Persuasive Impact of Organizational Value Statements in a Recruitment Context¹

Two experiments were conducted to examine the persuasive impact of different types of evidence supporting an organizational recruitment message. In the first experiment, information on organizational values, presented in a recruitment brochure, was supported using statistical, anecdotal, or no evidence. Graduating university students who were attending a job fair ( N = 69) were most attracted to the company as an employer when statistical evidence was presented. In the second study, an employed sample ( N = 172) received organizational value evidence in the context of either a recruitment brochure or a community newspaper article. Whereas we replicated the findings of the first study in the brochure condition, we found that anecdotal information was most persuasive in the newspaper condition. We conclude that predicting the persuasive impact of evidence for organizational values requires knowledge of both the type of evidence to be employed and the medium in which that evidence is conveyed.