Employer branding as a tool to increase start ups’ attractiveness
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The thesis studied the employer branding process as a way to increase start-ups attractiveness for potential employees. Start-ups, unlike larger and more established corporations, face challenges when it comes to recruiting talented personnel. Employer branding concerns the different strategies that a company can employ to increase the employer’s attractiveness. Thus, to investigate how this would be possible in a start-up environment, few steps needed to be taken. First, the job attributes, later defined as employer brand attributes, which make the company attractive for the candidates, needed to be studied. Secondly, the behavioral characteristics of young and talented applicants, also called in the thesis entrepreneurial behaviors, were analyzed to identify their potential effects on employer brand attributes and employer’s attractiveness. The study involved a mixed method. First, a qualitative study was performed where 5 semi- structured interviews with start-ups managers or founders helped to understand the start-up employers’ perspective on the subject. From the content analysis of the interviews, five different employer brand attributes were found: financial package offered, responsibility functions, growth and learning opportunities, work environment, and serious games. As a next step, a quantitative study was employed where the (potential) employees’ perceptions were studied through an electronic questionnaire which collected 94 respondents among students and young professionals. Using conjoint analysis and regression analysis, the results revealed that the preference order for the attributes was: financial package offered (26,86%), growth and learning opportunities (24,12%), responsibility functions (19,20%), work environment (15,16%), and serious games (14,66%). At the same time, a positive relationship was found between responsibility functions (0.845, p<0.05) with innovative behavior. A negative correlation was instead verified between proactive behavior and responsibility functions (-0,506, p<0.05), and between risk-taking behavior and responsibility functions (-0.399, p<0.05) and growth opportunities (-0.362, p<0.05). Thus, the propositions advanced by this thesis for the academics was to continue the research on employer brand attributes and entrepreneurial behaviors enlarging the sample of the study to guarantee more generalizable results. For practitioners, especially for start-up employers, the qualitative and quantitative study revealed their weakness, mainly the financial package, which should be reinforced to improve the employer’s attractiveness. Moreover, a different strategy should be thought of for each of the employer brand attributes, such as growth opportunities, work environment, responsibility functions, and serious games, because all of them presented a positive relationship towards employers’ attractiveness.
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An exploratory study of employer branding and its role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem in multinationals: a signaling theory perspective
Taj, Saud Al (2014) An exploratory study of employer branding and its role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem in multinationals: a signaling theory perspective. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
The concept of employer branding has recently gained prominence due to its involvement in talent management, reputation and the engagement agendas of organizations. This has been the result of emerging factors in the global economy, including rapid globalization, a growing skills gap (ageing population and baby boomers), global recession, intense global competition, skills shortages and the resulting talent wars. It is also believed that employer branding is an important ‘tool in the box’ for addressing the dual International Strategic Human Resource Management (ISHRM) problems of global integration and local responsiveness in complex organizations that operate globally but have to simultaneously respond to local needs.
However, it is argued that employer branding’s ability to deal with the integration-responsiveness problem depends upon its authenticity; the reflection of the authentic voice of local employees in the employer brands through involving them in strategizing. In this thesis, I draw on signaling theory to help understand these problems and the limitations of current employer branding research, which has to date focused on signals transmitted from employers in the corporate headquarters to employees in the local subsidiaries (mainly top management level) but has significantly ignored the voice of employees at the local level by ignoring the ‘counter-signals’ flowing back from local employees. This provides a significant gap in the extant literature on employer branding, which I attempt to fill. In doing so, my study contributes to signaling theory in three directions: by examining how negative signals impact the signaling environment; how feedback-seeking behaviour improves the signaling process; and how signal precedence impacts receiver’s interpretation. Exploring these gaps shall help in developing new insights in signaling theory research. Since most of the employer branding literature has been developed in the West, it is relatively context-bound. Much has been written about employer branding in the SHRM literature but there is little empirical evidence concerning its relevance to global companies for dealing with the integration-responsiveness problem or its need and importance for the under-developed economies, outside of the Anglo-Saxon world. This also leaves an important gap that this study seeks to fill. To do this, the study explores the influences of different context levels upon employer branding change programs in the context of Pakistani economy, which is currently passing through its developing phase. Therefore, conducting this study in the Pakistani context has aided in examining the issue from the perspective of a developing country, which has been stressed by scholars of Strategic and International HRM as a gap that needs to be filled. In this way, the study has made several important contributions at both, theoretical and contextual levels.
A case study research design was adopted comprising of qualitative semi-structured and focus group interviews and analysis of relevant company documents. These were conducted in subsidiaries of three foreign multinationals with senior managers and employees at different hierarchical levels in order to gain rich insight into the application and practice of employer branding and to explore its potential role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem. The signaling process within each firm was also deeply examined in order to further explore the significance of signaling theory in employer branding research.
My findings have significant implications for theory and practice of employer branding. They suggest that ‘authentic’ employer brands that respond to the local needs can play a crucial role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem through adopting strategy-as-practice approach. It was also revealed that the success of this process largely depends upon the influences of different contextual factors and the efficiency and effectiveness of the signaling process; the more effective and efficient the signaling process is, the more authentic is the resulting employer brand. The study also finds that there is little possibility of designing a ‘one size fits all’ approach to employer branding, which is able to address the integration-responsiveness problem. Multinationals operate in different environments possessing their own unique characteristics and fundamental differences from others. Thus, as in most studies, context matters, and in a Muslim country such as Pakistan, context matters more due to factors such as strict religion and unique culture, which is not widely prevalent in the Western developed economies.
