The Instrumental and Symbolic Dimensions of Organisations' Image as an Employer: A Large-Scale Field Study on Employer Branding in Turkey

Research on recruitment and employer branding has typically been situated in Western countries with predominantly individualistic cultures. The present study investigates the instrumental‐symbolic framework for studying organisations' image and attraction as an employer in a non‐Western collect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied psychology 2013-10, Vol.62 (4), p.543-557
Main Authors: Van Hoye, Greet, Bas, Turker, Cromheecke, Saartje, Lievens, Filip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attractiveness
Competence
Corporate culture
Corporate image
Occupational psychology
Professional recruitment
Psychological aspects
Recruitment
Studies
Symbolism
Undergraduate students
University students
Western countries
Working conditions
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Summary:Research on recruitment and employer branding has typically been situated in Western countries with predominantly individualistic cultures. The present study investigates the instrumental‐symbolic framework for studying organisations' image and attraction as an employer in a non‐Western collectivistic culture. In a large nationwide sample of Turkish university students, both instrumental (working conditions) and symbolic image dimensions (competence) were positively related to organisational attractiveness. Moreover, symbolic traits explained significant incremental variance beyond instrumental attributes and accounted for a greater amount of predictable variance. In addition, organisations were better differentiated from each other on the basis of symbolic image dimensions (sincerity and innovativeness) than on the basis of instrumental dimensions (task demands). Overall, these findings provide support for the applicability of the instrumental‐symbolic framework across different countries, cultures, and organisations.
ISSN:0269-994X
1464-0597
DOI:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2012.00495.x