The Impact of Information Quality of Job Descriptions on an Applicant s Decision to Pursue a Job

Transcription

1 The Impact of Informaton Qualty of Job Descrptons on an Applcant s Decson to Pursue a Job by Harry Leung A thess presented to the Unversty of Waterloo n fulfllment of the thess requrement for the degree of Master of Appled Scence n Management Scences Waterloo, Ontaro, Canada, 2007 Harry Leung, 2007

2 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of ths thess. Ths s a true copy of thess, ncludng any requred fnal revsons, as accepted by my examners. I understand that my thess may be made electroncally avalable to the publc. --

3 Abstract Job descrptons are one of the major mechansms that organzatons use to convey job and company nformaton to job applcants. Consequently, job descrptons play a major role n the recrutment process to attract job canddates. However, t s unclear whether the qualty of a job descrpton nfluences a job applcant s decson makng. It s n the organzatons nterest to understand ths phenomenon to make better decsons on how to present job descrptons n order to acheve qualfed applcants and a desrable applcant pool sze. The purpose of ths thess s to determne the mpact of the qualty of nformaton of job descrptons on a job applcant s decson to pursue a job. A model s developed to quantfy job descrptons. The developed model contans three axes: ) x-axs job descrpton components, ) y-axs nformaton qualty dmensons, and ) z-axs job ndustres. Ths nvestgaton analyzed 127 job descrptons for students majorng n accountng at the Unversty of Waterloo to determne the relatonshp between the qualtes of dfferent components of the job descrptons wth the correspondng number of applcatons. The results of ths nvestgaton suggest that nformaton qualty has a postve mpact on job applcants decson to pursue a job. In addton, nformaton qualty has dfferent magntudes of mpact for jobs that have smlar organzaton reputaton or geographc locaton. Future research s recommended to analyze other nformaton qualty dmensons by usng a smlar expermental approach as the one used n ths thess. --

4 Acknowledgements I have ganed a great deal of knowledge, experence, and sklls throughout my studes at the Unversty of Waterloo. I would not be able to acheve what I have acheved today f t was not for the people that I have worked wth, studed wth, and lved wth. Frst, I would lke to express my gratefulness to have such a wonderful supervsor and frend, Professor Kenneth McKay. He has provded a rare and valuable learnng experence for me throughout the past three years at the Unversty of Waterloo. I would also lke to thank Professor Mguel Anjos and Professor Elzabeth Jewkes for ther gudance n varous courses and for revewng my thess. Furthermore, I would lke to acknowledge all of the employees n Cooperatve Educaton and Career Servces for ther support n provdng valuable nput and data to ths thess. Lastly, I would lke to thank Chrstna We for her tremendous contrbuton n proofreadng and formattng my thess. -v-

5 Dedcaton I would lke to dedcate ths thess to my famly and my frends. The uncondtonal love from my famly s rreplaceable, and t s the one source of energy that keeps me runnng. The support from my frends provded strength for me to complete my studes especally durng the tme when I was strugglng. I cannot express more on how much I apprecate your care. Last but most mportantly, ths thess s also dedcated to Chrstna We, who has provded lmtless care and support for the past four years of my lfe. I would lke to express my deep love for her contnuous support and for walkng through the same path wth me. I wll not have made t f t was not for her. -v-

6 Table of Contents Abstract... Acknowledgements... v Dedcaton... v Lst of Fgures...v Lst of Tables... x Introducton... 1 Chapter 1 Recrutment Overvew Motvaton Recrutment Research Defnton of Recrutment The Four Major Recrutment Topcs Applcant Attracton Strateges Recrutment Sources Recruters Realstc Job Prevews Applcant Decson Makng and Job Choce Person-Organzatonal Ft Job Content Summary Chapter 2 Job Descrptons and Informaton Qualty Informaton about the Job Prevous Research on Informaton Qualty of Job Descrptons Defnton of Qualty of nformaton Informaton Qualty n Job Descrptons Gap analyss Summary Chapter 3 Informaton Qualty Model The Model Job Industres (z-axs) Informaton Qualty and Other Measurng Dmensons (y-axs) v-

7 3.4 Job Descrpton Components (x-axs) Summary Chapter 4 Research Hypotheses Chapter 5 Expermental Desgn Methodology Job Descrpton Samples Methodology - Model Informaton Qualty Dmensons Specfcty Relevancy Amount of Informaton Common Components Accountng-Specfc Components Other Components Summary Ratng System of the Model Common Components Accountng Components Other Components Quantfyng Job Descrptons Hypotheses Test Data Clean-up Chapter 6 Data Analyss and Results Chapter 7 Dscusson Chapter 8 Lmtatons and Suggested Future Research Chapter 9 Conclusons References Appendxes Appendx A Three Examples of the Accountng Job Descrptons Appendx B Job Descrptons Ratng Data Appendx C Prelmnary Regresson Analyss v-

8 Lst of Fgures Fgure 3-1: Informaton Qualty model three axes Fgure 3-2: Informaton Qualty model z-axs Fgure 3-3: Informaton Qualty model y-axs Fgure 3-4: Informaton Qualty model x-axs Fgure 3-5: The complete Informaton Qualty model Fgure 5-1: Model wth the selected nformaton qualty dmensons Fgure 5-2: Model wth the selected common components of the job descrptons Fgure 5-3: Model wth the selected accountng-specfc components of the job descrptons Fgure 5-4: Model wth the addtonal common components of the job descrptons Fgure 5-5: The complete model used to quantfy accountng job descrptons Fgure 5-6: Model wth the ratng system for the common components Fgure 5-7: Model wth the ratng system for the accountng components Fgure 5-8: Model wth the complete ratng system Fgure 6-1: Regresson model and the actual number of job applcatons Fgure 7-1: Average number of applcatons versus accountng ratng Fgure 7-2: Average number of applcatons versus common ratng Fgure 7-3: Average number of applcatons versus grand total ratng Fgure 7-4: Average number of applcatons versus organzaton reputaton Fgure 7-5: Average number of applcatons versus geographc locaton Fgure 7-6: Average number of applcatons versus COM and ORG ratng Fgure 7-7: Average number of applcatons versus COM and LOC ratng v-

