When allegedly corrupt organizations are attractive
Abstract
Purpose
Based on social identity theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore how detrimental allegations of corruption are to potential applicants’ organizational attraction and how potential harm can be absorbed by choosing an appropriate response strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Experimental survey data were collected from 239 German employees likely to be in the job market again in their careers.
Findings
Potential applicants are less attracted to allegedly corrupt organizations. Accepting the allegation and undertaking structural change, appealing to higher organizational goals, and denying the allegation appear to be effective organizational response strategies. A strategy concordant with the one potential applicants would choose if they themselves were confronted with an allegation of corruption fosters attraction.
Research limitations/implications
The experimental design limits external validity. Future research should investigate whether the findings hold in a field setting where additional information about the organization and the potential job is available.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the need for organizational corruption prevention efforts. If organizations face allegations of corruption, they should carefully consider how to respond, what they signal by the chosen response strategy, and what applicants they are therefore likely to attract.
Social implications
The observed interactions between organizations and individuals underline the need for societal efforts in creating a societal anti-corruption climate.
Originality/value
The study highlights the critical role of allegations of corruption, organizational response strategies, and concordance with individual response strategies regarding potential applicants’ organizational attraction.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the master students participating in the HR project seminar at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in 2010/2011 for their help with the data collection. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 72nd Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2012 in Boston, USA, and at the Autumn Workshop of the Human Resources Division of the German Academic Association for Business Research 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The author is grateful to the editor, the anonymous reviewers, discussants, and conference participants for their constructive comments that helped improve earlier drafts of this paper.
Citation
Rabl, T. (2015), "When allegedly corrupt organizations are attractive", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 771-785. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-01-2013-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited