Applicant Attraction towards the Organization with the Moderation Effect of Gender: A Perception of Business Students

Abstract

Talent attraction is contemporarily subject to extensive research due to prevalent gaps which hold significance in the field of human resource management. This article describes how students graduating from a business school in Karachi, Pakistan perceive various organizational factors in terms of their impact on the attractiveness of the firm as a place to work. The framework used in the study included exogenous constructs depicting compensation, both direct and indirect, along with Corporate social responsibility, both internal and external in organizations. The influences of both compensation and CSR on organizational attractiveness were examined in the study. The segregation of respondents in terms of gender was used as a moderator. The moderating influence of gender segregation on the relationship between exogenous and endogenous constructs was also examined in this paper. In the study 130 responses were received and 112 were found suitable for the analysis. The results were analyzed on SMART PLS software by using latest techniques. The findings of the study demonstrated that compensation is the significant factor attracting business school talent, while gender moderated the impact of both compensation and CSR activities on workplace attractiveness. Specifically, males prefer extrinsic direct and indirect compensation and no impact of CSR found to attract them. Extrinsic indirect compensation and internal CSR activities were positively related to workplace attractiveness for women than for men. Implementing these practices appropriately given the context is likely to benefit the firm by attracting talented employees. The study is limited to only business institutes of Karachi which can be extended to other cities and institutes in future for the better results and generalizability.