9 Lst of Tables Table 2-1: Summary of gap analyss Table 3-1: Examples of job ndustres Table 3-2: Examples of nformaton qualty dmensons Table 3-3: Examples of the common components of job descrptons Table 5-1: The selected common components and ther correspondng nformaton qualty dmensons Table 5-2: The selected accountng-specfc components and ther correspondng nformaton qualty and other measurng dmensons Table 5-3: Other selected common components and ther correspondng measurng dmensons Table 5-4: Organzaton reputaton measurng system Table 5-5: Geographc locaton measurng system Table 5-6: Sngle factors for the data analyss Table 5-7: Summary of the hypotheses tests Table 6-1: Regresson analyss for sngle factor LOC, ORG, and GRA Table 6-2: Regresson summary of the remanng sngle and two-factor nteracton effects Table 6-3: ANOVA table for the remanng man and two-factor nteracton effects Table 6-4: Regresson analyss for the remanng man and two-factor nteracton effects Table 6-5: Summary of the sgnfcant terms of the regresson model Table 7-1: Summary of the fndngs from the seven hypotheses x-

10

11 Introducton Recrutment s a crtcal process for many organzatons snce t has a drect mpact on ther labour force. It s desrable for organzatons to operate an effcent recrutment process where they can hre qualfed employees, acheve a low turnover rate, and to obtan a hghly productve performance from ther employees. In order to acheve ths, organzatons need to understand how to effectvely convey nformaton to job applcants so that they can make better hrng decsons. Many organzatons are nterested n attractng a larger pool of job canddates because t wll provde them a hgher chance n hrng qualfed employees. As a result, many studes have been performed on dfferent recrutment strateges (Barber, 1998; Breaugh, 1992; Levens et al., 2001). In the recrutment process, the job descrpton s one of the major mechansms utlzed to transfer company and job nformaton to job seekers. In order to attract more and better job applcants, t s benefcal for the organzaton to understand how to wrte attractve job descrptons. Ths research focuses on the characterstcs of job descrptons and how job applcants respond to them. Although exploratory, ths research has resulted n a prelmnary nformaton taxonomy and analyss method for analysng the nformaton qualty (IQ) of a job descrpton. IQ refers to the qualty of nformaton content where dfferent nformaton qualty dmensons can be used to evaluate the level of value of dfferent components of a job descrpton. As suggested by Reeves and Bednar (1994), there are four man aspects of qualty that can be used for dfferent mplcatons ncludng excellence, value, conformance to specfcatons, and meetng and/or exceedng -1-

12 expectatons. A controlled experment applyng the concepts suggests that these ntal deas have the potental to provde nsghts to recrutment researchers and companes on how job applcants perceve job descrptons and how the content of job descrptons mpacts job applcatons. The thess begns wth a broad analyss on the recrutment process, followed by a dscusson on the problem formulaton n Chapter 1. Chapter 2 provdes a more n-depth lterature revew on nformaton qualty and job descrptons. Chapter 3 presents the formulaton of the model that quantfes job descrptons. Chapter 4 outlnes the hypotheses wth a subsequent dscusson n Chapter 5 on the expermental desgn to verfy those hypotheses. The data analyss and results assocated wth the experment are found n Chapter 6. A thorough dscusson on each hypothess s then presented n Chapter 7. Lmtatons and future research are presented n Chapter 8 and are followed by the conclusons n Chapter

13 Chapter 1 Recrutment Overvew 1.1 Motvaton The key nspraton for ths research comes from the largest cooperatve educaton program n Canada. Ths program s run by Cooperatve Educaton and Career Servces (CECS) at the Unversty of Waterloo. Cooperatve educaton functons wth an employment process that nvolves three major stakeholders whch nclude employers, students, and CECS employees. Employers submt job descrptons to the co-op system to advertse job postons. Students search and apply to job postons of ther nterest by submttng job applcatons. Employers then screen job applcatons and choose canddates for ntervews. After ntervews, employers and students rank each other accordng to ther preferences. Fnally, a matchng system determnes the fnal match of jobs and students. CECS employees are responsble for the overall operaton of the employment system whch ncludes nformaton transfer between employers and students, student counsellng program, and the co-op nformaton technology (IT) system management. Due to the large volume of students and jobs that CECS manages every term, CECS faces many challenges. One of the challenges s the process of makng decsons n desgnng the employment system specfcaton for each term. The employment system specfcaton defnes the mlestones (e.g. the dates for job postngs, the tme perod for ntervews, and others), the constrants (e.g. the number of jobs each student s allowed to apply to, the number of job postngs to be lsted on each day, and others), and the -3-

