Recruitment messaging, environmental fit and public service motivation. Experimental evidence on intentions to apply for public sector jobs

• Date: 13 August 2018
• Pages: 689-709
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-08-2017-0217
• Published date: 13 August 2018
• Author: Julia Asseburg,Fabian Homberg,Rick Vogel
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management

Recruitment messaging,

environmental fit and public

service motivation

Experimental evidence on intentions to apply

for public sector jobs

Julia Asseburg

Department of Socioeconomics, Universität Hamburg,

Hamburg, Germany

Fabian Homberg

Department of Business and Management,

LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy, and

Rick Vogel

Department of Socioeconomics, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Abstract

Purpose –Public organisations face increasing challenges to attract young and highly qualified staff.

Previous studies have shown that public service motivation (PSM) is associated with a higher propensity to

apply for public sector jobs, but the implications from these findings for the design of the recruitment process

are still unclear. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how differently framed recruitment messages

(i.e. inspirational and rational) affect perceptions of person-job (PJ) and person-organisation (PO) fit, how these

associations are moderated by PSM and how they translate into application intentions.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors conducted a survey experiment and tested the hypotheses

in a sample of 600 students in Germany. The experimental stimuli were hypothetical job advertisements in

which inspirational and rational messages on organisational missions and job tasks were varied.

Findings –Results show that recruitment messaging, as mediated by perceived PJ and PO fit, can increase

application intentions depending on the framing of the messages. Inspirational framings are more effective in

attracting personnel than rational framings, especially when such messages convey specific and extensive

information about job tasks. The extent to which recruitment messages translate into perceptions of fit

depends, in part, on the level of the applicant’s PSM.

Originality/value –By focusing on recruitment messages and their framings, this study is among the few

that explore how human resource management can capitalise on previous findings of research on PSM.

The findings have implications for the selection and presentation of information on organisational missions

and job tasks in the recruitment process. In a more theoretical vein, results contribute to the emerging

consensus on the role of perceived PJ and PO fit in the attraction to public sector jobs. The authors deepen this

reasoning by introducing self-discrepancy theory to the field of public management.

Keywords Public service motivation, Organizational attraction, Job choice, Person-job fit,

Person-organization fit, Survey experiment

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Demographic change and a shortage on the supply side of labour have recently become a

challenge for many public sector employers. Public organisations face increasing difficulties to

attract young and highly qualified staff and struggle to gear their recruitment towards the needs

and desires of potential applicants in this generation (Ployhart, 2006; Ritz and Waldner, 2011).

An expanding field of research suggests that a potential solution to this problemis to capitalise

on the finding that people with high levels of public service motivation (PSM) feel attracted to

public sector jobs (Lewis and Frank, 2002; Vandenabeele, 2008). PSM is defined as “[…]

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 31 No. 6, 2018

pp. 689-709

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-08-2017-0217

Received 21 August 2017

Revised 24 November 2017

Accepted 20 December 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

689

Intentions to

apply for

public sector

jobs

an individual’s predisposition to respond to motives grounded primarily or uniquely in public

institutions and organisations”(Perry and Wise, 1990, p. 368). One of the most often repeated

implications of previous research in this field is to align the human resource management (HRM)

practices of public organisations with PSM and, more specifically, to address applicants’PSM in

the recruitment process, e.g. by employer branding (Ritz et al., 2016a).

Less clear, however, is what follows from these rather general recommendations for the

design of the recruitment process. Some preliminary conclusions can be drawn from related

research on organisational missions because such mission statements communicate the

purpose and values of an organisation not only to current members but also to potential

applicants. Research found that an attractive mission contributes to the satisfaction of

personal ideals (Wright, 2007; Wright and Pandey, 2011) and increases an applicant’s

likelihood to join the organisation (Pandey et al., 2008). Consequently, and intendedly or not,

mission statements become part of the recruitment messaging by employers and form a key

component of HR marketing. However, it is unclear how such messages affect the attraction

process, particularly when their content is relevant to the PSM of potential job candidates.

The goal of this study is to examine how recruitment messaging triggers the intention to

apply for public sector jobs and how this attraction process is affected by the potential

applicants’levels of PSM. Conceptualising recruitment messaging as an instance of

persuasive communication between the sender (i.e. prospective employer) and receiver

(i.e. potential applicant), we vary the framings of recruitment messages in terms of different

influence tactics (i.e. rational and inspirational). We focus on messages that are

communicated via job advertisements and convey information on both organisational

missions and job tasks. Our conceptual model suggests that such messages do not translate

into application intentions directly but indirectly via perceptions of fit with the organisation

and/or the job, respectively. This reasoning builds on previous research on how person-job

(PJ) and person-organisation (PO) fit translate into attraction to public organisations (Lewis

and Frank, 2002; Pandey et al., 2008; Steijn, 2008; Taylor, 2008; Wright and Pandey, 2011). PJ

fit refers to an alignment of the individual’s values with the actual job role, whereas PO fit

refers to a congruence of the individual’s values with those of the organisation.

We address our research goal using data from a survey experiment with 600 university

graduates in Germany. Results show that recruitment messaging, as mediated by perceived

PJ and PO fit, does indeed increase application intentions depending on the framing of the

messages. Inspirational framings are more effective in attracting personnel than rational

framings, especially when such messages convey specific and extensive information about

job tasks. The extent to which recruitment messages translate into perceptions of fit

depends, in part, on the level of the applicant’s PSM.

Our study makes several contributions to the literature: First, previous research has

repeatedly stressed the implications of PSM for HR marketing but has been largely silent on

how recruitment messages may refer to PSM and intervene in the attraction process. Our study

advances this stream of research and allows conclusions on how recruitment messages should

be framed in an appealing way such that their impact on the intention to apply is increased for

people with high levels of PSM. Second, we address research on the relevance of PJ and PO fit

for intentions to apply for public sector jobs. Our study not only adds further empirical evidence

to the emerging consensus in the literature, but also deepens the theoretical foundations by

introducing self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) to the field on public management. Third,

recent works called for a stronger integration of HRM and public administration research

(Gould-Williams et al., 2014; Homberg and Vogel, 2016; Vandenabeele, 2009). In this spirit of

cross-fertilisation, we follow such calls and narrow the gap between these two disciplines.

And finally, we advance knowledge on PSM in Germany by generating unique empirical data.

Germany is an interesting setting because of the unique Weberian administrative tradition that

is still shaping the structure and culture in public services.

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