Organizational attractiveness after identity threats of crises: how potential employees anticipate social identity

Abstract

This study examines how organizations shape potential employees’ social identity prior to joining the organization. This is relevant in light of growing demands for knowledge workers together with a lack of knowledge about the determinants of employer attractiveness for this group. Our study uses different organizational crises as identity-threatening events and extends current research by showing how such events influence potential employees’ anticipations about social identity, as well as their perceptions of the organization’s attractiveness. Empirical evidence from our scenario-based experiments in the United Kingdom and the United States shows that identity changes occurring from organizational crises reduce organizational attractiveness and that anticipated self-continuity and anticipated self-esteem mediate this relationship. The effects become stronger with increasing crisis responsibility. More surprisingly, our qualitative data indicate that certain forms of crises can also attract certain types of employees by triggering organizational compassion, engagement to help the organization recover, and beliefs in learning and future improvements. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.