Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (v, 68 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Jason G. Randall

Committee Members

Dev K. Dalal

Keywords

Applicant Reactions, Online Reviews, Quantitative and Qualitative Reviews, Signaling Theory, Value Alignment, Value Congruence, Applications for positions

Subject Categories

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Abstract

Of interest in this study is the way organizational values communicated in online reviews are recognized and interpreted by job applicants in relation to their personal values, with this comparison potentially influencing their attitudes and intentions in relation to the organization. An ancillary research question is whether quantitative or qualitative reviews have a greater impact on applicant attitudes and intentions. Drawing on signaling theory, I employed an experimental vignette design to examine whether person-organization (PO) fit perceptions explain the relationship between value alignment and an applicant’s recommendation intentions and organizational attraction. The main effect of value alignment on PO fit was significant, as were the main effects of PO fit on organizational attraction and recommendation intentions for both the full sample (N = 274) and a reduced sample that passed the attention check (N = 170). The direct effects of value alignment on organizational attraction and recommendation intentions were not significant for both samples. Mediation model results indicated support for the indirect effect of value alignment on organizational attraction through PO fit and of value alignment on recommendation intentions via PO fit with the full sample; however, neither indirect effect was significant for the reduced sample. Additionally, preliminary evidence indicates that qualitative reviews may be more impactful for applicants than quantitative reviews. These results suggest that applicants are actively perceiving and interpreting signals about enacted organizational values communicated in online reviews and that those interpretations have ramifications for their experience of the recruitment process.

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