Branded Employee Behaviour as a Double-Edged Sword: How Perceptions of Service Employees Impact Job Seekers' Application Intentions

Nancy V. Wünderlich, Anja Iseke and Hürrem Becker-Özcamlica

SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, 2020, vol. 4, issue 4, 205-215

Abstract: Prior brand experiences affect job seekers’ application decisions, as they recall service encounters with brands which they have experienced as customers. As brand representatives, service employees play a critical role in these recollections. Their behaviour might inform job seekers’ understanding of the employer brand, thereby affecting their application decision. The impact of the service employee’s behaviour might be even more impactful if this behaviour is branded, meaning that the employee’s appearance and manner are representative of the brand values. In this paper, we analyse whether and how branded service employee behaviour affects job seekers’ application intentions. We argue that branded service employee behaviour provides two opposing signals: it contributes to consistent evaluations of the brand, leading to more brand trustworthiness and enhancing job seekers’ application intentions. However, it may also be perceived as inauthentic, reducing job seekers’ application intentions. Findings from a scenario experiment provide evidence of both effects.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.15358/2511-8676-2020-4-205 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nms:nomsmr:10.15358/2511-8676-2020-4-205

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Waldseestraße 3-5, 76530 Baden-Baden, Germany
https://www.nomos-sh ... -research-id-114066/

DOI: 10.15358/2511-8676-2020-4-205

Access Statistics for this article

SMR - Journal of Service Management Research is currently edited by Prof. Dr. Marion Büttgen, Prof. Dr. Andreas Eggert, Prof. Dr. Heiner Evanschitzky, Prof. Dr. Christiane Hipp, Prof. Dr. Jens Hogreve, Prof. Dr. Joachim Hüffmeier, Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar and Prof. Dr. Martin Matzner

More articles in SMR - Journal of Service Management Research from Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG ().