THE EFFECT OF ETHICAL SIGNALS ON RECRUITMENT ...

Procedures
Data were collected over 3 periods of time. In Time 1, ninety-two percent of the
participants had already accepted, but not yet begun their summer internship. At time 1,
participants completed a survey regarding their demographics, cognitive moral
development, socially desirable responding (SDR), job search success, ethical signals
during the recruitment period, and attraction. Time 2 surveyed the participants during
their internship and asked questions regarding ethical organizational and recruitment
practices, as well as attraction to the organization. The Time 3 survey was administered
after the internship was completed, approximately two months into the fall semester.
The participants were asked about their self-importance of moral identity, perceptions of
the organization as ethical, and attraction to the organization. They were also asked to
answer questions regarding their job choice behaviors (i.e., received job offer,
acceptance, etc.).
Applicant Attraction to the Organization
Measures
Applicant attraction to the organization was measured using two established
scales. At Times 1 and 2, I used two items from Judge and Cable’s (1997) 3-item scale.
The first item was: “rate your overall attraction to this organization.” Participants
answered on a scale from 1 (not attracted) to 7 (very attracted). The second item was:
“rate the likelihood that you would accept a full-time job offer from this organization, if
it were offered.” Participants answered on a scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 7 (very
likely). Cronbach’s alpha was .74 at Time 1 and .87 at Time 2. At Time 3, the same
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