Organizational Recruitment Website Effects on Viewers_ Perceptions of Organizational Culture

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ORGANIZATIONAL RECRUITMENTWEBSITE EFFECTS ON VIEWERS

PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONALCULTURE

Phillip W. BraddyAdam W. Meade

Christina M. Kroustalis North Carolina State University

ABSTRACT: When utilizing traditional recruitment media, organizations are

typically limited to providing job seekers with information solely on their

vacant positions. Organizational recruitment websites, on the other hand, allow

organizations to provide prospective applicants with both job descriptions and

other information about the organization. However, little research exists

regarding the impressions that viewers gain from organizational recruitmentwebsites. The present study identified aspects of recruitment websites that may

give rise to job seekers perceptions of organizational culture. Results indicated

that both website design features and information about organizational values,

policies, awards, and goals affected viewers perceptions of organizational

culture.

KEY WORDS: Internet recruiting; online recruiting; web recruiting; recruit-

ment websites; organizational culture.

INTRODUCTION

Many organizations increasingly view the Internet as a viable and

attractive tool for recruiting employees (Cober, Brown, Blumental,

Address correspondence to Adam W. Meade, Department of Psychology, North CarolinaState University, Campus Box 765027695-7650, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Phillip W. Braddy and Christina M. Kroustalis are doctoral students in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at North Carolina State University. Adam W. Meade isan Assistant Professor in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at NorthCarolina State University. Thanks to Joshua Storie, Jennifer Stearns, and Tonya Elliott fortheir assistance in data collection and recording.

Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 20, No. 4, Summer 2006 (2005)DOI: 10.1007/s10869-005-9003-4

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0889-3268/06/0600-0525/0 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.


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Doverspike, & Levy, 2000; Harrington, 2002). This is evidenced by recent

survey research that indicates the Internet was the preferred medium of

HR professionals when recruiting applicants for many positions in di-

verse industries (Chapman & Webster, 2003). Likewise, results of other

surveys suggest that companies from both private and public sectors use

the Internet more frequently for recruiting applicants than for any other

HRM activity (e.g., Elliot & Tevavichulada, 1999). This increased reli-

ance on the Internet has salient implications for organizations because it

enables them to provide much more information on their official

recruitment websites than is feasible with traditional recruitment media.

Organizations provide this information in hopes that potential applicants

favorably view the organization as a potential employer. For this reason,

organizational recruitment websites commonly include features such as

employee testimonials, benefits information, and organizational values

statements. One way in which potential applicants draw conclusions

about the organization is via perceptions of the culture of the organiza-

tion. Perceptions of organizational culture directly affect perceptions of

personorganization (PO) fit, which can subsequently affect how po-

tential applicants self-select organizations (Judge & Cable, 1997). How-

ever, very little research exists regarding how applicants form culture

perceptions from recruitment websites. Thus, this exploratory study at-

tempts to identify aspects of websites that influence viewer perceptions oforganizational culture impressions.

Online Recruiting: Organizational Strategies and Benefits

Organizations recruiting via the Internet have two primary avenues

to attract viewers into the applicant pool. First, organizations can rely

upon third-parties that distribute job advertisements on a job listing

website (e.g., HotJobs.com, Monster.com). Job listing websites (a.k.a.,

job boards) have the advantage of providing a clearinghouse for po-

tential job applicants to search across organizations for positions

appropriate to their qualifications and that meet their needs. Therefore,

job boards have the ability to alert potential applicants to openings inmany organizations. While the use of third-party websites or job boards

can greatly increase the number of viewers reading the job advertise-

ment and potentially reach a more geographically diverse group of

applicants searching for jobs online (Crispin & Mehler, 1997), the

amount of information that is available to the applicant is generally quite

limited. This can likely be attributed to the fact that most third-party job

boards charge fees based on the amount of content listed in the job

advertisement. Moreover, although applicants are sometimes provided

with direct access to the respective hiring companies websites (Zusman

& Landis, 2002), in many cases applicants must apply to the hiring

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organization indirectly through the third-party organization (Recruiting,

1999). A second option is for an organization to create and maintain its

own official website to present job advertisements and additional infor-

mation about the company (Zusman & Landis, 2002). This latter option is

most likely to be effective when used in conjunction with job boards.

