests that improvement in sustainability reporting quality acts as an important signal to gain legitimacy in case of information asymmetry during the legitimacy process. Th disclosure for economic and social dimensions is better than that of the environmental dimension, and the improvement in quality over time is the because of synergies and interlinkages more between these two dimensions of sustainability, and to a lesser extent because of the environmental dimension.

Practical implications

Firms should view investing in sustainability reporting disclosure as a strategy for obtaining business legitimacy.

Originality/value

The results of this paper are of interest for several reasons: extend and broaden the use of signaling in studying its use on sustainability reporting; the use of three theories is an appropriate framework for empirical analysis of sustainability reporting disclosure quality in Brazil; and add to the scarce evidence of sustainability reporting in Brazil.

Exploring digital library usage for getting information from the ELM perspective

Purpose

– The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) provides a general framework for understanding the basic processes underlying the effectiveness of persuasion. The purpose of this paper is to utilize the ELM to understand the basic processes underlying the effectiveness of persuasion to use digital libraries for getting information.

Design/methodology/approach

– The survey data collection was conducted in one comprehensive university. The partial least squares structured equation modelling was employed to verify the research model.

Findings

– Source credibility and reputation have positive effects on information usefulness which further significantly impacts digital library usage for getting information. The effect of information quality on information usefulness is overpowered by reputation. Information need positively moderates the effect of information quality on information usefulness and negatively moderates the effect of reputation on information usefulness.

Practical implications

– Digital libraries enormously influence the way how individuals gather information over the world. However, the important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources in practice invites appreciation by more and more people. The authors believe the findings of this study provide useful insights for facilitating digital libraries to be fully accessed and utilized.

Originality/value

– This study explores the effects of the central route (information quality) and the peripheral route (source credibility and reputation) on digital library usage for getting information by extending the ELM with information need as a motivation variable, presenting a new lens for digital library research and practice alike.