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Social Influences on Organizational Attractiveness: Investigating If and When Word of Mouth Matters 1
Author(s) -
Van Hoye Greet,
Lievens Filip
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00249.x
Subject(s) - word of mouth , attractiveness , credibility , psychology , social psychology , physical attractiveness , source credibility , word (group theory) , advertising , business , political science , linguistics , psychoanalysis , law , philosophy
Previous recruitment studies have treated potential applicants as individual decision makers, neglecting informational social influences on organizational attractiveness. The present study investigated if and under what conditions word‐of‐mouth communication matters as a recruitment source. Results ( N = 171) indicated that word of mouth had a strong impact on organizational attractiveness, and negative word of mouth interfered with recruitment advertising effects. 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 presented after recruitment advertising. Finally, the effect of word of mouth on organizational attractiveness was partially mediated by the perceived credibility of recruitment advertising.