From a recruitment perspective, an organization’s corporate image refers to job seekers’ shared beliefs about the organization’s characteristics. These beliefs basically serve as information about the potential “employment conditions” within an organization and thus its corporate image can play a big role in determining whether or not it attracts top talent.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
Recently, researchers (Tsai & Yang, 2010) have extended the research on corporate image by arguing that corporate image is comprised of as many as four different dimensions:
- Product image – Perceptions of the innovativeness and quality of the organization’s products.
- Service image – Perceptions of the customer orientation of the organization.
- Citizenship image – Perceptions of the organization’s involvement in environmental protection and community development.
- Credibility image – Perceptions of the trustworthiness and reliability of the organization.
The results suggest that three of the four corporate image dimensions are important determinants of job seekers’ attraction to an organization: product, citizenship, and credibility.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Overall, the results suggest that job seekers use several sources of information to infer attributes of organizations that ultimately impact their level of attraction to those organizations. This study can guide organizations to construct their employment advertisements, which should focus on the innovativeness and quality of the organization’s products, its involvement in community and environmental initiatives, and its track record of trustworthiness and reliability.
Tsai, W.-C., & Yang, I. W.-F. (2010). Does image matter to different job applicants? The influences of corporate image and applicant individual differences on organizational attractiveness. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 18(1), 48–63.
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