Being in Good Standing: The Value of a Corporate, Workplace & Social Reputation to Potential Executive Employees

45 Pages Posted: 5 Jan 2011

See all articles by Pat Auger

Pat Auger

University of Melbourne Business School

Timothy M. Devinney

The University of Manchester - Alliance Manchester Business School

Grahame Dowling

Australian Graduate School of Management

Christine Eckert

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) - School of Marketing

Nidthida Lin

School of Business, University of Western Sydney

Date Written: January 4, 2011

Abstract

It has been readily accepted that prospective employees, including MBA students seeking jobs after graduation, put great stock in a potential employer’s reputation – particularly that relating to its social responsibility and workplace practices. However, other than potentially biased results from self-report surveys we have little information as to whether or not job seekers would actually trade-off salary and other utilitarian aspects of a job contract to work at firms with supposed greater reputational standing. In the present study we use a structured experimental approach to determine the extent to which the facets of reputation – corporate, social and workplace – drive job contract choice. We discover that while some aspects of corporate and workplace reputation matter marginally, MBA job seekers appear to put little value on social reputation. Even in the specific cases where we can discern individuals who do value social reputation, this is unrelated to their stated preferences revealed using standard survey methods. The implication is that firms seeking to entice potential executives should focus on utilitarian aspects of the employment contract that may impact their reputation rather than attempting to manipulate that reputation directly.

Keywords: Corporate Reputation, Social Reputation, Workplace Reputation, Discrete Choice Experimentation, Job Choice

JEL Classification: M00, M12, M15, M50, ,J24, J30

Suggested Citation

Auger, Pat and Devinney, Timothy M. and Dowling, Grahame and Eckert, Christine and Lin, Nidthida, Being in Good Standing: The Value of a Corporate, Workplace & Social Reputation to Potential Executive Employees (January 4, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1734605 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1734605

Pat Auger

University of Melbourne Business School ( email )

200 Leicester Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053 3186
Australia
+61 3 9349 8194 (Phone)
+61 3 9349 8133 (Fax)

Timothy M. Devinney (Contact Author)

The University of Manchester - Alliance Manchester Business School ( email )

Booth Street West
Manchester, M15 6PB
United Kingdom

Grahame Dowling

Australian Graduate School of Management ( email )

Gate 11, Botany Street, Randwick
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

Christine Eckert

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) - School of Marketing ( email )

P.O. Box 123
Broadway, NSW 2007
Australia

Nidthida Lin

School of Business, University of Western Sydney ( email )

Locked Bag 1797
Penrith, NSW 2751
Australia

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