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Recruitment via Social Networking Sites: The effects of source credibility & congruence between (in)formality of the Social Networking Site and (in)formality of the relationship with the source on the impact that job-offer messages have via Social Networking Sites

Wesselink, Silke (2012) Recruitment via Social Networking Sites: The effects of source credibility & congruence between (in)formality of the Social Networking Site and (in)formality of the relationship with the source on the impact that job-offer messages have via Social Networking Sites.

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Abstract:Social Networking Sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) are popular online communication tools. Yet little is known about how companies can use these Social Networking Sites (SNS) for recruitment purposes. In this study, the effects of source credibility and the effects of different SNS on the job-offer messages impact on potential applicants are studied. Furthermore, the influence of information congruence among (in)formality of SNS and (in)formality of the relationship with the source on the impact that job-offers have on potential applicants is studied. The impact of job-offer messages on potential applicants is operationalised by the perceived job-fit, organisational attractiveness, forward intention, apply intention, and intention to search for more information. This study uses a 2 (relationship with the source: informal versus formal) x 4 (SNS: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, versus offline) between subjects online experiment with fictitious situation sketches to test the interactions and the relationships between the variables. The results of 315 respondents show that information congruence among (in)formality in recruitment results in more credible messages, higher intentions to search for more information about the job, higher perceived job-fit, higher apply intentions, and higher organisational attractiveness. Additionally, informal sources are perceived as more credible than formal sources. Moreover, receivers with an informal relationship with the source had a higher attitude towards the message than receivers with a formal relationship with the source. The results support theories that assume that information congruence positively influences attitudes towards the advertisements, and theories that assume the relationship between source credibility, message credibility, attitude towards the message, and recruitment related variables. Consequently, organisations should choose the source and the SNS for their job-offer messages carefully. Key words: Social Networking Sites, Recruitment, source credibility, message credibility, attitude towards the message, organisational attractiveness, perceived job-fit, apply intention, forward intention, intention to search for more information
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Ziggo
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61801
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