An exploratory study of jobseekers’ decision-making styles, recruitment information sources and organisational attractiveness
| Pages | 1403-1427 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2014-0250 |
| Date | 05 September 2016 |
| Published date | 05 September 2016 |
| Author | Yu-Lun Liu,Kathleen A. Keeling,K. Nadia Papamichail |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
An exploratory study of
jobseekers’decision-making
styles, recruitment information
sources and organisational
attractiveness
Yu-Lun Liu
Coventry Business School, Coventry University, Coventry, UK and
Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester,
Manchester, UK, and
Kathleen A. Keeling and K. Nadia Papamichail
Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester,
Manchester, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of jobseeker decision-
making style on info rmation search be haviour, informat ion evaluation and p erceptions of
organisational attractiveness (OA). In this study, the authors assess whether, when presented with a
realistic job informa tion searching scenario of receiving basic job i nformation from a typical formal
short job advertisement, maximisers and satisficers differ on need for further information
and evaluation of fur ther information from informal informa tion sources in relatio n to valence
and tie strength.
Design/methodology/approach –A scenario-based experiment was conducted on 280 participants
from the USA, with work experience in retail, using Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Findings –The results show that, compared to satisficers, significantly more maximisers chose to
search for further information about the company/vacancy af ter receiving a typical short
advertisement message. Furthermore, the results highlight the moderating effects of decision-
making style (maximiser vs satisficer), tie strength (strong-tie vs weak-tie provider) and message
valence (positive vs negative) on jobseekers’perceived OA.
Practical implications –Companies seeking to increase their candidate pool should consider
accommodating the different decision-making styles of jobseekers by carefully designing the content
of recruitment information and utilising recruitment information sources. Although conducted in just
one sector, the ubiquity of the maximiser/satisficer decision-making style implies further research to
assess the implications for other sectors.
Originality/value –Research on decision-making style in recruitment is relatively limited. This study
demonstrates the differences between maximisers and satisficers in terms of job-related information
needs, and the evaluation of the source/content, when searching for a retail trade job.
Keywords Quantitative, Decision-making style, Maximiser, Organizational attractiveness,
Recruitment information sources, Satisficer, Staff word-of-mouth
Paper type Research paper
I always take information with a grain of salt and try to consider the source. If I find one
negative comment, I don’t consider it as fact until I have looked for other information to
verify- Maximiser[1].
When I find one ( job) that fits me, I just go for it- Satisficer[2].
Personnel Review
Vol. 45 No. 6, 2016
pp. 1403-1427
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-11-2014-0250
Received 3 November 2014
Revised 31 March 2015
24 July 2015
6 October 2015
Accepted 2 April 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1403
Jobseekers’
decision-
making styles
1. Introduction
Recruiting the right talent has become a crucial issue for organisations in the developed
countries of the world. It is especially important for companies in the retail industry,
where the turnover rate is relatively high and many employees have low commitment
to the industry as a lifelong job (Ulrich et al., 2008). On average in the USA, ther e are
approximately 515,000 retail job openings every month waiting to be filled (US Bureau
of Labor Statistics, 2014). Breaugh (2013) proposes that increasing the number of
applicants in the application pool is one of the most useful strategies to improve the
number of qualified and suitable candidates. In the past six decades, the challenge of
how to attract qualified candidates and maximise the candidate pool has become a
practical topic that practitioners and researchers have reviewed to find the best
solutions (Rynes and Barber, 1990).
Although increasing the number of applicants in the application pool is one of the
most useful strategies to increase the number of qualified and suitable candidates, the
effectiveness of recruitment information sources varies in relation to attracting
jobseekers, stimulating organisational attractiveness (OA) and encouraging acceptance
of job offers. Job information sources can be described as different in type between
formal vs informal, this is the major divide between sources such as officially relea sed,
authorised by the company, job advertisements and information given to job centres,
etc., (that could form part of an official contract between company and employee) and
the (mostly unplanned) job information spread or obtained from unofficial source s,
such as friends and family, face to face or through online forums such as LinkedIn
groups (see Figure 1). However, both formal and informal sources can be further
divided. For example, a formal source might be company-controlled advertisements or
non-company-controlled recruitme nt agencies. Informal sources might be non-
company-controlled word-of-mouth (WOM) informants within offline or online social
networks, or more company-controlled informal sources, for example, when members
of staff attend job fairs or staff quotations are included in realistic job previews (RJP)
(see Figure 1). Consequently, informal sources can be friends and family (known as
strong-ties) or acquaintances and relative strangers (known as weak-ties).
Past research finds that different recruitment information and information sources
can have different impacts on jobseekers’job decisions, but with inconsistent results.
Some researchers, such as Werbel and Landau (1996), suggest that formal, company-
controlled (FCC) recruitment sources such as advertisements and the company’s
website are less effective than informal, not company-controlled (INCC) informa tion
sources such as WOM from friends and family. In contrast with this, other researchers,
such as Cable and Turban (2001), indicate that FCC source recruitment information
Information
Source
Formal
Job advertisements;
company website;
recruitment fairs
Not company-
controlled
(FNCC)
Not company-
controlled
(INCC)
WOM and e-WOM (blogs,
online discussion forums/
communities)
Company-
controlled
(ICC)
Company-
controlled
(FCC)
Job centres;
careers advice
Staff comments in Realistic
Job Previews and on
company website
Informal
Figure 1.
Jobseeker sources
of information
with examples
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PR
45,6
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