14 resource allocaton (e.g. how many CECS employees are necessary to assst employers durng ntervew tme, how many hours of student counsellng are necessary for the frst month of the school term, and others). Many of these decsons depend on how many students are expected to get matched n the man round of ntervews, and ths number depends on the students applyng to ther best job opportuntes. The job opportunty s presented to the students va the job descrpton and at the end of the man round, there are many students who have not been ntervewed, others ntervewed but stll wthout a job, and many employers who dd not have suffcent (or any) students to ntervew. The jobs wthout suffcent applcants mght n fact be very good jobs, but are not presented n a way that attracts students. CECS has suspected that the job descrptons affect the process, but have not been able to analyze ths stuaton n the past. Hence, ths research attempts to understand student behavour wth regard to ther reacton to dfferent job descrptons: why are some jobs more attractve than others and does the job descrpton content mpact a student s percepton and decson to apply? Cooperatve (co-op) students at the Unversty of Waterloo are usually placed n a fourmonth or eght-month work term. Students searchng for a four- or eght-month temporary placement possess dfferent characterstcs than graduatng students seekng full-tme employment or experenced employees lookng for a dfferent job. For example, job advertsements for co-op students are for temporary hre, whch may be dfferent than job advertsements that are for permanent hre. Temporary hre postons mght requre less specfc sklls than permanent hre postons because companes expect co-op students to gan experence through the job. Co-op students that are lookng for a temporary placement may seek dfferent job characterstcs than graduatng students who -4-

15 are seekng for a permanent job. Co-op students may be nterested n fndng a job that allows them to gan a wde-spectrum of sklls; whereas graduatng students may be seekng jobs that requre specfc qualfcatons so that they can utlze a specfc skll set. Furthermore, employees n the workforce have prevous experence n job search, thus they may be more competent n terms of understandng what they are lookng for when readng a job descrpton. However, co-op students (especally those that are on ther frst work term) have never been employed, or have lttle experence n the job market pror to ther job search; as a result, the content of a job descrpton can become very crucal to the decson process. Experenced hres mght be able to nterpret mssng nformaton whle nexperenced co-op students mght not. Co-op students mght attend to all the specfc detals n a job descrpton and take all of the nformaton at face value. Although employers submt ther job descrptons for ther job postons one to four weeks pror to the postng date, the hrng process occurs four months pror to the actual startng date of employment. As a result, the job descrptons are wrtten four to sx months before the actual startng date for a student. Ths creates challenges for employers. For example, employers mght have dffculty n wrtng specfc job responsbltes for the job postons. Ths s because employers usually do not have welldefned projects or tasks where they can plan detaled actons that can be carred out four months n advance. However, students often request detals n job descrptons from employers. Ths creates a gap between what employers can provde and what students are seekng. Strauss and Howe (1991) defned the Mllennal generaton as people that are born from -5-

16 1982 to The co-op students at the Unversty of Waterloo from the year 2001 to 2007 belong to ths generaton. As a result, the behavour, the percepton, and the knowledge of the students from the Mllennal generaton s dfferent than the prevous generatons such as Generaton X (1961 to 1981) or Boom (1943 to 1960) (Howe and Strauss, 2000). Howe and Strauss defned a number of generatonal personas that dstnctvely descrbe the Mllennal generaton apart from the prevous generaton. Generatonal persona s a dstnctly human, and varable, creaton embodyng atttudes about famly lfe, gender roles, nsttutons, poltcs, relgon, culture, lfestyle, and the future. The Mllennals possess seven generatonal personas whch nclude: specal, sheltered, confdent, team-orented, achevng, pressured, and conventonal (Howe and Strauss, 2000). Snce the oldest of ths generaton have only begun to enter secondary or post-secondary educaton, there are stll lots of characterstcs yet to be determned n terms of ther behavour. However, what s understood s that there are many ways n whch the Mllennal generaton behaves dfferently from other generatons as suggested by the dfferent generatonal personas. For example, the Mllennal generaton are beleved to be the best-educated adults and have hgh self-confdence. They have hgh expectatons of themselves and of others. Wll ths mpact the behavour of the job applcants n the recrutment process? The above dscussons become mportant ssues when studyng the recrutment process. The lterature provdes a wde range of studes that nvestgate experenced employees and campus recrutng for permanent hres and less emphass on cooperatve students. In addton, the lterature presents many studes that were conducted usng samples from the prevous generaton(s). As a result, the fndngs may not be appled drectly to the young -6-

17 job applcants n the current generaton. Ths study nvestgates the recrutment process consderng the perspectve of the cooperatve educaton. Specfcally, usng data from the cooperatve educaton at the Unversty of Waterloo, ths thess nvestgates how job applcants attend to the content of job descrptons and the mpact on the job response rate. Although the topc of the Mllennal generaton s dscussed, ths subject wll not be nvestgated n further detal. Whle ths topc s not part of the scope of ths thess, addtonal research s hghly recommended to nvestgate ths subject matter snce t s beleved to have a sgnfcant mpact to the recrutment research. Ths chapter contnues wth a broad lterature revew of the recrutment research. The followng sectons provde an overvew of four dfferent categores of the recrutment process. 1.2 Recrutment Research Recrutment research has been dentfed as a crtcal feld of study for organzatons (Barber, 1998; Breaugh, 1992). Prevous studes establshed a close correlaton between recrutment management and organzatons performance ncludng return on nvestments, proftablty, and organzatonal survval (Barber, 1998). However, due to the complexty of the employee recrutment process, Breaugh and Starke (2000) found that many defcences exsted n the lterature such as experments that are poorly desgned and studes that are narrow n focus. A number of other revew papers (e.g. Ryan and Polyhart, 2000; Anderson et al., 2004) and publcatons (e.g. Barber, 1998; Breaugh, 1992) also suggest the lack of research n the recrutment feld and/or the need -7-