One recent survey indicates that over 90% of large U.S. organiza-

tions maintain their own official recruiting websites (Cappelli, 2001).

These websites, dedicated solely to recruitment, have several advanta-

ges. First, content can be posted much more cheaply on the organizations

official web page than on a job board. Though content varies consider-

ably, organizations can post information about employee benefits, orga-

nizational values, a brief history of the organization, and additional

content to attempt to create a positive impression needed to maintain a

favorable recruitment image (Gatewood, Gowan, & Lautenschlager,

1993). The overall amount of information on an official organizational

recruitment website is much greater than from a job advertisement alone

(Braddy, Thompson, Wuensch, & Grossnickle, 2003). A major benefit of

this additional content is that applicants can acquire more information

regarding organizational culture, which may facilitate making better

informed employment-related decisions. Additionally, this type of web

recruiting can reduce costs (Cober et al., 2000; Kay, 2000; Marcus, 2001),

minimize the amount of time required to successfully recruit applicants(Web Recruiting Advantages, 2001), and create the perception that

companies who use online recruiting are technologically savvy (Fister,

1999). Finally, online recruiting reduces application costs for job seekers

by allowing them to directly submit application materials online

(Cappelli, 2001; Zusman & Landis, 2002). In short, we believe that

companies will continue to utilize the Internet as a primary recruitment

medium in the future. We also believe that organizations will continue to

maintain and rely upon their official websites in addition to using third-

party job boards.

Signaling Theory and the Formation of Applicant Culture Perceptions

Signaling theory was developed from economics research on the

role of information possessed by buyer and seller (Spence, 1974) and

has been adopted to explain the interaction between potential appli-

cants and recruiting organizations (Rynes, Bretz, & Gerhart, 1991;

Rynes & Miller, 1983; Spence, 1973). In essence, this theory suggests

that in the absence of other information about an organization, a

potential applicant will draw inferences about the organization based

on peripheral cues. In the recruitment context, considerable support for

signaling theory has been found as applicants have been shown to rely

on perceptions of recruiters to derive their impressions of hiring

P. W. BRADDY, A. W. MEADE, AND C. M. KROUSTALIS 527


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organizations (Goltz & Giannantonio, 1995; Rynes et al., 1991; Rynes &

Miller, 1983; Turban, 2001; Turban, Forret, & Hendrickson, 1998). For

example, if an organizations recruiter was perceived as both competent

and friendly, applicants may assume that these are defining qualities of

the entire organization as well. This likely occurs because applicants

view recruiters as being representative of their respective organizations

(Rynes & Miller, 1983). Though such recruiting experiences can have

signaling value under many circumstances, the role of such experiences

is much more significant when applicants possess little knowledge

about the hiring organization (Rynes et al., 1991).

We believe signaling theory can be extended to the Internet domain

to explain how potential applicants form organizational culture percep-

tions after viewing recruitment websites. For instance, if an organiza-

tions website is well structured and organized, applicants may infer that

the organization values and possesses such characteristics. In the

absence of more meaningful information (e.g., direct knowledge from an

incumbent, a site visit, etc.), signaling theory suggests that an Internet

recruiting website should provide cues to the viewer about the nature of

the organization.

Implications of Culture Perceptions Held by Prospective Applicants

Congruent with the attractionselectionattrition model (Schneider,

1987), applicants are attracted to work environments that are compatible

with their personal preferences (Kristof, 1996). This attraction is due in

part to the perceived fit of a persons characteristics (e.g., values) with

the values of the organization (i.e., PO fit; Chatman, 1989, 1991).

