Individuals use images for many personal decisions, including career decisions
(Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). However, applicants who are evaluating the companys
image are likely to be interested in other aspects than, for example, investors or consumers.
Applicants are probably more interested in what the organisation as an employer
stands for. So, potential applicants will be most likely to have a different
perception of the company, and will hence hold a different corporate image (Gatewood
et al., 1993) based on their perception of what the organisation as an employer
will stand for. These images can also be formed after exposure to a companys recruitment
activities. Gatewood et al. (1993) labelled these latter impressions as recruitment
image. However, the impressions people hold about the companys
attractiveness as an employer is formed by many factors and is not only created after
exposure to recruitment activities. Highhouse et al. (1999) labelled these impressions
as the company employment image, which can be described as: ‘‘The company
employment image is the impression of the organisation as a place to work’’.
In our research, we will focus on the broader concept of impressions of benefits
and job characteristics and not on the narrower concept of attractiveness as an
employer.