18 for mproved research. The researchers clam that socety wll beneft from the value ganed from studes of the recrutment process. For example, Barber (1998) states that Recrutment performs the essental functon of drawng an mportant resource human captal nto the organzaton. The success of later human resource efforts, ncludng selecton, tranng, and compensaton, depends n part on the qualty and quantty of new employees dentfed and attracted through the recrutment process. Ryan and Polyhart (2000) suggest that there are four ncentves for the ncreasng nterest n the recrutment research, specfcally n the area of the applcants percepton towards the selecton process: ) as a result of competton and low employment rate, organzatons are nvestgatng strateges to mprove the recrutment process, ) key researchers n the recrutment feld have called for mproved research, ) there s an ncreasng nterest n nvestgatng f and how socal justce theory s applcable to job canddate selecton perspectve, and v) organzatons are concerned about ther attractveness to mnorty groups due to ncreasng dversty of workforce. In addton, Breaugh (1992) proposes that organzatons can beneft from recrutment research because recrutment actvtes have a drect relatonshp wth human resource management. The recrutment strategy an organzaton uses can hghly affect the qualty and quantty of job applcants t receves. Ultmately, some of these job canddates wll be the workforce for the organzaton (Breaugh, 1992). The general recrutment lterature ncludes a wde range of topcs, some of whch are: the determnaton of feasble and effectve selecton tools and recrutment -8-

19 strateges (Ryan and Tppns, 2004) the percepton of classroom experence versus work experence from employers (Barr and McNelly, 2002) the dfference between experenced hrng versus college recrutng (Rynes et al., 1997) the effects of compensaton to job applcants (Rynes et al., 2004; Rynes et al., 1989) For convenence and clarty, the varous recrutment lterature topcs can be categorzed nto four man topcs: ) applcant attracton strateges (see Chapter 1.4.1) ) applcants decson makng and job choce (see Chapter 1.4.2) ) person-organzaton (P-O) ft (see Chapter 1.4.3) v) job descrpton content (see Chapter 1.4.4) Although the selected publcatons to be dscussed can be broadly categorzed nto the four areas, many of them are nterrelated. One of the ways that these categores are nterrelated pertans to nformaton. For example, nformaton s a recurrng theme n the followng recrutment lterature: percepton of nformaton (e.g. Cable and Graham, 2000; Chapman and Webster, 2006; Connerley and Rynes, 1997; Ryan and Polyhart, 2000) the technque of nformaton transfer (e.g. Km and Gelfand, 2001; Phllps, 1998; Rafael et al., 2005) the content of nformaton (e.g. Barber and Roehlng, 1993; Feldman et al., -9-

20 2006; Smth et al, 1990) All of these are noted as mportant attrbutes n job canddates decson-makng processes. Barber (1998) suggests that t s wse to break down the recrutment process and perform a lterature revew by logcal stages. In addton, Barber and Roehlng (1993) comment that early stages make up the most mportant phase of a recrutment process. If nformaton s perceved postvely by the job applcants durng ths phase, and a perceved lkelhood to receve an offer s created, more nterest wll be generated for the job seekers to apply for a job (Breaugh and Starke, 2000). Usng the above suggestons as benchmarks, ths thess focuses on the early stages of a recrutment process and the mpact of nformaton on a job applcant s decson to pursue a job. Three questons drected the lterature revew actvty: ) why s t mportant to study the mpact of nformaton qualty n job descrptons on the applcant s ntal decson to pursue a job applcaton? ) ) what research has been done n the past? what research s needed to address the gaps found n the lterature? The followng sectons revew studes from varous sources and present the recrutment lterature startng from a very broad perspectve and progressvely narrowng down the focus to the mpact of nformaton qualty. Two books, Recrutng Employees, Indvdual and Organzatonal Perspectves by Barber (1998) and Recrutment: Scence and Practce by Breaugh (1992) were used to provde a topc foundaton. Furthermore, three recent revew papers were analyzed: -10-

21 ) Future Perspectves on Employee Selecton: Key Drectons for Future Research and Practce by Anderson et al. (2004) ) Research on Employee Recrutment: So Many Studes, So Many Remanng Questons by Breaugh and Starke (2000) ) Applcants Perceptons of Selecton Procedures and Decsons: A Crtcal Revew and Agenda for the Future by Ryan and Ployhart (2000) Fnally, scholarly studes from dfferent felds of research were used ncludng advertsement, appled psychology, busness and psychology, behavoural decson makng, consumer affars, human resource management, and organzatonal research methods. 1.3 Defnton of Recrutment Ths thess uses a workng defnton of Recrutment. Many researchers attempted to defne recrutment, thus there are many dfferent defntons. Ths paper focuses on defntons from three of the man researchers n the recrutment feld: ) Encompass all organzatonal practces and decsons that affect ether the number, or types, of ndvduals who are wllng to apply for, or to accept, a gven vacancy (Rynes, 1991) ) Employee recrutment nvolves those organzatonal actvtes that (1) nfluence the number and/or the types of applcants who apply for a poston and/or (2) affect whether a job offer s accepted (Breaugh, 1992) ) Recrutment ncludes those practces and actvtes carred on by the -11-