Importantly, applicants PO fit perceptions have been shown to exert a

substantial influence on the self-selection process used by applicants

when making decisions about whether to accept offers of employment

(Judge & Cable, 1997). PO fit has additional ramifications for organi-

zations because a good PO fit can result in a variety of positive out-

comes, such as reduced turnover (Caldwell & OReilly, 1990), enhanced

job satisfaction (Saks & Ashforth, 1997), more effective job performance,and greater organizational commitment from employees (OReilly,

Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991). Given these favorable outcomes associated

with PO fit, it is in an organizations best interest to clearly and accu-

rately portray information about organizational culture on its official

recruitment website. However, no known research currently exists

regarding the aspects of organizational websites that may send the

desired cultural messages to prospective applicants. As such, we em-

ployed an exploratory qualitative methodological design to determine

website design features and content that may influence viewers

impressions of organizational culture.



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METHOD

Participants

Participants were 48 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology

courses at a large southeastern university. The sample was 42% male

and 58% female. The mean age of participants was 19.02 (SD = 2.45),

and 77.1% of participants were Caucasian, 12.5% African American,

2.1% Hispanic, 2.1% Asian American, and 6.3% listed other as their

racial group. The class standing of participants was broken down asfollows: 68.8% freshmen, 16.7% sophomores, 8.3% juniors, and 6.3%

seniors. Approximately 19% of participants reported that they had pre-

viously submitted a job application via the Internet, and participants

indicated that they spent an average of 14.83 (SD = 10.30) hours on the

Internet per week.

Procedure and Measures

Data collection took place in a small research laboratory. Each data

collection session consisted of only one participant and lasted approxi-

mately an hour and a half. Upon arrival to the laboratory, participants

were given an overview of the experimental task and the assumptions

they were expected to make while performing this task. Participants were

asked to assume the role of job seekers who had recently graduated (or

were about to graduate) from college and to review the jobs or careers

portions of four websites randomly chosen from a pre-selected list of ten

Fortune 500 Companies. While participants explored these websites, they

were also asked to assume that all jobs were in their areas of interests,

were in equally attractive locations, and that they offered equally

acceptable pay and benefits. In other words, participants were told to

consider all things about the jobs to be equal and to draw conclusions

about these organizations based solely on their recruitment websites.

Next, participants were told that they would be viewing organiza-

tions websites in pairs. They were then directed to the first organizations

website and were provided with a guide that indicated some questionsthat would be asked after they viewed the websites. Participants were

then allotted ten minutes to explore the jobs or careers section of the

designated organizations website. Afterwards, participants repeated the

same procedure for the second organizations website.

After exploring both organizations websites in the first pair, partic-

ipants were asked two questions by a trained interviewer: (1) Which

organization from the pair was more strongly associated with each of nine

culture dimensions? (see Table 1); and (2) what two specific website

properties influenced their answers to the first question for each of the



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nine culture dimensions? The forced-choice pairings in question one were

intended to force participants to think more critically about the answers

they submitted in response to question two. This methodology was

adapted from a study by Highhouse, Zickar, Thorsteinson, Stierwalt, and

Slaughter (1999) where it was successfully used to ascertain the factors

influencing job seekers decisions to choose one employer in the restau-

rant industry over another. After responding to these two questions for

each of the nine culture dimensions, the entire procedure described above

was repeated for a second pair of Fortune 500 Company websites. Finally,

participants completed a survey that asked questions about their demo-

graphic characteristics, the amount of time they spent on the Internet per

week, and whether they had ever applied for a job via the Internet.

Data Analysis

We used a grounded theory approach (Glaser, 1992; Glaser &

Strauss, 1967; Locke, 2002) to analyze the qualitative data collected in

this study. Using this approach, data analysis was completed in several

phases and no prior categories were developed before data analysis be-

gan. Initially, the first and second authors independently identified

categories into which participant responses could be classified for each

culture dimension. A standard general category framework was adopted

because there was a high degree of similarity of content across all

Table 1

Taxonomy of Cultural Attributes

Culture Dimensions Definitions

1. Innovation Promotes risk taking, experimentation, and not

emphasizing being careful.

