Identifying dimensions of employer attractiveness in Indian universities: an approach towards scale development
| Published date | 03 May 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-02-2015-0023 |
| Pages | 183-193 |
| Date | 03 May 2016 |
| Author | Chetna Priyadarshini,Sireesha Mamidenna,O.B. Sayeed |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,International business |
Identifying dimensions of employer
attractiveness in Indian universities: an
approach towards scale development
Chetna Priyadarshini, Sireesha Mamidenna and O.B. Sayeed
Chetna Priyadarshini is
Doctoral Scholar,
Sireesha Mamidenna is
Assistant Professor and
O.B. Sayeed is Professor,
all at the Human
Resource and Soft Skills,
IBS Hyderabad, IFHE
University, Hyderabad,
India.
Abstract
Purpose –As the global war of talent is prevalent across different industries, universities are also facing
an acute shortage of faculty members because of massification of higher education system in the past
two decades. The tremendous increase in the number of higher education institutions has made
attracting talented professors a challenging necessity for the university management as employers. The
present study, therefore, carries out a scale development exercise and explores the attractive
dimensions of Indian universities as employers.
Design/methodology/approach –With the help of principle component analysis, exploratory factor
analysis was carried out to obtain five significant constructs of employer attractiveness in Indian
universities.
Findings –The dimensions identified in the study includes fairness and work–life balance; teaching
environment and compensation and benefits; research resources and career development;
organizational integrity and commitment to quality; and organizational culture consisting of respect and
recognition.
Practical implications –The finding provides valuable insights for the university management and
government bodies and posits to assist them in formulating policies with regard to attracting competent
teaching staff.
Originality/value –Although employer attractiveness has gained scholarly attention in the past two
decades, study exploring the dimensionality of employer attractiveness in the context of academic
institutions and universities has not been conducted so far. The present study, therefore, is one of the
pioneers in this realm.
Keywords University, Recruitment, Scale development, Employer attractiveness,
Exploratory factor analysis, Teaching staff
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the current business environment, irrespective of the industry it operates in, human
resource has become one of the main sources of competitive advantage for an
organization. The escalating war of talent has made it mandatory for organizations to
communicate effectively with potential job seekers and attract them to apply for a given
job position. However, as limited budget is allocated by organizations for recruitment
and selection of their employees (Brasher and Chen, 1999), it becomes critical for the
managers to identify the elements which play a decisive role for job seekers while
applying for or declining a given job position (Taylor and Bergmann, 1987). In this
regard, past research has widely captured the dimensions of organization
attractiveness across different industries (Turban and Keon, 1993;Turban, 2001;
Lievens et al., 2001), but studies capturing the same in higher education context have
remained scarce. Additionally, extant literature also maintains that being able to attract
talented employees with right skill set plays a crucial role in determining the success of
any organization and this phenomenon is expected to be more proximal in
knowledge-based organizations such as universities (Chan, 2012). As higher education
Received 24 February 2015
Revised 11 August 2015
Accepted 16 October 2015
DOI 10.1108/JABS-02-2015-0023 VOL. 10 NO. 2 2016, pp. 183-193, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 JOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES PAGE 183
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