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Do Applicants' Perceptions Matter? Investigating Reapplication Behavior Using Fairness Theory
Author(s) -
LaHuis David M.,
MacLane Charles N.,
Schlessman Bradley R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of selection and assessment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.812
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1468-2389
pISSN - 0965-075X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2389.2007.00397.x
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , counterfactual conditional , social psychology , job performance , government (linguistics) , personnel selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , economic justice , position (finance) , applied psychology , job satisfaction , management , economics , computer science , counterfactual thinking , linguistics , philosophy , neoclassical economics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , finance
This study used a fairness theory approach to examine a link between applicants' perceptions and their actual reapplication behavior. We suggested that applicants who do not receive job offers form ‘Would’ counterfactuals based on perceived performance and ‘Should’ counterfactuals based on two procedural justice rules (job relatedness and opportunity to perform). Participants ( N =542) were applicants for a United States federal government position. After not being hired in the initial selection process, 9% of the applicants reapplied for the job the following year. We found some support for the hypothesized interactions. The job relatedness–perceived performance interaction was not significant, but the opportunity to perform–perceived performance interaction was. Opportunity to perform had a stronger influence when perceived performance was higher.