2. Emphasis on Rewards Pays well for performance and values professional growth.

3. Supportiveness Promotes sharing of information and praises good

performance.

4. Outcome-Orientation Promotes achievement, being action-oriented, results-

oriented, and sets high expectations.5. Attention to Detail Involves being analytical, precise, and paying attention to

details.

6. Team-Orientation Promotes collaboration.

7. Aggressiveness Is highly competitive.

8. Decisiveness Values decisiveness, predictability, and low conflict.

9. Diversity Promotes diversity within the organization, values diverse

populations as employees.

Note: The first eight culture dimensions were taken from a study by Judge and Cable

(1997), which they adapted from OReilly, Chatman, and Caldwell (1991). The ninth

dimension (diversity) was added to the taxonomy by the authors of the present study based

on the prevalence of content related to diversity on this studys Fortune 500 Companys

recruitment websites.



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dimensions. Next, the three authors and two trained research assistants

used this general framework to assign category ratings to each partici-

pant response for all nine culture dimensions. Subsequent meetings were

held to determine agreement on these ratings using an a-priori 80%

agreement criterion. Where disagreement occurred, the five raters

discussed whether a new content category should be developed and at-

tempted to reach consensus regarding which category should be used to

re-classify the comment. If consensus was reached, these responses were

retained, and if not, they were discarded. After all comments were cat-

egorized and frequencies were obtained, infrequently used categories

were merged with new and existing categories as needed in order to

obtain a more parsimonious model of responses. See Table 2 for the

percentage of rater agreement on each dimension of culture both before

and after the final consensus meeting was held.

RESULTS

The 48 participants in this study generated between 125 and 182

specific comments related to website features and content that gave rise

to impressions of each of the nine culture dimensions evaluated. These

comments were classified into one of five major categories that werefound across all nine culture dimensions. These five categories included

website design features, organizational policies presented on the website,

specific references to a dimension of organizational culture, miscella-

neous but relevant website content, and statements that were not

applicable.

Table 2

Percentage of Rater Agreement on Category Classifications of Participant

Responses on the Nine Dimensions of Culture

Culture Dimensions

Initial Rater

Agreement (%)

Post-Consensus

Meeting Rater Agreement (%)

1. Innovation 66.49 98.93

2. Emphasis on Rewards 59.04 98.78

3. Supportiveness 61.49 98.85

4. Outcome-Orientation 56.02 99.38

5. Attention to Detail 65.56 95.89

6. Team-Orientation 69.46 98.79

7. Aggressiveness 58.38 99.43

8. Decisiveness 60.00 99.21

9. Diversity 68.65 99.47

Note: Responses were retained if 4 out of 5 raters reached agreement regarding the

category assignments.



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There are two ways in which the data collected in this study can be

examined: Comparing frequencies of responses in the five general web-

site categories across the nine culture dimensions or examining website

category data within each culture dimension. Given the forced-response

method with which the data were collected, we believe it is most

appropriate to examine the manner in which the data were categorized

within each culture dimension; as such, we have used this methodology

extensively below. However, a few broad generalizations may also be

made by comparing frequencies across the nine categories (see Table 3

for the actual numbers and frequencies of comments assigned to each of

the five categories per culture dimension). First, there was a larger

number of total applicable comments for some culture dimensions than

for others. For instance, the diversity and innovation culture dimensions

had both a large number of total comments and a low number of non-

applicable comments. Conversely, the decisiveness culture dimension

had the lowest total number of comments and the highest number of non-

applicable comments of the nine culture dimensions. Thus, it appears

that the diversity and innovation dimensions are the most readily con-

veyed via websites while decisiveness is the least readily conveyed via

this medium.

Second, among comments categorized as website features, the

diversity culture dimension had the highest frequency of these comments.These tended to be features such as pictures of people of diverse back-

grounds working together. The emphasis on rewards culture dimension

had the largest frequency of comments categorized as relating to orga-

nizational policies. These comments related to descriptions of policies

such as bonuses and other incentives for performance. Finally, the

innovation culture dimension garnered the largest number of comments

categorized as specific website references. These specific references were

explicit mentions of valuing innovation in the website content.

