Emotional appeal in recruitment advertising and applicant attraction: Unpacking national cultural differences

• Author: Jing Han,Juan Ling
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2099
• Date: 01 November 2016
• Published date: 01 November 2016

Emotional appeal in recruitment advertising and

applicant attraction: Unpacking national cultural

differences

JING HAN

1

*AND JUAN LING

2

1

Department of Management, Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton,

Fullerton, California, U.S.A.

2

Department of Management, J. Whitney Bunting College of Business, Georgia College & State University,Milledgeville,

Georgia, U.S.A.

Summary We investigated the impact of the type of emotional appeal (ego-focused vs. other-focused) used in recruiting

advertisements on applicant attraction to firms through two experimental studies across three countries (the

United States, China, and Singapore). In Study 1, we made a traditional cultural comparison between the

United States and China, whose dominant cultural values are characterized by individualism and collectivism,

respectively. We found applicants in the United States were more strongly attracted to firms whose recruiting

advertisements were based on an ego-focused emotional appeal, while applicants in China were more

attracted to firms that used ads with an other-focused emotional appeal. Study 2 was conducted in bicultural

Singapore. We primed bicultural applicants to be either the individualistic or collectivistic aspect of their cul-

tural heritage. Applicants with individualist priming were attracted to recruiting advertisements with an ego-

focused emotional appeal, whereas applicants with collectivist priming were attracted to advertisements with

an other-focused emotional appeal. In addition, both studies revealed that a job applicant’s regulatory focus

(promotion vs. prevention) mediated the influence of national culture on the relationship between type of

emotional appeal and applicant attraction to firms. Practical implications and suggestions for future research

also are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: national culture; emotional appeal; recruitment advertising; applicant attraction; regulatory focus

Introduction

Multinational companies are motivated to develop new human resource (HR) strategies to attract, motivate, and

retain talents in overseas markets (Ployhart & Weekley, 2014). Previous international HR studies suggest that na-

tional culture influences the acceptability and effectiveness of human resource management (HRM) practices (Miller

& Guo, 2013). When HRM practices are consistent with the deep values embedded in the national culture, em-

ployees are satisfied, committed, and motivated to perform well. Although ample evidence suggests that national

culture influences various HR functions, we know very little about the effectiveness of recruiting practices across

cultures (Ma & Allen, 2009). As the difficulty of recruiting talent in a global market increases, there is a call for

research about recruiting and staffing across cultures (Ployhart, 2006; Ployhart & Weekley, 2014).

Based on this background, we suggest that recruitment advertising deserves more cross-cultural analysis. Despite

the importance and frequent use of advertisements in recruiting, there is far less empirical work on recruiting adver-

tisements (i.e., job information published in newspapers, magazines, and web sites) compared with other recruitment

activities (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). Moreover, no empirical research to date has examined cross-cultural differences

in the design of recruiting advertisements. As a consequence, the existing literature provides no clear guidance about

*Correspondence to: Jing Han, Department of Management, Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton,

800 N. State College Blvd, Fullerton, California 92834, U.S.A. E-mail: jinghan@fullerton.edu

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 18 May 2013

Revised 26 January 2016, Accepted 08 February 2016

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 1202–1223 (2016)

Published online 22 March 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2099

Research Article

how to effectively attract talent in overseas markets through culturally tailored recruitment advertising. While certain

advertising strategies are acceptable in one country, they may be ineffective in another owing to cultural differences

(De Mooij, 2010).

We seek to contribute to the recruitment literature by enriching our knowledge about the influence of national cul-

ture on the effectiveness of recruitment advertising. In particular, we examine the effect of cultural differences on the

use of emotional appeals in recruiting advertisements to attract job applicants. Emotional appeal refers to one form

of communication in an advertisement that creates emotional reactions (e.g., pride and empathy) among individuals

through the use of pictures, voices, tastes, smells, and so on (Lau-Gesk & Meyers-Levy, 2009). It is well established

in the marketing and advertising literature that emotional appeals exert a significant influence on consumers’attitude

changes, brand learning processes, and purchase intentions (Brown & Stayman, 1992). In the recruitment literature,

however, much less attention has been paid to job applicants’emotional processes because applicants’decision-

making models are largely built on the assumption that people are rational and attempt to maximize their self-interest

(Cober, Brown, Keeping, & Levy, 2004). Only a handful of studies have revealed that applicant attraction is influ-

enced by not only the content but also the way in which information is presented in the recruiting advertisement

(Dineen, Ling, Ash, & DelVecchio, 2007; Walker, Feild, Giles, Bernerth, & Short, 2011). For example, building

on the marketing literature on brand equity, studies about employment branding suggest that influencing applicants’

affect will help firms generate applicant attraction by creating positive attitudes and beliefs about the employer

(Collins & Stevens, 2002; Collins, 2007).

Therefore, the first objective of this study is to enrich our understanding of how cultural differences and emotional

appeals in recruitment advertising jointly influence applicant attraction. Based on studies about culture and emotions

(Aaker & Williams, 1998; Markus & Kitayama, 1991), individuals’experience and recognition of emotions system-

atically vary according to their culturally derived self-construals. For example, people in an individualist culture tend

to experience more ego-focused emotions (e.g., pride), while people in a collectivist culture tend to experience more

other-focused emotions (e.g., empathy; Nezlek, Kafetsios, & Smith, 2008). We propose that emotional appeals in

recruitment advertising (e.g., ego-focused vs. other-focused) can enhance a prospective employee’s attraction

toward a firm when emotional appeals fit the national culture (e.g., individualism, collectivism, or biculturalism)

in which the recruiting takes place.

The second objective of this study is to explore the underlying mechanism through which national culture affects

the relationship between emotional appeal and applicant attraction. A recent meta-analysis of studies about the cul-

tural value framework suggests that mediators through which cultural values affect outcomes are rarely studied, thus

offering little knowledge about the underlying theoretical mechanisms of culture (Taras, Kirkman, & Steel, 2010).

Building upon a growing number of studies on self-regulation at work (Gorman et al., 2012; Lanaj, Chang, & John-

son, 2012), we argue that an individual’s regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) can be regarded as a motiva-

tional mechanism of the cultural effect.

Our research model is shown in Figure 1. First, we propose that national culture moderates the relationship be-

tween type of emotional appeal (ego-focused vs. other-focused) and applicant attraction. We then investigate the role

of regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) as a motivational mechanism through which national culture affects

the impact of emotional appeal on applicant attraction. We examined these relationships through two experimental

studies across three countries (the United States, China, and Singapore), where national culture is characterized by

individualism, collectivism, and biculturalism, respectively.

Overview of the Study: Individualism, Collectivism, and Biculturalism

A number of studies about cultural stability and change suggest that a country has to deal with the complicated

dynamics between its native culture and foreign cultures owing to increasing intercultural contact and interactions

(Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000; Ralston et al., 2006). The evolution of a national culture, however,

EMOTIONAL APPEAL IN RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING 1203

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 1202–1223 (2016)

DOI: 10.1002/job