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The job choice process can be characterized as a series of decisions made by an applicant as to which jobs and organizations to pursue for possible employment. Following Schwab, Rynes, and Aldag's (1987) model, we excluded labor force participation decisions and career decisions from this process. Instead, we considered the job choice process to begin with an individual's evaluation of information obtained from recruitment sources, including printed advertisements, media messages, and friends. Logically, the individual uses the information obtained from a recruitment source to decide whether or not to pursue possible employment with an organization. These decisions are the initial ones in the individual's job search process and affect all subsequent decision alternatives and the outcomes of the search process.
However, almost all studies of the job choice process have focused on decisions made after the initial decisions (Rynes, 1991); therefore, little is known about variables that influence those initial decisions. Herriot and Rothwell (1981), in the only study we found that explicitly examined recruitment sources and initial decisions, concluded that recruitment brochures did influence potential applicants' intentions to apply to organizations. They could not, however, determine specific characteristics of the brochures that were related to those intentions.
Rynes (1991) suggested that, given the small amount of information applicants have early in the job choice process, initial application decisions are heavily based on general impressions of organizational attractiveness. She labeled those general impressions "organizational image" and stated that "one useful direction of future research would be to determine the major components of organizational image, and whether any of them can be cost-effectively modified or communicated to improve applicant attraction" (Rynes, 1991: 435-36). Fombrun and Shanley (1990) also indicated that image is a major component of early job choice decisions.
A search of the literature yielded only one empirical study that examined organizational image and applicant responses. Belt and Paolillo (1982) determined the favorableness of the image of each of 20 fast-food establishments and selected one very highly rated and one very poorly rated restaurant. Recruitment advertisements were written that manipulated the names of the two organizations and a second variable, the specificity of required applicant qualifications. In this study's results, image was a main effect: applicant response to the organization with the better image was...