Corporate social performance, psychologically healthy workplaces and applicant attraction

Abstract

Organizational recruitment information has become geared towards attracting high quality applicants in recent years (Curless & Imber, 2007; Grawitch, Tares & Kohler 2007). Organizational psychologists have identified psychological health in the workplace as a major concern and area of research. The current study investigated student (N=116) attraction to organizational job advertisements with four levels of recruitment information: one with standard job information, one that included a corporate social performance section, one that included a section on psychologically healthy workplace practices, and one that included both corporate social performance and psychologically healthy workplace information. A repeated-measures MANOVA supported the hypothesis that the fourth condition was most attractive to participants. Other hypotheses investigated individual values with respect to the conditions, but these were not supported. Limitations of the study and ideas for future research are also discussed.