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A Closer Look at Reactions to Realistic Recruitment Messages
Charlie L. Reeve
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Scott Highhouse
Bowling Green State University
Margaret E. Brooks
Wayne State University
Recently there has been a great deal of interest among consumer and behavioral judgmentresearchers on how immediate affective reactions influence overall evaluations. Thecurrent study seeks to determine whether immediate affective reactions to organizationalattributes warrant the attention of recruitment researchers as well. Using a customizedweb-based computer program that elicits immediate affective reactions to organizationalpreviews, the study finds that overall evaluations of the organization are influenced moreby the average intensity of immediate affective reactions experienced during the messagethan by the relative balance of positive and negative information contained in themessage. Results suggest that practitioners using realistic information need to be moreconcerned about the average intensity of recipients’ reactions than about the relativebalance of positive or negative information.Understanding the effectiveness of formal pre-entry
organizational messages is of particular importancegiven that both firms and job seekers rely heavily on formal
messages (e.g., job advertisements, organizational brochures,organizational advertisements, etc.) for their
respective goals in the employment process (Bureau ofNational Affairs, 1998; Kallenberg, Knoke, Marsden, &
Spaeth, 1996; Vecchio, 1995). Additionally, both organizationsand job seekers increasingly rely on web-based
technologies for pre-employment information exchange(Bartram, 2000; Cober, Brown, Blumenthal, Doverspike,
& Levy, 2000; Dillabough, 2002; Lachnit, 2001; VanRooy, Alonso, & Fairchild, 2003). In fact, over 90% of
Fortune 500 companies currently use their corporatewebsites in some fashion for either recruiting applicants
or providing organizational advertisements (Cappelli,2001). Of course, the content, timing and purpose of anyparticular organizational advertisement or message canvary widely; however, the provision of ‘‘realistic information’’(i.e., the provision of both positive and negativeinformation) about the job or organization has garneredmuch attention by researchers.Proponents of realistic job and organizational previewsfrequently espouse the potential socialization benefits ofcalibrating applicants’ expectations, such as increasedemployee adjustment, job satisfaction, performance, anddecreased turnover (e.g., Wanous, 1980). However, manyrecruitment researchers frequently lament the potentialnegative impact of realistic information on an organization’s
attractiveness as an employer (e.g., Bretz & Judge,1998; Coleman & Irving, 1997; Meglino, DeNisi, &Ravlin, 1993; Saks, Wiesner, & Summers, 1994; Wiesner,Saks, & Summers, 1991). Indeed, the utility of anorganization’s selection system, and ultimately theircompetitiveness, depends on the organization’s ability toattract highly qualified applicants (Boudreau & Rynes,1985; Murphy, 1986).
A number of reviewers, however, have noted thatrecruitment researchers have failed to (a) investigate
recipients’ reactions to formal realistic messages presentedbefore organizational entry (e.g., Barber, 1998; HighhouseAddress for correspondence: Charlie L. Reeve, Department of
Psychology, University of North Carolina Charlotte, 9201 Unive本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。