22 organzaton wth the prmary purpose of dentfyng and attractng potental employees (Barber, 1998) Consderng the above defntons, a composte defnton of recrutment s used n ths research: Recrutment s the set of organzatonal practces and actvtes that are performed wth the objectve to attract and employ job seekers to fll job postons. 1.4 The Four Major Recrutment Topcs Applcant Attracton Strateges Many scholarly studes focused on the topc of applcant attracton strateges n the past decade due to reasons such as labour shortages and competton (Barber, 1998; Breaugh, 1992; Levens et al., 2001; Ryan and Ployhart, 2000; Rynes and Barber, 1990; Trank et al., 2002). Organzatons wanted to determne optmal methods to attract qualfed canddates to apply to ther company. They realzed that a company s success depends heavly on the recrutment process. Barber (1998) comments that by usng the correct recrutment strateges, organzatons can employ the most qualfed employees resultng n a lower turnover rate, lower cost n recrutment process, and a hgher quantty and qualty n producton rate. Breaugh and Starke (2000) presented a theoretcal framework for understandng the recrutment process n ther recrutment revew paper. Ths framework ncludes fve -12-

23 man components: recrutment objectves, strategy development, recrutment actvtes, ntervenng and process varables, and recrutment results. One of the man attrbutes n the recrutment actvtes component s the recrutment message. Breaugh and Starke (2000) suggest that the message plays an mportant role n affectng the attractveness of a job and/or an organzaton to job seekers. Ths observaton mples that the nformaton n a job descrpton s a key factor n nfluencng an applcant s decson to pursue a job. Accordng to Breaugh and Starke (2000), most of the applcant attracton strateges studes can be categorzed nto three felds: recrutment sources (see Chapter ), recruters (see Chapter ), and realstc job prevews (see Chapter ). There s evdence from each of these areas of studes that demonstrates how nformaton qualty relates to applcant attracton strateges Recrutment Sources Many types of recrutment sources have been studed n the lterature ncludng: outsourcng (e.g. school placement offces, hrng agency) (Breaugh, 1992) newspaper or other advertsements (Rafael et al., 2005) employee referrals (Breaugh and Starke, 2000; Rafael et al., 2005; Shnnar et al., 2004) onlne recrutments (Cober et al., 2003; Cober et al., 2004) drect applcatons (Breaugh, 1992; Breaugh and Starke, 2000) All of these studes suggest that the usage of dfferent recrutment methods results n -13-

24 dfferent effects n the recrutment outcomes. In ther recrutment research revew paper, Breaugh and Starke (2000) examned a number of studes ncludng: a commonly-cted study of source usage that was conducted by the Bureau of Natonal Affars (BNA) n 1988, the Natonal Organzatons Study whch entals a natonal probablty sample of employers, and a report on natonal probablty sample of employees by Veccho n Breaugh and Starke (2000) found common evdence from these studes that suggest there are a wde range of recrutment sources that are commonly used such as newspaper ads, employee referrals, drect applcatons, and recrutng at schools. Furthermore, they state that the realstc nformaton hypothess s one of the theores that receved the most attenton. Ths theory explans why sources may be dfferentally assocated wth recrutment outcomes. It states that ) persons recruted va certan sources are lkely to have more accurate nformaton about what a job entals and ) possessng such nformaton s thought to enable an applcant to make a more nformed decson about whether to pursue a job. These fndngs suggest that the level of realsm of nformaton can be consdered as an nformaton qualty dmenson. From a socologcal pont of vew, Km and Gelfand (2003) used an nformaton processng perspectve to nvestgate the mpact of recrutment brochures on the recrutment process. They studed how ethnc dentty can nfluence a job canddate s perspectve towards organzatons usng 238 students from the Psychology and Busness Management classes at a unversty of Unted States as partcpants. There are two hypotheses n ths study. The frst hypothess states that there should be a postve correlaton between students wth hgher level of ethnc dentty wth the nference wth the companes that ssue brochures wth dversty ntatve statements. The second -14-

25 hypothess states that there should be a postve correlaton between students wth hgher level of ethnc dentty and the wllngness to accept an offer wth the companes that ssue brochures wth dversty ntatve statements. Fndngs conclude that hgher levels of ethnc dentty n recrutment brochures create a greater ncentve for job seekers to complete the applcaton process and pursue the rest of the recrutment process (Km and Gelfand, 2003). In addton, ther fndngs suggest that ethnc dentty can be consdered as an attrbute of nformaton qualty Recruters Many scholarly publcatons propose that recruters have strong nfluences on job canddates applcaton decsons. For example, Barber and Starke (2000) ndcate that many studes suggest dfferent recruters provde dfferent knds of nformaton to job canddates and n turn ths wll have dfferent mpacts on the applcants decsons. Some recruters are more nformatve than others and some are perceved as more trustworthy. The nformatveness of a recruter s message s often weghted by the level of realsm of the nformaton compared to the level of postve nformaton (Breaugh and Starke, 2000). Postve nformaton s usually preferred over negatve nformaton. An example of postve nformaton s attractve workng envronment and an example of negatve nformaton s that the job requres extensve overtme wthout pay. If an organzaton provdes solely postve nformaton, applcants may perceve that as naccurate and unrealstc. As a result, applcants often desre a balance between realstc and postve nformaton. Barber (1998) argues that t s mportant to understand the dfferences (f any) between the values and goals of recruters and organzatons. Understandng -15-

