Organizational attractiveness in Japan:a screening perspective

Abstract

This study examines the effects of several organizational characteristics on job applicant attributions of organizational attractiveness in Japan. The results from 11,060 Japanese university students, 3,678 seniors specializing in engineering&science who judged 156 firms and 7,382 seniors majoring in liberal arts who evaluated 150 firms, demonstrate that some of the organizational characteristics studied do serve as organizational attractiveness screening devices (Stiglitz, 1975). First, work-force size was related to organizational attractiveness for both student cohorts, as hypothesized. On the contrary, the age of the organization had no effect on organizational attractiveness for either group. The effects for two other variables, sales and profits, were mixed. Sales was related to organizational attractiveness for the engineering&science cohort, but not for the liberal arts cohort. Alternatively, profits were associated with organizational attractiveness for the liberal art students, but not the engineering&science students.

Keywords:

• Screening,
• signalling
• attractiveness
• reputation