From attraction to identification: Analyzing institutionalized values in job advertisement visuals

Abstract

Notions of what constitutes the relationship between employer and employees have been changing over time. In this article, I argue that analyzing visuals allows capturing complexity and tensions in the changing notions of employment, as visuals are able to conceal conflicting beliefs. With visuals in job advertisements companies communicate their identity as an em-ployer. From an institutional perspective, organizations construct their organizational identity by drawing on institutionalized elements such as society level values. In my study I am inter-ested in how organizations visually construct and communicate their organizational identity in job ads and how changing values that define the relationship between employer and employ-ees are reflected in and constructed by these visuals. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, I identify visual types that have been used in job advertisements in the German fash-ion industry over a time period of 45 years. The results illustrate a shift from generical...