26 recruters behavour s an mportant factor because they are one of the essental mechansms that organzatons use to convey nformaton to job canddates. Therefore, recruters have a hgh nfluence n affectng an applcant s percepton of an organzaton. In an emprcal study on the percepton of recruters by applcants, Connerley and Rynes (1997) stated eght hypotheses. The most notable hypothess s hypothess seven whch states that recruters who are more nformed about applcants and vacances wll (also) be perceved as more effectve. To test ths hypothess, data was collected from both applcants and recruters to verfy whether there were common vews between the two sdes. The data was collected from 1571 student applcants and 216 matched recruters who ntervewed them n campus ntervews n the colleges of busness, lberal arts, and engneerng at a unversty n the Unted States. Usng regresson analyss, the applcants percepton results suggest that the recruter characterstcs and actons can hghly affect the varance of job seekers. There s strong evdence (β = 0.32, P< 0.001) to support hypothess seven whch suggest that the percepton of nformaton s mportant. Although the recruter s percepton regresson analyss result s relatvely lower (β = 0.10, P < 0.05), t stll provdes moderate support to the above argument. Whle t s mportant for recruters to be nformatve, some studes also suggest that many recruters are msleadng. For example, Breaugh (1992) and Rynes (1997) agree that recruters and organzatons often fal to convey mportant job nformaton or they often provde naccurate messages to sell job postons. Breaugh (1992) summarzed a number of recruter studes and suggest that one of the bggest reasons why job canddates have dfferent perceptons of an organzaton s because of the -16-

27 mscommuncatons between recruters and job seekers. Therefore, t s essental for recruters to be knowledgeable about ther company and more mportantly, to be able to present ths knowledge accurately (Breaugh, 1992) Realstc Job Prevews Breaugh (1992) notes that the term realstc job prevew (RJP) s mostly referred to as a presentaton of factual nformaton about a job openng that s gven to job canddates by an organzaton. In addton, n hs book, Barber (1998) comments that RJP has been one of the most thoroughly and systematcally studed areas of recrutment where most of the RJP studes were done upon the effects of realstc nformaton conveyed to applcants. One of the prmary objectves of RJP s to reduce the employee turnover rate (Barber, 1998). Some of the areas of studes that relate to RJP nclude attrton from the job recrutment process, job expectatons, affectve reactons, job performance (Phllps, 1998), turnover rate (Phllps, 1998; Popovch and Wanous, 1982), and decson makng (Calgur and Phllps, 2003). Breaugh and Strake (2000) pont out that the RJP lterature s more or less tryng to answer the queston: does provdng accurate job nformaton result n a hgher level of job satsfacton for new employees? In addton, they compared the RJP theory and models and summarzed that most of the RJP models hypothesze that provdng realstc job nformaton to applcants results n ther havng ther job expectatons met. The RJP models hypotheszed that provdng an RJP nfluences role clarty and ndvduals perceptons that the organzaton s honest wth them (Breaugh and Starke, 2000). -17-

28 These fndngs suggest that RJP, smlar to nformaton qualty, nfluences applcants judgment and decson makng. Furthermore, t s reasonable to suggest that the level of realsm of nformaton n job descrptons perceved by applcants can be categorzed as an nformaton qualty dmenson. Other lterature also suggests that RJP and nformaton qualty n job descrptons share common characterstcs. For nstance, Roberson et al. (2005) argue that more specfc job nformaton allows job seekers to make more nformed decsons, whch s ndeed smlar to the RJP theory where more realstc nformaton allows applcants to make better decsons. In ther study, Roberson et al. (2005) hypothesze that more specfc recrutment messages wll provde a more postve percepton of person-organzaton ft and create a hgher ntenton to apply. Usng a sample sze of 171 undergraduate students n a human resource management course, the students were asked to complete questonnares after readng a recrutment message that was randomly assgned. The recrutment message was desgned to contan specfc or general nformaton about the organzaton and the job responsbltes. The results support the hypothess and the researchers suggest that recrutment advertsement specfcty nfluences applcant perceptons of organzaton attrbutes and personorganzaton ft (Roberson et al., 2005). Phllps (1998) conducted a meta-analyss of 40 journals (26 of whch were publshed) on RJP. The study analyzes three man factors: settng, tmng, and medum of RJP. Although there are no major fndngs that show a drect relatonshp to nformaton qualty, the general results suggest that a realstc job prevew can provde a hgher performance and a lower turnover rate. Ths fndng also corresponds to Breaugh and Starke s (2000) comment that RJP provdes a hgher level of job satsfacton, a lower -18-

29 level of voluntary turnover, and a hgher level of performance Applcant Decson Makng and Job Choce Applcant decson makng and job choce s a topc that also receves a consderable amount of attenton n the recrutment lterature (Anderson et al., 2004; Barber, 1998; Breaugh, 1992; Slaughter et al., 2006). Some of the ponts explored are: researchers want to understand the dfferent areas that mpact job canddates decson makng, namely the applcant reacton mechansms (Chapman and Webster, 2006) the mpact of job attrbutes on job choce (Boswell et al., 2003) the mpact of early recrutment-related actvtes on job choce (Collns and Stevens, 2002; Collns and Han, 2004) In addton to these, many organzatons and researchers such as Barber (1998) and Breaugh (1992) am to dentfy the reasons and logc behnd how job canddates make ther decsons to ether apply or not to apply to a specfc job, contnue or not to contnue n a recrutment process, and to accept or not to accept a job offer. Slaughter and Hghhouse (2003) present ther emprcal study results of the effects of job features and applcants job choce. Usng 398 undergraduate psychology students as partcpants, they studed the relatonshp between applcants job choces versus 14 job attrbute preferences ncludng ncome, opportuntes for promoton, geographc locaton, freedom and autonomy, coworkers, prestge and recognton, supervsor, nterestng -19-

