The Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility Perceptions And Perceived Employer Brand On Organisational Attractiveness

ABSTRACT

Background. Human capital, often referred to as talent, has become a key source of

competitive advantage. Due to the scarcity and competition for such talent scholars and

practitioners are constantly trying to find new ways to attract, engage and retain highly soughtafter

employees. The recent recession and economic slow-down has, however, led to

diminished financial resources which has meant that talent management strategies have had to

shift with greater focus being placed on non-financially centred offers to attract talent. Such

non-financial offers include employer branding (EB) and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Research Purpose. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of perceived

corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employer brand and organisational attractiveness

perceptions. To achieve this aim, two research objectives were set. The first objective was to

establish whether statistically significant positive causal relationships exist between

perceptions of CSR, employer brand and organisational attractiveness (OA). The second

objective was to estimate the relative importance of CSR and employer brand amongst other

typical financial and non-financial reward elements or factors, i.e. when trade-offs need to be

made.

Research Design and Methodological approaches. An experimental research design was

utilised and primary quantitative data was collected by means of convenience, i.e. nonprobability

sampling. A realised sample of n=137 was obtained. To address the objectives

stated above, a two method approach was utilised. Firstly, a 22 or 2 (CSR present or not present)

x 2 (employer branding present or not present) full-factorial experiment was utilised to

investigate the causal relationships with organisational attractiveness (the dependant variable).

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions and perceived level of

attractiveness measured after being exposed to one of four fictitious recruitment posters in

which the CSR and employer brand were manipulated. The validity and reliability of the

organisational attractiveness scale was assessed using Principle Components Analysis (PCA)

and calculating Cronbach α coefficients, respectively The data were then analysed using

descriptive statistics and a 22 within-subjects Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).