Losing and Regaining Organizational Attractiveness During the Recruitment Process: A Multiple-Segment Factorial Vignette Study

How applicants’ perceptions of organizational attractiveness (OA) change over the recruitment process and whether OA, once lost, can ever be regained, has hardly been investigated. Therefore, drawing on organizational justice and signaling theories, we examined the effects of treatment (fair vs. unfair), re-evaluation (positive vs. negative), and outcome (offer vs. rejection) on OA. Results from a multiple-segment factorial vignette study (N = 193 employees) showed a reduction in OA (67%) after applicants were treated unfairly. Up to 24% of this loss was regained in subsequent stages through positive re-evaluation and by being offered a job. The results also showed a reduction in OA (52%) for applicants who were treated fairly but re-evaluated their experience negatively and received a rejection. Thus, one good experience may not be enough to attract applicants, and understanding the combined effect of experiences is even more important than understanding the effect of a single experience.