Managerial recruitment: the influence of personality and ideal candidate characteristics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the vital issue of managerial recruitment for private industry. Personality and demographic variables and their interactions are to be examined to determine the extent they uniquely influence the attraction of business professionals to managerial jobs in simulated position advertisements. Design/methodology/approach – The study consisted of 330 experienced business professionals who role‐played as applicants for managerial positions by rating jobs described in simulated position advertisements. Findings – After statistically controlling for the demographic variables, the hierarchical regression analyses suggested that personality (inclusion, control, openness) as determined by the FIRO Element B explained statistically significant job rating variance in each of the three regression models. Thus, job applicant personality influenced the attraction of the participants to simulated managerial jobs. Originality/value – These findings suggest the practical significance of human resource professionals producing recruitment media to attract managerial applicants with the appropriate personality to best assure a good person‐job fit. This notion is discussed as a possible lost cost method for managerial recruitment improvement and as a solid first step in developing a cadre of managers for organizations.