Specific Findings for Each Dimension of Culture

InnovationThis studys findings suggest that the most important aspect of

websites that cue perceptions of innovation was explicitly stating that

innovation was valued by the organization and that employees were

encouraged to engage in risk-taking (see Table 4). Additionally,

describing the organizations diversity of jobs, products (both existing

and those under development), and employees was associated with per-

ceptions of an innovative organizational culture. Results also indicated

that using pictures and employee testimonials in addition to direct

statements in text was effective for conveying an innovative culture.

Pictures of innovative products and advanced production facilities were



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Table

3

NumbersandFrequenciesofParticipantsCommentsAssigned

totheFiveCategoriesforallNineDimensionsofCulture

CultureDimensions

Total

Co

mments

Website

Features(%)

Organizat

ional

Policies

(%)

Specific

References(%)

Miscellan

eous

WebsiteCon

tent(%)

Non-Applicable

Statements(%)

1.

Innovation

178

33(18.3

0)

120(67.2

0)

8(4.3

0)

17(9.7

0)

2.

EmphasisonRewards

156

21(13.6

0)

55(35.20)

9(5.6

)

42(27.00

)

29(18.5

)

3.

Supportiveness

166

12(7.0

0)

37(22.00)

65(39.0

0)

12(7.0

0)

41(24.4

0)

4.

Outcome-Orientation

159

16(10.0

0)

17(10.70)

70(44.1

0)

56(35.2

0)

5.

AttentiontoDetail

140

43(31.0

0)

3(2.10

)

28(20.0

0)

22(15.70

)

44(31.4

0)

6.

Team-Orientation

158

34(21.3

0)

87(54.9

0)

9(5.5

0)

29(18.3

0)

7.

Aggressiveness

166

7(4.0

0)

4(2.30

)

50(29.9

0)

53(32.20

)

52(31.6

0)

8.

Decisiveness

125

19(15.2

0)

8(6.40

)

37(29.6

0)

61(48.8

0)

9.

Diversity

182

56(30.5

0)

27(14.70)

70(38.4

0)

12(6.8

0)

17(9.5

0)

Note:Becausesomecommen

tswereassignedtotwoormorecategoriesandthenumberofcommentsperc

ategorywasroundedtothe

nearestwholenumber,thesumo

ftheactualnumberofcommentscanex

ceedthevalueinthetotalcomments

cellforagivendimension.



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particularly associated with innovation, whereas effective testimonials

from employees stated that an essential requirement of their job was to

be innovative and/or that the organization rewards individuals who

think outside the box. Finally, most organizations portraying an image of

innovation mentioned its size (larger companies were associated with

innovation), awards won for being a leader in innovation, and that it

encouraged continuous learning.

Emphasis on Rewards

This dimension of culture was best conveyed through the companies

emphases on earning and distributing rewards, which were emphasized

by fully discussing pertinent organizational policies (see Table 5). These

included policies on personal development opportunities, continuing

educational programs, performance-based pay, reward systems, and

opportunities for in-house promotions. To a lesser extent, providing an

accurate and complete description of available benefits and stock options

and listing organizational awards won in recent years seemed to portray

an emphasis on rewards. Lastly, the results indicate that there were

some benefits of companies using testimonials from successful employ-

ees, devoting entire sections of their websites to describing potential

rewards, providing goal-driven values statements, and making specific

references on their websites to their desires to win and to conductthemselves in a professional manner.

Table 4

Specific Subcategories into which Participants Responses were Classified for

the Innovation Dimension of Culture

Five General Categories Subcategories

Website Design Features Portion of the web page was devoted to innovation,

pictures of innovative products and advanced pro-

duction facilities, employee testimonials that men-

tioned innovation, language choice, colorful/attractive

web page, and general pictures/pictures of work

groups.

Organizational Policy NoneMiscellaneous but Relevant

Website Content

Awards won for innovation, organization size, and

encouragement of employees to obtain an education.

