Search results

One of the leadership responsibilities of the board of directors is to establish a statement of values and to ensure that these guiding principles become a basis for action throughout the organization. Where companies do not have a statement of values, or where the values are not accepted, there is a real danger that company staff will act in their own interests, not in the interests of the stakeholders they are meant to serve. At this point they may put at risk the reputation of the whole organization. But how can the board of a large diversified international company hope to establish a culture with common values which will guide the behavior of employees around the world? In this article Jan Thornbury presents the theory and practice which she helped to develop when a number of professional partnerships came together to form KPMG, and which she now uses in working with other organizations. She explains how values are connected with basic beliefs, how they can affect behavior and how they need to be supported by management systems. Then she outlines a process for changing a company culture by analyzing the present values and behaviors, defining the desired culture, implementing an action plan, and measuring the results. Finally she examines the crucial role of the executive team in leading the change program.

In 2001, BDO Stoy Hayward decided to develop a strong values‐based culture, which has generated major enhancements in staff opinions, during a period of restructure and business growth. Nick Tatchell, senior project director at ISR, works with the company to test the attitudes of its people. Here, he discusses how BOD Stoy Hayward embedded its values and how this has improved employee retention and satisfaction.

Argues that effective board leadership requires directors to achieve a balance between entrepreneurship (i.e. paying attention to strategy, corporate renewal and innovation on the one hand) and corporate governance. Posits that medium sized firms have a dilemma in knowing how to expand their businesses in a rapid fashion. Highlights how companies manage this type of move from a corporate type of governance to a more corporate entrepreneurship.

In a full blaze of comings and goings, it is unnecessary to remind ourselves that the holiday season is upon us; mass travel to faraway places. The media have for months, all through the winter, been extolling a surfeit of romantic areas of the world, exspecially on television; of colourful scenes, exotic beauties, brilliant sunshine everywhere; travel mostly by air as so‐called package tours — holidays for the masses! The most popular areas are countries of the Mediterranean littoral, from Israel to Spain, North Africa, the Adriatic, but of recent years, much farhter afield, India, South‐east Asia and increasingly to the USA.

RETROSPECT is natural at the beginning of a new library year. All over the world of libraries of all kinds the shadow of the general depression has fallen; more heavily perhaps in the United States than here. It is a testing time which has made the enemies of libraries vocal and has also fortunately roused their advocates. On balance, optimism may prevail; and in that faith we wish our readers a happy new year.

The paper analyses the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR), employer branding (EB), and corporate reputation (CR). Considering the signaling theory and social commitment of organisations, the paper investigates the role of EB as a mediator.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 684 employees from the Indian information technology (IT) sector. The conceptual model and hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach.

As a part of employer attractiveness, the social value/social commitment of companies perceived as a result of CSR strengthens the CR. The results also suggest that EB mediates the relation between CSR and CR.

The paper contributes by integrating the CSR of organisations with their EB process for creating CR. Based on signaling theory, it further demonstrates scholarly value addition by providing a deeper understanding of the mediation effect of EB from a social commitment perspective. Scholars may further consider other stakeholders’ perspectives to test the role of CSR based on ethical/legal/environmental dimensions in building CR.

The paper would help managers/employers invest in CSR activities, creating strong employer brands to attract various stakeholders. It will also help companies to focus on an attractive value proposition to attract various stakeholders, mainly job seekers.

This study extends the literature on CSR and EB by suggesting a statistically tested model of mediation of EB for creating CR. Furthermore, considering the signaling theory, the paper views CSR, CR, and EB from the employee’s perspective and explores their linkages.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2021-0541.

This study, based on signaling theory, examines the pre-recruitment employer branding strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates the relationship between spontaneous word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations for companies and prospective candidates' job application intentions. Specifically, the study explores serial mechanisms mediating the characteristics of company online career pages, including the perceived informativeness of online job advertisements (ads), candidates' preferences for its web approach to them and the company’s reputation.

Reflecting prospective candidates from students and young alumni of universities, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed on a sample of 737 individuals representing various fields of study from Greek universities.

The findings highlight the effectiveness of positive WOM recommendations during the initial stages of recruitment, particularly amidst COVID-19 challenges in the labor market, notably impacting young candidates. The study suggests that spontaneous WOM, originating from trustful sources, motivates job seekers to actively engage with the company’s web career channels, seeking information and favorable indications of the company’s approach toward its candidates. Positive WOM, combined with informative content and a friendly communication style, plays a critical role in shaping the company’s reputation. Consequently, this encouragement motivates individuals to start their job search efforts and consider applying for positions within the specific organization.

This research provides valuable empirical evidence in the pre-recruitment field, particularly in unforeseen crisis circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how spontaneous, positive WOM from sources, like peers and alumni, significantly influences young job seekers' perceptions and preferences regarding the company’s career web channels as sources of information and signals about working conditions. The combination of positive WOM with informative content and a friendly communication style in the web approach plays a crucial role in shaping a positive company reputation. Consequently, this encourages candidates to consider applying for positions within the company.

This research contributes to pre-recruitment studies, especially amidst crises like COVID-19. It examines how positive WOM from trusted sources like peers and alma mater alumni influences young job seekers' views on the company’s career web channels. By emphasizing the importance of combining positive WOM with informative web content and a friendly communication style, the study offers insights into effective recruitment strategies. It highlights the significance of positive and spontaneous WOM in attracting young talent and its impact on job seekers' decision-making, even in uncertain conditions. Overall, it advances recruitment practices for attracting candidates.

Upon entering developed markets, emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) from China and India must compete with both host companies and other developed nation MNCs to attract and recruit necessary local talent. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent EMNC firms will be perceived as less attractive employers than their developed nation counterparts due to a perceived liability of origin bias. Major demographic and psychographic factors that may affect this bias will also be identified.

Seven hypotheses were tested on a total of 626 German, French and American respondents. Participants were randomly presented identical job descriptions from four hypothetical MNCs (American, European, Indian and Chinese) and were asked to evaluate the perceived attractiveness of working for, as well as their intent to pursue employment with, the offering firm.

Using hierarchical linear regression testing, combined with analysis of variance testing, EMNCs were found to have significantly lower organizational attractiveness than equivalent European or American owned MNCs. Mixed results were found for the various hypotheses based on the moderator variables.

Because the study included three distinct sub-groups, supplemental analyses controlling for possible variances between the sub-groups themselves are included. This multicultural study is one of the first to address the human perspective of EMNC outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by identifying the existence of a potential liability of origin bias toward emerging market firms manifested by potential developed market job applicants. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to examine the influence of applicant age, professional status, gender and nationality with respect to the differences in the perceived level of organizational attractiveness between emerging market and developed nation firms.

This paper extends the literature in three important research areas. First, an extension to the literature on the highly relevant topic of OFDI by Chinese and Indian firms is made. Second, traditional research in the field of organizational attractiveness is further extended by combining it with the timely subject of Chinese and Indian OFDI into developed markets. Finally, this study extends international business literature by studying the influence of demographic and psychographic moderators on the perceived level of organizational attractiveness between emerging market and developed nation firms.

In the past 25 years, employer and internal branding have grown significantly. Prior reviews tended to focus on either one of these domains. This study aims to map the intellectual structure of research on both employer branding and internal branding, thereby identifying impactful authors and journals, current and evolving themes and avenues for future research.

Using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software packages, a bibliometric analysis of 739 articles was conducted using various methods such as citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, cluster analysis, keyword analysis and three-field plot. The Scopus results were further validated using 297 articles produced by the Web of Science data set. It ensured the robustness of the results and generalizability of the findings across bibliometric data sets.

The findings first report the impactful articles, authors and institutions of employer and internal branding research, along with popular keywords used in this area. Next, the analysis reveals four major clusters and seven subthemes (i.e. employer brand and job seekers, employer brand and employees, employer brand and international human resource management (HRM), third-party employer branding, internal branding – conceptualization/review, internal branding – antecedents and consequences, internal brand management). Early research focused more on “corporate brandings,” whereas current research deals more with “employer branding: antecedents and consequences,” “employer branding conceptualization/review,” and “internal branding” and its subthemes. The employer and internal branding clusters have evolved largely independent from each other. This study offers future research directions and practical implications per cluster.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of both employer and internal branding research.