Effect of External Information on Organizational Image

Abstract

Organizational image is one of the critical consideration factors by job seekers in the early recruitment process. Research in the early recruitment domain has examined how applicants form impressions about potential employers by studying the various aspects such as realistic job previews, specificity, and credibility of information sources. With the proliferation of the internet and expansion of the social media sites, there is sparse literature on the effects of social media information on the organizational image, particularly the impact of reviews posted by company independent websites and the effect of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Extant literature has been dominated by studies using the theoretical frameworks of social identity theory and signaling theory. newlineThis dissertation, over two field experimental studies (N 132, N,51), using college students in their final year of studies as subjects, integrates the theoretical framework of Prospect Theory (Kahneman and Tversky,1979) from behavioral economics, Recency Effect Theory (Miller and Campbell,1959) from cognitive social psychology and Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty and Cacioppo,1986) from marketing literature to investigate if and under what conditions external social media information from company independent source has a bearing on the organizational image. The findings indicate that external social media information, specifically negative information has a larger impact on organizational image than positive information. These findings endorse the importance of organizational image management to win the war for talent and thereby obtain a sustained competitive advantage.