Specific References to Innovation Innovation/creativity in text, encouraging risk taking,

targeting innovative applicants for hire, wide variety

of new products under development, wide variety of

jobs available, technology focus, other specific men-

tions (i.e., valuing diversity, competitiveness, success,

research focus, values teamwork, values change), a

global organization, and a large number of products

under development.

Not applicable None



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Supportiveness

This culture dimension was best conveyed by organizations by

explicitly stating their emphases on values such as trust, diversity, the

sharing of information, respect for employees, and the organization as acommunity (see Table 6). Supportiveness was further illustrated by pro-

viding information about organizational policies that connoted that

workers were valued (e.g., continuing educational programs and em-

ployee development opportunities) and by including pictures and em-

ployee testimonials on the recruitment websites that accentuated the

value that companies placed on teamwork. Finally, these results suggest

that companies benefited from informing prospective applicants that

employee job performance would be rewarded and that the company

would like for each of its employees to realize his or her own full potential.

Outcome-Orientation

The most salient way to portray an outcome-oriented component ofculture to job seekers involved specifically mentioning that the organi-

zation valued succeeding, winning, setting difficult goals, and recruiting

only the most qualified job applicants (see Table 7). Explicating all

relevant organizational policies also proved effective. These policies

pertained to bonus systems, training and advancement opportunities,

and continuing educational programs. Moreover, making financial

reports available online, including pictures that portrayed professional

looking employees, and presenting employee testimonials on the com-

pany recruitment websites that illustrated promotion opportunities were

effective strategies.

Table 5


the Emphasis on Rewards Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Employee testimonials, value statements, and an

entire section devoted to rewards.

Organizational Policy Discussions of personal development opportunities,

continuing educational programs, performance-

based pay, distribution of awards to employees, in-

house promotions, and descriptions of numerousadvancement opportunities.

Miscellaneous but Relevant

Website Content

General description of benefits, stocks as benefits,

and organizational awards won.

Specific References to Rewards The professionalism of the organization, an empha-

sis on being competitive/being on a winning team,

and receiving rewards.

Not applicable None



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Attention to Detail

Impressions of detail orientation were best transmitted via manip-

ulating various website design features (see Table 8). These included

creating an overall professional looking website, using pictures to sup-

plement information provided in text, providing lots of details on jobs and

Table 6


the Supportiveness Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Pictures of teamwork/other supportive pictures and

employee testimonials that illustrated support/team-

work.

Organizational Policy Continuing educational programs, employee develop-

ment opportunities, good benefits, and discussion

forums/supportive groups.Miscellaneous but Relevant

Website Content

Rewards employees for performance and is involved

with the community.

Specific References to

Supportiveness

Communication/cooperation/collaboration, teamwork,

organization trust/respect for employees, organization

as a community, sharing of information, and valuing

diversity.

Not applicable None

Table 7


the Outcome-Orientation Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Employee testimonials attesting to advancement

opportunities within the organization and the chal-

lenging nature of the jobs, pictures of persons looking

professional, professional looking web pages/product

focused websites/diagrams of work processes and

goals, a web page devoted to outcome-orientation, and

financial reports.

Organizational Policy Bonus systems, training opportunities, advancements,

customer focus, and continuing educational programs.


Website Content

Organizational performance awards won


Outcome-Orientation

Success/wanting to win, expectations/rewards for high

performance, commitment to high quality/high stan-

dards, expectations of hard work, recruitment of onlythe best employees, goal setting, and product devel-

opment.

Not applicable None



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the organizations culture, and using employee testimonials that attested

to the organizations value of attention to detail. In addition, organiza-

tions benefited from specifically stating that they wished to recruit

analytical, detail-oriented employees, that they had a focus on developing

and/or using sophisticated technology, and that most decisions were

made only after consulting factual information. Other useful strategiesfor conveying attention to detail involved clearly asserting that the

nature of organizational jobs and products required detail-oriented

employees and clearly articulating policies on and commitment to pro-

moting employee safety in the workplace.

