The Impact of Job Advertising on Hospitality Graduates’ Job Pursuit Intention

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study uses signaling theory to investigate the influence of recruitment signals, including compensation, firm reputation, and advancement prospects, on hospitality undergraduates’ job pursuit intention. By including career self-efficacy as a moderator and anticipated organizational support as a mediator, this study provides insight into the psychological process that applicants use to interpret signals received from recruitment advertisements. Two experiments are reported that used hospitality college students close to graduation as subjects. The results show that applicants’ career self-efficacy influences signal interpretation and that anticipated organizational support is a conditional mediator between job characteristics and applicants’ job pursuit intention. The results suggest that when applicants review multiple recruitment advertisements, compensation becomes less important in their job pursuit intentions. The findings have implications for effective recruitment strategies and suggest that recruitment advertisements should be tailored to the type of applicant desired for the position.