Recruitment-Related Information 1 Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND NEGATIVE PUBLICITY Recruitment-Related Information Sources and Organizational Attractiveness: Can Something Be Done About Negative Publicity?

The present study begins to fill a gap in recruitment literature by investigating whether the effects of negative publicity on organizational attractiveness can be mitigated by recruitment advertising and positive word-of-mouth. The accessibility-diagnosticity model was used as a theoretical framework to formulate predictions about the effects of these recruitment-related information sources. A mixed 2  2 experimental design was applied to examine if initial assessments of organizational attractiveness based on negative publicity would enhance at a second evaluation after exposure to a second more positive information source. We found that both recruitment advertising and word-of-mouth improved organizational attractiveness, but word-of-mouth was perceived as a more credible information source. Self-monitoring did not moderate the impact of information source on organizational attractiveness. Recruitment-Related Information 3 Recruitment-Related Information Sources and Organizational Attractiveness: Can Something Be Done About Negative Publicity? Negative publicity about companies has become rather common in this media era and is likely to have pervasive effects on company sales and stock prices (Abowd, Milkovich, & Hannon, 1990; Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). In addition, negative media attention might also scare off potential applicants. Who would want to work for a company that has gotten extensive press coverage on its accounting blunders (e.g., Enron), environmental disasters (e.g., Exxon), or massive lay-offs (e.g., Ford)? However, no research has yet studied the effects of negative publicity on organizational attractiveness. Furthermore, it is not known whether these effects are irreparable or not: can companies mitigate the impact of negative publicity by influencing potential applicants‟ perceptions of organizational attractiveness through other information sources? The present study begins to fill this gap in recruitment literature by advancing our understanding of negative publicity and investigating whether its effects on organizational attractiveness can be reduced by two very different kinds of recruitment-related information sources: recruitment advertising and word-of-mouth. The accessibility-diagnosticity model (Feldman & Lynch, 1988; Herr, Kardes, & Kim, 1991) was used as a theoretical framework to formulate predictions about the effects of these information sources. At a practical level, our findings might be helpful for recruiters trying to decrease the impact of negative publicity on their company‟s attractiveness as an employer. Recruitment-Related Information Sources In order to enhance organizational attractiveness, recruitment often involves that a particular message about the organization as an employer is communicated to a target group of (potential) applicants through a specific channel or source (Barber, 1998). This implies that recruitment-related information sources and their characteristics can be important Recruitment-Related Information 4 antecedents of organizational attractiveness. In addition to internal recruitment sources (e.g., recruitment advertising), which are largely under the control of the organization, job seekers also receive information from external sources (e.g., publicity and word-of-mouth), which are not under the direct control of the organization. However, research on the effects of these external information sources on organizational attractiveness is still scarce. Furthermore, most recruitment studies have examined the effects of only one information source at a time, so little is known about the effects of multiple information sources on organizational attractiveness (Cable & Turban, 2001; Collins & Han, 2004; Collins & Stevens, 2002). This contrasts sharply with the reality of job-seeking where potential applicants frequently consult external sources and get their information from more than one source. Similarly, companies are likely to monitor and try to influence external sources and include a mixture of information sources in their recruitment strategy. Therefore, the present study examines the effects of two external information sources (i.e., publicity and word-of-mouth) and one internal source (i.e., recruitment advertising) on organizational attractiveness. We now turn to a discussion of these three recruitment-related information sources, which is summarized in Table 1. Publicity Publicity as a recruitment-related information source involves information about an organization as an employer disseminated through editorial media not paid for by the organization (Collins & Stevens, 2002). It typically consists of non-personal mass communication such as newspaper articles and TV news items and can contain both positive and negative information. Publicity is an external source, which means that companies can only try to manage it indirectly through public relations efforts, press releases, press conferences, media interviews, public-service activities, or special events. Almost no research has studied publicity as a recruitment-related information source. Collins and Stevens (2002) Recruitment-Related Information 5 found that positive publicity was positively related to organizational attractiveness and strengthened the effects of other recruitment sources. However, negative publicity was not examined. Recruitment Advertising Recruitment advertising can be defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of an organization as an employer by the organization itself (Kotler, 2000). Examples include job postings and recruitment brochures. The definition implies that advertising is an internal source that can be directly managed by the organization to communicate a positive message to potential applicants. However, recruitment advertising is usually rather expensive, because advertising space (e.g., in newspapers) must be purchased. In contrast to external sources, recruitment advertising has received a considerable amount of research attention, demonstrating that physical ad attributes, salary and benefits, location, human resource systems, social consciousness, value statements, and position scarcity influence organizational attractiveness (Barber & Roehling, 1993; Bretz & Judge, 1994; Highhouse, Beadle, Gallo, & Miller, 1998; Highhouse & Hoffman, 2001; Highhouse, Hoffman, Greve, & Collins, 2002). However, most of these studies have investigated recruitment advertising as a single recruitment source. Therefore, it is not known whether advertising can serve as a tool to mitigate the effects of negative external sources. Along these lines, Van Hoye and Lievens (2004) found that organizational attractiveness increased significantly when negative word-of-mouth was followed by recruitment advertising. Word-of-Mouth In a recruitment context, word-of-mouth involves an interpersonal communication, independent of the organization‟s recruitment activities, about an organization as an employer or about specific jobs (Van Hoye & Lievens, 2004). Examples are conversations with friends and advice from college professors. Word-of-mouth can contain both positive and negative Recruitment-Related Information 6 information and represents an external source. Like publicity, companies can only attempt to control it indirectly through campus recruitment, building relationships with key influentials and opinion leaders (e.g., career counselor, class president), employee referrals (and referral bonuses), testimonials, or internships. Only a few studies have examined word-of-mouth as a recruitment-related information source. Collins and Stevens (2002) found a strong effect of positive word-of-mouth on organizational attractiveness. The effect of word-of-mouth was strengthened by positive publicity, but word-of-mouth did not interact with recruitment advertising or sponsorship. Van Hoye and Lievens (2004) found that both positive and negative word-of-mouth influenced organizational attractiveness and interfered with the effectiveness of recruitment advertising. However, negative word-of-mouth had a larger impact than positive word-of-mouth. So far, no research has examined if positive word-ofmouth can be used to reduce the impact of negative external information sources. The Accessibility-Diagnosticity Model of Information Sources On the basis of the main characteristics of publicity, recruitment advertising, and word-of-mouth (see Table 1), we use the accessibility-diagnosticity model as a theoretical framework to formulate specific predictions about the effects of these recruitment-related information sources on organizational attractiveness. The accessibility-diagnosticity model (Feldman & Lynch, 1988; Herr et al., 1991) posits that the likelihood that information is used to base an evaluation upon is determined by the accessibility of that information in memory, the diagnosticity of that information, and by the accessibility and diagnosticity of other information. An information source is perceived as diagnostic if it helps to discriminate between alternative hypotheses, interpretations, or categorizations. In other words, a recruitment-related information source is diagnostic if it helps potential applicants to decide whether a specific organization would be a good or bad