How can organizations operating in a negative reputation industry attract job seekers?

Despite the recognition of the importance of organizational reputation, our understanding of how organizations can overcome an unfavorable reputation to achieve recruitment success is incomplete. Drawing from social identity theory, the reputation repair literature, and signaling theory, we investigated the influence of two recruitment messages (serving the public's interest and employee development opportunities) on job seekers' job pursuit intentions for organizations operating in a negative reputation industry. To do so, we conducted two online experiments – one using a fictitious context and student job seekers and the other using actual companies and more experienced job seekers. The results show that recruitment messages focused on serving the public's interests enhanced employer reputation and job seekers' expected pride from organizational membership, and recruitment messages focused on employee development opportunities enhanced employer reputation and job seekers' expected organization-based self-esteem. The effects of the recruitment messages on job pursuit intentions were mediated by enhanced employer reputation, expected pride from organizational membership, and expected organization-based self-esteem. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.