THE EFFECT OF ETHICAL SIGNALS ON RECRUITMENT ...

CHAPTER V
STUDY 2
Method
Participants
Participants were 665 undergraduate students at a large southwestern university.
Power analysis revealed that this is an adequate sample size in order to conduct an
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) with main effects and interactions and to have a
small to medium effect size (≈.23). The average age was 21 years, and the mean work
experience was 4 years. About 52% of the sample was female. Seventy-eight percent of
the sample was Caucasian, 13% was Hispanic, 4% was Asian, and 3% was African
American. Ninety-seven percent of the participants were juniors or seniors. Participants
were recruited from an entry-level Management course via a face-to-face presentation of
the study by the primary investigator and were offered extra course credit in exchange
for their participation. A pilot study was conducted in order to test the manipulations
and time to complete the surveys. The study was a 2×3×3 factorial design, with a total
of 18 scenarios. Cell frequencies ranged from 35 to 39 participants per scenario (Table
7).
Procedures
Upon entering the laboratory, participants were randomly assigned to one of
eighteen conditions (see Table 7 for study key). Participants read that they were to think
of themselves as a graduating senior who was offered an interview with a fictitious
organization. They then read that they researched the organization and found some
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