Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND WORD-OF-MOUTH

Most previous recruitment studies have treated potential applicants as individual decisionmakers, neglecting informational social influences on organizational attractiveness. Therefore, the present study investigated if and under which conditions word-of-mouth communication matters as a recruitment source. Results (N = 171) indicated that word-ofmouth had a strong impact on organizational attractiveness and that negative word-of-mouth interfered with the effect of recruitment advertising. Word-of-mouth from a strong tie was perceived as more credible and had a more positive effect on organizational attractiveness. For potential applicants high in self-monitoring, word-of-mouth had a stronger effect when it was presented after recruitment advertising. Finally, the effect of word-of-mouth on organizational attractiveness was partially mediated by the perceived credibility of recruitment advertising.