Abstract
Whilst previous studies indicate perceived company ethicality as a driver of job seekers’ job-pursuit intentions, it is poorly understood how and why ethical market signals actually affect their application decisions. Perceptions of company ethicality result from market signals that are either within the control of the company (e.g. ethical certifications) and from market signals that are beyond the company’s control (e.g. ethical eWoM). Building on communication and information processing theories, this study therefore considers both types of ethical market signals, and examines the psychological mechanisms through which they affect job seekers’ intention to apply for a job. The results from a controlled online experiment show that both types of ethical market signals increase job seekers’ job-pursuit intentions. These relationships are mediated by applicants’ attitude towards the job advertisement, their perceptions of corporate employment image and self-referencing. Consequently, the present study alerts practitioners to consider the effects of company-controlled and non-company-controlled ethical market signals, particularly when aiming to recruit highly-qualified millennial candidates.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 535-548 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Business Ethics |
| Volume | 164 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 20 Sept 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018, The Author(s).
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords
- Ethical certifications
- Ethical eWoM
- Job-pursuit intentions
- Millennial employment