Team-Orientation

Organizations were able to most effectively convey their team-ori-

entations by explicitly stating that they valued teamwork, that the

nature of their jobs required a team-based approach, and that team-

oriented employees were especially encouraged to apply for current job

vacancies (see Table 9). Another strategy that companies used to convey

team-orientation entailed devoting entire sections of their recruitment

websites to discussing the value they placed on teamwork. These sections

included testimonials that attested to the value these companies placed

on teamwork and also included statements such as most organizational

jobs required a high degree of collaboration with co-workers and/or

supervisors.

Aggressiveness

These findings implied that projecting an aggressive cultural image

involved listing past awards won, plans for growth and expansion, and a

companys large size (see Table 10). The results also suggested that

Table 8


the Attention to Detail Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Professional looking web page in general, use of pictures to

supplement text, large website with many details, lots of

detail in job descriptions/career progression, and

employee testimonials.

Organizational Policy Safety focus

Miscellaneous but RelevantWebsite Content

Products seem to require a lot of attention to detail/natureof jobs


Attention to Detail

Paying attention to detail/being analytical, recruiting/

employing detail-oriented employees, having a technol-

ogy focus, and making decisions based on facts.

Not applicable None



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citing specific sales and production figures and explicitly mentioning the

value placed on winning, competing, striving to be the best, and devel-oping innovative products were important ways of illustrating company

aggressiveness. A final recommendation that can be drawn from these

findings is to provide detailed information to job seekers on pertinent

organizational policies, such as performance-based pay systems.

Decisiveness

Organizations perceived to be decisive made it known that they

valued setting clear goals, having low conflict among employees, having

rules/guidelines in place that governed employee conduct, and that they

utilized a systematic approach to accomplishing job-related work tasks

Table 9


the Team-Orientation Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Pictures of people working together, employee testimonials

illustrating the importance of teamwork, and a special

web page devoted to discussing teamwork.

Organizational Policy None


Website Content

Geographical dispersion and community involvement


Team-Orientation

Collaborating/working together as a team, recruiting

team-oriented employees, accomplishing work using a

team-based approach, valuing diversity, and valuing the

organization working as a team.

Not applicable None

Table 10


the Aggressiveness Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Pictures of people at work and general web page proper-ties.

Organizational Policy Pay for performance


Website Content

Organizational awards won, general aggressiveness of the

recruiting web pages, organization size, and plans for

expansion.


Aggressiveness

Competition/winning, striving to be the best/working hard,

having a cutting edge, making highly innovative prod-

ucts, valuing innovation, and including relevant sales or

production figures on the website.

Not applicable None



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(see Table 11). These organizations also benefited from supplementing

such text with three website design features: (1) pictures that gave the

impressions of a structured workplace and/or happy, conflict-free work-

ers, (2) employee testimonials that emphasized low conflict among

employees, and (3) an overall website that was very well organized.

Finally, organizations successfully portraying themselves as decisive

tended to elaborate on relevant policies they had in place that supported

this dimension of culture.

Diversity

This dimension was best emphasized by making specific references to

valuing diversity, having a global workforce community, being an equal

opportunity employer, encouraging minority applicants to apply for cur-

rent job vacancies, and listing advantages associated with diversity in the

workplace (see Table 12). Perceptions that companies valued diversity

were further accentuated by including pictures of and testimonials from

diverse groups of employees on their recruitment websites. Lastly, orga-

nizations perceived to value diversity tended to frequently cite statistics

on current minority employment (i.e., percentage of minorities consti-

tuting the workforce) and fully articulated their organizational policies

that supported this aspect of culture. These policies pertained to spon-

soring diversity events and offering diversity training to employees.

DISCUSSION

The Internet provides organizations with a tool to transmit large

amounts of information about the organization to job seekers, yet very

Table 11


the Decisiveness Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Employee testimonials attesting to the conflict-free envi-ronment, pictures of a structured workplace, pictures of

happy, conflict-free workers, and an orderly looking

website.