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The aim of this research was to examine how people understand the concept of employer branding and through this to finally conclude that employer branding creates a competitive advantage for companies that use it in the process of attracting, recruiting, and retaining employees of high standards.
pany brand (Gaddam, 2008; Martin, Gollan & Grigg, 2011). Sullivan (2004) defines employer branding as a strategic process of building a unique, identifiable identity which differs from its competitors in the labor market as a long-term strategy "to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees and r.
ness objectives, hiring managers worldwide engage in employer branding. In highly globalised countries such as the Netherlands, it is common practice to mention Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) statements both on career pages and in job vacancies themselves. The current study is designed to test how these statements affect applicants' P-O fit and subsequent job application behaviour and how this ...
Below are three examples of master's thesis written within the subject of employer branding but from different aspects. Sinkkonen (2021) studied employer brand experience development in a crisis situation where they examined how the employees experienced challenges in internal communication and management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
a guiding principle to accomplishing this master's thesis as the work required sleepless nights and relentlessness. Glory be to Almighty God for making it possible to achieve this milestone. A great deal of ... Title of the Thesis: Employer Branding: Model for Employer Branding Practices in a Multinational Technology Company Degree: ...
In a globalization context, underlined by the speed of technological transformation and increasingly competitive markets, the perspective of human capital, as an asset of strategic importance, stands out in differentiating human resource practices. Under this reality, the employer branding (EB) concept gains more and more importance as a strategic tool to attract, retain, and involve human ...
Master Thesis Spring 2007 Employer Branding and Talent-Relationship-Management - Improving the Organizational Recruitment Approach Author: Robin Jeffrey Katoen ... the Employer Branding concept aims to create consistency in favour of a credible employer brand message. In addition, the employer brand plays an important role in preventing
The thesis focuses on employer branding strategy as a valid approach to human resources management in today's challenging environment. Becoming an employer of choice and, in ... The topic of employer branding strategy was chosen for this Master's thesis because of the author's strong belief that companies are made for people; ...
Acknowledgements This research on employer branding is my final piece of the master Social Policy and Social Interventions at the University of Utrecht. First of all I would like to thank Pathé who gave me the opportunity to do a research on culture within their organization.
The thesis studied the employer branding process as a way to increase start-ups attractiveness for potential employees. Start-ups, unlike larger and more established corporations, face challenges when it comes to recruiting talented personnel.
Employer branding practices amongst the most attractive employers of the IT and engineering sector in Portugal Lea Gregorka Master's thesis Master in Management and Human Resource Development
values, preferences a d demands concerning the workplace can occur. These differences c nt and satisfaction. The purpose of this dissertation is to explai how employer branding impact employee commitment and satisfaction. Further, this thesis aims to discover how these relationships are moderated by Generation X and Generation Y. ted thro
ocess of writing this thesis. Lastly, we would like to thank our families and friends for th Table of content Introduction 1.1 Objectives and research question 1.2 Disposition Theory and Previous research 2.1 The Performativity perspective and employer branding 2.2 Goffman's theatre metaphor and employer branding Setting Method 4.1 Sampling ...
8.12.2022 Turku The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin Originality Check service. Master's thesis. Subject: Marketing Author: Ella Ahokas. Title: Employer branding dimensions - A case study of how brands communicate their unique offering as an ...
y of one ICT-conglomerate's employer brand and a roadmap for strategically developing it. The thesis first introduces the reader to the topic through latest trends and reasons behind the chosen topic. The theoretical section seeks to establish a good base, on top of which it's easy to build the empirical section on. Following the theory, one can find the research methodology, which ...
This master thesis will conclude my education for Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. It has been ... Employer Branding is called the 'hottest strategy in employment'. It is an international
MASTER THESIS Camilla Gunder Elkær & Sofie Mølsted Jørgensen International Business Communication in English, 10th semester Date: 31 May, 2021 Aalborg University Employer Branding - An analysis of attraction and recruitment by means of linguistic and semiotic elements and the increasing competition among organizations to attract and recruit
The objective of the study is to analyse the role of Employer Branding in the objective of attracting the best candidates. The thesis has collaborated with IBM France to understand the place of Employer Branding in the company and to verify if the theories regarding Employer Branding can be applied in a real context. The thesis process was implemented by a qualitative research with an ...
This Master thesis therefore analyses three European MNCs with Chinese subsidiaries to explore how they attract potential employees through an attractive employer brand by adapting it to the Chinese context. Through a qualitative study and interviewing a responsible HR manager in both the European headquarters and the Chinese subsidiary, this research analyses employer branding in the two ...
Master's thesis Master of Business and Administration 2020 Tiina Setälä THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WELL-BEING OF THE EMPLOYEES AND JOB SATISFACTION AND THE EMPLOYER BRAND AND ... Employer branding, Employee retention, Employee turnover, Human resources, Job Satisfaction,
The purpose of this thesis is to provide the case company with recommendations on how to enhance employer branding practices and boost the young talent attrac-tion by implementing innovative ways of collaboration with Engineering students in Finland. In order to do it, the company's current employer brand practices were examined and Company's traditional ways of collaboration with students ...
Gummesson (1999) explains that employer branding should be used to attract employees and therefore employer branding is one of the drivers in this thesis. Falonius (2010) explain that attracting and retaining employees is one of the biggest challenges for companies, as for many of them the attitudes, personalities and experiences of the ...
An exploratory study of employer branding and its role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem in multinationals: a signaling theory perspective Taj, Saud Al (2014) An exploratory study of employer branding and its role in addressing the integration-responsiveness problem in multinationals: a signaling theory perspective. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.