Watch What You Say: Job Applicants’ Justice Perceptions From Initial Organizational Correspondence

H Jack Walker, Catherine A Helmuth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Although it is a common practice for organizations to communicate with job seekers following application submission, little is known about how applicants react to this correspondence. Drawing from recruitment and organizational justice theories, we explore the possibility that specific correspondence content influences job seekers' fairness perceptions. Data collected from 119 actual job applicants indicated that providing relevant information about the recruitment process (information adequacy) positively related to informational and interpersonal justice perceptions. However, delivering this information in an interpersonally sensitive manner (information sensitivity) had a stronger impact on interpersonal justice perceptions. Finally, post hoc analyses suggested that incorporating specific content delivered in initial job applicant correspondence could allow recruiting organizations to develop practical, cost-effective strategies for enhancing job seekers' fairness perceptions following their application submission.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)999-1011
JournalHuman Resource Management
Volume54
Issue number6
StatePublished - Nov 2015

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