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Applicant Attraction: The role of recruiter function, work–life balance policies and career salience
Author(s) -
Carless Sally A.,
Wintle Josephine
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.1468-2389.2007.00398.x
Subject(s) - psychology , attraction , salience (neuroscience) , perception , social psychology , career path , human resource management , path analysis (statistics) , seekers , management , business administration , business , political science , philosophy , linguistics , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , economics , law
This study examined the impact of salient identity, career path and recruiter functional area [internal human resource (HR) personnel vs external recruitment company] on perceptions of organizational attraction with a sample of young, inexperienced job seekers. Two hundred and one participants responded to a questionnaire and rated their attraction to two different job advertisements. The results partially supported the first hypothesis; applicants perceived a job opportunity in an organization that offered either a flexible career path or a dual career path as significantly more attractive than a position in an organization that offered a traditional career path. There was no support for the second hypothesis that identity salience would interact with career path. The results showed that recruiter functional area had no impact on attraction to the organization. It was concluded that flexible HR policies increase applicants' perceptions of organizational attraction during the initial stages of the recruitment process. Practical and research applications are discussed.