Dimensions of job advertisement as signals for achieving job seeker’s application intention

Purpose: Grounded in the concept of signaling theory and instrumental-symbolic framework, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model to examine the impact of print job advertisement (ad) dimensions (message contents) and organizational familiarity on job seeker’s perception of attitude, organizational attractiveness, and application intention. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a theoretical exploration based on existing literature. Findings: The presence of instrumental and symbolic attributes in print job advertisement such as job and work characteristics, aesthetics, employee testimonial/picture, corporate image enhancing statements, organizational culture-enhancing statements, and human resource offerings are more likely to play influential roles in creating favorable attitude, organizational attractiveness, and application intention in a job seeker. Apart from this, organizational familiarity plays a moderating role on job seeker’s attitude formation and in gaining organizational attractiveness. Practical implications: The study offers a clear guideline to recruiting organizations, HR managers, recruitment agencies, or consultants on how to design a recruitment advertisement to pool a large number of potential applicants. The study also throws light on testing the effectiveness of a recruitment advertisement, similar to commercial ads. Moreover, the outcome of testing would help the recruiters understand the pulse of the job seeker toward the ad, job, and organization. Originality/value: This study theoretically clarifies the role of instrumental and symbolic attributes or dimensions of job ads and the role of organizational familiarity in inducing positive attitude formation and organizational attractiveness, in the process that cultivates application intention in a potential job seeker.