30 work, and dress code. One of the notable fndngs suggests that jobs wth unque postve features and shared negatve features were preferred over those wth unque negatve features and shared postve features only when nformaton was presented n a smple (versus complex) format. Ths mples that the level of complexty of nformaton affects the level of attenton job canddates contrbute. In hs book, Barber (1998) suggests that n the early stages of the recrutment process, job seekers are exposed to nformaton provded by the employer, whch often sgnfcantly affects the applcant s ntal job search decsons. To study ths phenomenon, Murphy and Tam (2004) analyzed job applcants decson makng usng the Bayesan theory. They suggest that one can use ths theory to determne what an applcant should (rather than wll) do when they receve new or addtonal nformaton regardng a job opportunty (e.g. receved addtonal nformaton from an employee currently workng n the organzaton and receved well-nformed and specfc nformaton from an ntervew). The Bayesan approach emphaszes that n order to make good decsons, applcants requre some benchmark nformaton that they can use to compare wth exstng nformaton or knowledge. An example of the benchmark nformaton s the knowledge of other job opportuntes or nformaton regardng other organzatons. However, most studes n the recrutment lterature only ask questons relatng to what the applcants know or feel about a partcular job or an organzaton. As an alternatve, they could have asked the applcants questons on what and how they feel about other organzatons and job opportuntes. The downsde of the study done by Murphy and Tam (2004) s that t does not contan any emprcal analyss and only provdes a sngle hypothetcal llustraton of the use of the Bayesan method. The bggest lmtaton of ths study s that -20-

31 t s very dffcult to obtan and quantfy the benchmark data regardng what applcants knew or felt about other organzatons and job opportuntes. Nevertheless, they developed a smlar opnon as Barber (1998) who stated that the addtonal nformaton and the qualty of nformaton presented to job canddates plays a major role n the recrutment process Person-Organzatonal Ft Person-organzatonal (P-O) ft appears to receve a consderable amount of nterest n the recrutment research. P-O ft s one of the many categores under person-envronment (P- E) ft, whch s defned as the degree of congruence or match between a person and envronment (Sekguch, 2004). P-O ft refers to the compatblty between a person and the organzaton, emphaszng the extent to whch a person and the organzaton share smlar characterstcs and/or meet each others needs (Sekguch, 2004). Krstof (1996) comments that one of the reasons why P-O ft s an mportant area of study s because achevng hgh levels of P-O ft through hrng and socalzaton s often touted as the key to retanng a workforce wth the flexblty and organzatonal commtment necessary to meet these compettve challenges. An emprcal study done by Levens et al. (2001) nvestgated how a short descrpton about an organzaton would affect the organzaton s attractveness to job seekers. They performed the nvestgaton from the P-O perspectve and found that canddates were more attracted to some attrbutes over others. In ths nvestgaton, 359 fnal-year engneerng and busness students volunteered to partcpate n two separate studes. The -21-

32 frst study dealt wth the attractveness of the organzaton n whch students read organzaton descrptons and answered a set of questons that probe the reason why a student wll be attracted (or not attracted) to the company. The second study analyzed the personalty of the applcant whch requested the students to complete a personalty nventory that relates to ther background and bographcal nformaton (e.g. gender and age). The results showed that the partcpants are more attracted to large-szed, medum-szed, decentralzed, and multnatonal organzatons. Ths study ndcates that there s a relatonshp between organzaton descrpton contents and job seekers decson makng. Although many researchers suggest that t s mportant to mprove P-O ft n organzatons, Breaugh (1992), after revewng many studes n the recrutment lterature, comments that t s a very dffcult task. One of the most complcated challenges to mprove P-O ft s for canddates to provde nformaton that s truthful. It s lkely that n the recrutment process, organzatons and job applcants both have the tendency to provde based or naccurate nformaton n order to stay attractve and compettve (Breaugh, 1992) Job Content Recently, there seems to be a growng trend n studyng job descrptons n the lterature of busness and psychology (Roberson et al., 2005), selecton and assessment (Reeve and Schultz, 2004; Reeve et al., 2006), and advertsng (Feldman et al., 2006). Due to the dverse areas of study, the presentaton of job related nformaton n an attempt to -22-

33 advertse the job poston has been gven many names n the lterature. Some examples nclude job descrpton (Smth et al., 1990), recrutment advertsement (Belt and Paolllo, 1982; Mason and Belt, 1986), job advertsement (Feldman et al., 2006; Reeve and Schultz, 2004), and recrutment message (Reeve et al., 2006; Roberson et al., 2005). Ths research uses job descrpton when referrng to the content on a recrutment advertsement. Yüce and Hghhouse (1998) nvestgated the effects of mult-level attrbutes n job descrptons on job canddates. They performed an expermental study usng 104 ntroductory psychology students from a unversty n the Unted States. The experment probed the effects of attrbute set sze (dfferent attrbute or nformaton n job descrptons such as work shfts and benefts), attrbute relevance, and pay ambguty to applcants percepton of job descrptons. The results showed that job descrptons that contaned more attrbutes ncreased ther attractveness. At the same tme, they dscovered that students n the study pad attenton to the mssng nformaton and vewed the mssng nformaton as a negatve qualty of the organzaton. In another emprcal study, Reeve and Schultz (2004) studed to what extent ndvduals utlze selecton process nformaton contaned n job ads n makng evaluatons of organzatonal attractveness and decsons to apply. The study was performed wth 207 undergraduate ntroductory psychology students at a unversty. Each student was nstructed to read a lst of job descrptons and to answer questonnares. These questonnares probe the relatonshp between the attrbutes of the selecton process nformaton and the reactons of the applcants. The results ndcate that job seekers -23-

