Investigating employer branding with mediation of trust and moderation of social media branding

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Drawing on Edgar Schein’s cultural model and the social identity theory, this study attempts to establish an empirical relationship between organizational culture and employer brand with mediation of organizational trust and moderation of employer social media branding. METHODS: The study, being quantitative in nature, used survey method to collect data from 106 employees of public sector universities of Pakistan. A conceptual framework was developed where we tested direct relationship between culture and brand using linear regression. The mediating role of trust and moderation of social media branding were tested with Jamovi statistics. RESULTS: The results suggest that organizational culture has a significant positive relationship with employer brand. Moreover, organizational trust mediates this relationship and employer social media branding emerged as a moderator. CONCLUSION: The study has multidimensional theoretical and practical contributions. It recommends that organizations should use multi-layered culture as an essential tool to develop and improve their employer brand, which can prove a source of attracting quality talent in the modern talent intensive market. This way, organizations can prove themselves as the best places to work. Further, organizations can strengthen their employer brand by improving the trust level between management and employees, and they can harness the matchless power of modern social media for their employer branding activities.