The influence of the characteristics of employer branding-messages on employees’ attitudes: The mediating role of organizational identification.

Hanin, Dorothée;Stinglhamber, Florence;Delobbe, Nathalie
(2011) XVth Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology — Location: Maastricht, Netherland (25.May.2011)

Files

No attached file found for this publication.

Details

Authors
Abstract
To win the 'War for talent', many companies pay attention to how they are perceived as employer. Accordingly, they develop long-term employer branding strategy in order to generate a positive image of the firm as an employer. Employer branding (EB) is defined as 'efforts to promote, both within and outside the firm, a clear view of what makes it different and desirable as an employer' (Backhaux & Tikoo, 2004). Although the influence of EB on applicants' perceptions has been studied (Harold & McFarland, 2005), evidence of its impact on employees'attitudes, and more precisely on organizational identication (OI), is still scarce. OI refers to employees' perception of belongingness to the organization. Concerning OI's antecedents, employees' beliefs of the extent to which outsiders hold the firm in high regard (PEP) influence OI (Fuller et al., 2006). Furthermore, group distinctiveness (Asforth & Mael, 1989) and information credibility, highly associated with expertise of its source (Tsai & Wang, 2010), may also impact OI. Therefore, because EB-messages are supposed to stress the distinct and credible aspects of an organization as an employer, we assume that these characteristics of EB-messages influence employees' OI. Specifically, we hypothesized that, beyond the influence of PEP, EB-messages credibility and distinctiveness influence OI which, in turn, affect job satisfaction (JS), willingness to recommend the organization as an employer (WRO), and intention to quit (IQ). Using a sample of 182 bank employees, our results (SEM analyses)show that the effect of EB-messages credibility on employees' attitudes is partially mediated by OI. OI totally mediates the influence of EB-messages distinctiveness on JS and IQ, and partially mediates the influence of EB-messages distinctiveness on WRO. Finally, PEP directly influences IQ and WRO. When employees perceive EB-messages as credible and distinct from other organizations, they feel more identified with their organization which in turn influences their attitudes. Moreover, employees who believe their organization is perceived as having a high status by outsiders are less likely to quit and recommend it more. These findings emphasize the importance of EB-messages characteristics: when introduced as antecedents of OI, PEP no longer influences OI. Future research is needed to investigate the mechanisms that underlie these relationships.
Affiliations
  • Louvain School of ManagementStrategy and Organisation

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Hanin, D., Stinglhamber, F., & Delobbe, N. (2011). The influence of the characteristics of employer branding-messages on employees’ attitudes: The mediating role of organizational identification. XVth Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, Maastricht, Netherland. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/162864