Organizational Policy Lack of value on creativity


Website Content

None


Decisiveness

Being decisive, having clear goals, valuing low conflict,

utilizing systematic approaches to work, and having

many rules and guidelines on to govern employee con-

duct.

Not applicable None



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little is currently known about the manner in which applicants utilize

this information. The current study sought to address this deficiency by

identifying aspects of recruitment websites that may be related to jobseekers organizational culture perceptions. These findings indicate that

website design features (e.g., employee testimonials illustrating team-

work), information about organizational policies (e.g., continuing edu-

cation programs), specific references to culture dimensions (e.g., the

organization values workers who are creative and innovative), and other

miscellaneous but relevant website content (e.g., listing of organizational

awards won) played an instrumental role in determining what culture

perceptions participants associated with the Fortune 500 companies

whose websites were used in the current study.

Though the percentage of participant responses assigned to the

aforementioned categories varied considerably across the nine culture

dimensions, there were three common themes that emerged. First, thespecific references made about culture dimensions (i.e., content) on a

companys website was typically one of the top most cited reasons that

participants indicated for associating a particular aspect of culture with

a given organization. This trend was true for all culture dimensions,

excluding emphasis on rewards. Second, the use of website design fea-

tures was indicated as being highly important for conveying perceptions

of innovation, attention to detail, team orientation, and diversity.

Finally, clearly stating relevant organizational policies seemed instru-

mental for transmitting companies emphases on rewards, supportive-

ness, and diversity.

Table 12


the Diversity Dimension of Culture


Website Design Features Pictures of diverse people working together, testimo-

nials from a diverse set of employees, statistics on

minority employment, and a specific web page/portion

of a web page to diversity.

Organizational Policy Sponsors diversity events (e.g., forums) and diversity

trainingMiscellaneous but Relevant

Website Content

Organization is geographically dispersed and organi-

zation has received diversity/minority employment

awards.

Specific References to Diversity Valuing diversity, having a global community/multiple

cultures, being an EEO employer, valuing diverse

employees working together, encouraging minority

applicants to apply for employment, and the advan-

tages of diversity in the workplace (e.g., creativity).

Not applicable None



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Limitations

The findings of the current study should be interpreted in the con-

text of several limitations. First, this study provided a comparison of the

importance of four types of website features and content in conveying

each of the nine culture perceptions to study participants, but they do not

suggest exact features that need to be included in a companys website to

more effectively convey culture dimensions. Second, the studys small

undergraduate sample did not likely have much experience searching for

long-term career positions even though they may have been morefamiliar with Internet navigation than a more general population of job

applicants. As such, the extent to which the nature of our sample limits

our external validity is unknown. Finally, while the forced-choice design

used during the interview required participants to carefully consider the

sources of their judgments regarding culture, it frequently caused par-

ticipants to cite some irrelevant reasons to justify why they thought an

organizations website led to certain culture impressions. This limitation

explains in part why large percentages of participant responses to the

nine culture dimensions were assigned to the not applicable categories.

Future Research

The present study begins to outline website features and content

that may be related to the formation of job seekers organizational cul-

ture impressions, but much additional research in this area is needed

before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. Specifically, we hope that

future researchers will manipulate portions of websites identified in this

study as having a potential impact on viewers perceptions in both con-

trolled laboratory and field environments. Such studies would permit

causal conclusions to be drawn regarding the efficacy of different website

features and content for creating various culture perceptions. In addi-

tion, research is needed to address the relative effects of organizational

culture impressions on applicants job-pursuit intentions when compared

to more traditional factors, such as pay and benefits. Finally, another

promising yet slightly different avenue for future research is to investi-gate the effectiveness of organizational recruitment websites in attract-

ing top quality applicants relative to traditional recruitment sources

(e.g., such as recruiters and newspaper advertisements).

It is clear that the Internet will be a significant source of information

for potential job applicants in the future. However, many questions

remain regarding the precise role of this medium in the recruitment

process.



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