34 attend to the nformaton contaned n job descrptons to make ntal job-pursut evaluatons. Smth et al. (1990) performed a study to analyze the mpact of job descrpton on job evaluaton. They performed three experments usng students from a unversty to test two hypotheses. The frst hypothess stated that job descrptons presented wth postve nformaton frst and negatve nformaton last wll be evaluated more hghly than the same descrptons wth the nformaton presented n reverse order. The second hypothess stated that moderately scaled job-descrptve nformaton wll lower the evaluaton of hghly scaled job-descrptve nformaton and rase the evaluaton of lowly scaled job descrptve nformaton. One of ther research objectves was to determne f the scale of job descrpton compled wth the addtve model or the averagng model. The addtve and the averagng models ndcate the reacton of canddates to job descrptons as a sum and an average of the content values respectvely. The results showed evdence supportng the averagng model. They also found that the sequence of the nformaton presented affected applcants judgment. Furthermore, job ttles proved to have a very hgh nfluence on job evaluatons. Fnally, they commented that there were no clear gudelnes for constructng job descrptons. Subsequently, evaluatons of job descrptons can be nconsstent and may be nfluenced by the way the job descrptons are wrtten. In revewng a number of scholarly studes that related to the content of recrutment materals, Barber (1998) comments that job descrptons should be nformatve n order to provde value to job seekers. Although many studes reveal that there s a postve -24-

35 correlaton between the amount of nformaton and the probablty of applyng for a job, he also suggests that nformaton overload may be a concern and should be studed. Job applcants can only retan or understand a certan level of nformaton; beyond that, there s a possblty that any addtonal nformaton wll have a negatve mpact. Furthermore, he comments that many scholarly studes on job content use fcttous companes as subjects. Hence, t could be benefcal to conduct addtonal studes usng real applcatons to provde more realstc results. 1.5 Summary Each of the four man categores of the recrutment research provdes support that nformaton qualty n job descrptons has a certan degree of mpact on job applcants decson makng n the early stages of the recrutment process. Studes also mply that there are dfferent knds of dmensons of nformaton qualty n job descrptons such as realsm of nformaton (Roberson et al., 2005; Breaugh and Starke, 2000), specfcty of nformaton (Roberson et al., 2005), complexty of nformaton (Slaughter and Hghhouse, 2002), and job descrpton contents such as organzaton descrpton (Levens et al., 2001) and ethnc dentty (Km and Gelfand, 2003). Many of these attrbutes were studed ndependently by dfferent scholars. Ths observaton suggests that t may be benefcal to combne multple elements nto a sngle study so that nteractons of the attrbutes can be analyzed. For example, organzaton descrpton mght only be sgnfcant to job applcants f the organzaton has a low reputaton. Organzatons wth a hgh reputaton do not necessarly requre detaled organzaton descrpton to attract applcants. Fnally, recrutment researchers such as Barber (1998) suggest that t s -25-

36 benefcal to study real job descrptons and organzatons nstead of usng fcttous companes and job contents as expermental subjects. -26-

37 Chapter 2 Job Descrptons and Informaton Qualty 2.1 Informaton about the Job As noted n Chapter 1, a number of research papers nvestgated job seekers reactons to recrutment materals such as job descrptons. Barber (1998) ndcated that many of these nvestgaton results pont out that job seekers ganed mportant and crtcal nformaton from job descrptons before makng ther decson to whether to apply for a job. Furthermore, Breaugh (1992) emphaszed that the level of accuracy and completeness of nformaton communcated between job seekers and organzatons s very mportant n regards to the entre recrutment process. These research results mply that the mpact of nformaton qualty exchanged between job seekers and organzatons s an mportant area of study. However, the lterature provdes lmted nsght on ths topc. Barber (1998) states that the recrutment process s very complex n nature; as a result, t s not logcal to study the process as a whole. Instead, he advses researchers to break down the process and study each stage n detal. In addton, he also advses that researchers should study the recrutment process systematcally and so that they can accumulate research fndngs to produce a better overvew. However at the tme when Barber wrote hs book, he clamed that there was nadequate research to support conclusons that could reflect the recrutment process as a whole. Based on these observatons, ths thess focuses on the job applcaton stage. -27-

38 The followng sectons present ) prevous studes that examne nformaton qualty and job descrptons, ) a gap analyss between what has been done and what needs to be addressed, and ) the process to arrve wth the research queston. 2.2 Prevous Research on Informaton Qualty of Job Descrptons Ths secton dscusses the studes whch have nvestgated how nformaton qualty mpacts an applcant s decson makng. Breakng down the subject nto two sub-topcs, the followng sectons a) examne and answer the queston: what s qualty of nformaton?, and b) revew studes of nformaton qualty n job descrptons Defnton of Qualty of nformaton Reeves and Bednar (1994) tred to defne qualty. Through ther search for a unversal defnton, they realzed that t s very dffcult to dentfy a sngle defnton for qualty. As a result, by usng theores and defntons from hstory and related lterature, they proposed four man aspects of qualty that can be used for dfferent purposes ) excellence, ) value, ) conformance to specfcatons, and v) meetng and/or exceedng expectatons. They dscussed the strengths and weaknesses of each. The qualty of excellence s benefcal n marketng and human resources and s easly recognzed unversally. However, excellence s dffcult to measure and may not be a practcal measurement for practtoners. The qualty of value ncorporates multple attrbutes and s benefcal for measurng an organzaton s nternal effcency and external effectveness. However, t s dffcult to extract ndvdual components of a value -28-