Untapped Relationship between Employer Branding, Anticipatory Psychological Contract and Intent to Join

Abstract

In the ever-changing business environment and fluctuating expectations of current generation from its employer, employer branding has become an important tool for organizations to establish themselves as the employer of choice amongst prospective employees. It is serving as the strategic tool for all the sectors to attract and retain the right pool of employees to gain strategic advantage and edge over competitors. The purpose of this article is to identify the dimensions of employer branding and its impact on the formation of anticipatory psychological contract (APC) and final intent of a candidate to join an organization. Using the qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews from final year students of MCA and B.Tech., it provides an insight into how various dimensions of employer branding lead to the formation of APC and generates the final intent among the candidates to join an organization. It comprehensively analyzes the relationship between all three constructs, employer branding, APC and a candidate’s intent to join an organization in the form of a conceptual framework. The result reflects the direct relationship between employer branding and a candidate’s intent to join an organization and indirect relationship with APC as a mediator between the two. It also demonstrates the direct relationship between employer branding and APC. Managerial implications of the study are also discussed.