Understanding Hiring Managers’ Use of IT Certification in the Hiring Process

This paper examines whether the theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides an effective model for predicting the intention of hiring managers to use Information Technology (IT) certification in the employee selection process. Little academic research has examined IT certification, an area important to firms and their hiring managers, educational institutions and their professors and students, as well as other training centers, vendors, and other stakeholder groups. Hierarchical regression was used to investigate relationships between constructs. The model shows an impressive amount of variance explained for Behavioral Intention (R = .640). All three original TPB constructs, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, are significant in predicting behavioral intention. The hierarchical regression analyses also revealed that affect significantly influences attitude, providing support for the addition of affect in future research using TPB. These findings add to our understanding of the usage of IT certification in hiring decisions and provide suggestions for future work.