In the near future, public sector organizations will face severe challenges to attract potential employees (Aijala, 2001; Ritz and Waldner, 2011). Reasons for this are the shortage of qualified staff, competition of the public... [ view full abstract ]
In the near future, public sector organizations will face severe challenges to attract potential employees (Aijala, 2001; Ritz and Waldner, 2011). Reasons for this are the shortage of qualified staff, competition of the public sector with the private sector for (young) professionals as well as the prevailing negative image of the public sector employers (Marvel, 2015). It is thus more important than ever that public organizations engage in personnel marketing to attract qualified staff.
Previous research has focused on the impact of recruitment messages on the attraction of applicants at a rather general level (Pandey, Wright & Moynihan, 2008). However, the specific job characteristics driving the intention to apply for vacancies in the public sector have yet to be identified. The growing body of literature on public service motivation (PSM) suggests that the motivation to do good for others and society is a major driver of attraction to the public sector, but this stream of research tends to neglect the far broader range of job characteristics to which applicants may respond. Accordingly, the role of PSM for attraction to, and recruitment for, the public sector may be overestimated.
We examine how extrinsic, intrinsic and prosocial job characteristics determine intentions to apply for public sector jobs. We consider PSM as a moderator between job characteristics and application intentions.
We test our hypotheses based on data from a survey experiment with a sample of 340 British respondents. Participants either have a university degree or are still enrolled for an undergraduate or a graduate program. The experimental setup includes a Rapid Attitude Test (RAT) in order to measure implicitly latent perceptions of job attributes as presented in job advertisements. We apply linear regression analyses to estimate the impact of perceived job characteristics on the intention to apply and the moderating effect of PSM.
Results contribute to the emerging consensus on the importance of extrinsic job rewards in the attraction phase of recruitment (van de Walle, Steijn & Jilke, 2015). We additionally show that prosocial job characteristics have a negative impact on the job choice in the public sector, whereas intrinsic job characteristics exert a positive impact on the intention to apply. Most interestingly, high levels of individual PSM only strengthen the impact of intrinsic job characteristics on the intention to apply. Accordingly, our findings have implications for the selection and emphasis of extrinsic, intrinsic and prosocial rewards in order to attract potential applicants.
