| Applicants' perceptions of person-environment fit are a key determinant of organizational attraction. Thus to more effectively attract applicants and enhance recruitment utility, organizations must understand how applicants decide whether they fit well with the organizational environment. The present research takes a two-study approach and applies the Instrumental-Symbolic marketing framework to explore factors that influence individuals' fit perceptions. Study I results reveal symbolic attributes contributed incremental variance in the prediction of PO fit perceptions beyond instrumental attributes. Further, PO fit perceptions in turn mediated the relationship between instrumental-symbolic factors and organizational attraction. Study 2 replicated these findings in an applicant setting and additionally found symbolic characteristics to be most influential early in a recruitment process, while instrumental characteristics remained important throughout recruitment. Implications for future fit and recruitment research are discussed. |
