Affiliations: [a] Information Systems, College of Business & Economics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
| [b] Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business & Economics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
| [c] Human Resource Management, College of Business & Economics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Lori J. Baker-Eveleth, Associate Professor of Information Systems, 875 Perimeter Drive, MS 3161, College of Business & Economics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-3161, USA. Tel.: +1 208 885 5940; Fax: +1 208 885 5087; E-mail: leveleth@uidaho.edu.
Abstract: Given organizations’ increasing reliance on career websites for recruiting job seekers, the experience a job seeker has on the organization’s website can influence the stream of job applicants and influence organizational success. This research, grounded in social cognitive theory, investigates the linkages between job seekers’ intentions, formed after using an organization’s recruitment website, and factors antecedent to these intentions. Data were collected by questionnaire from a sample of subjects who were representative of recent or current job seekers. The estimation of the proposed model was performed using a structural equations approach. The empirical results indicate that job seekers’ intentions are affected by their satisfaction with the recruitment website. Satisfaction is affected by job seekers’ perceived usefulness of the website; and perceived usefulness is positively affected by website ease of use, engagement, and social norms. Because the trend in recruiting is toward more impersonal contact (e.g., website) with job seekers prior to their decision to apply, it is essential that organizations design websites that increase job seekers’ intentions to apply and not to repel them. The study adds evidence that characteristics of the website communicate additional information to job seekers about the company that is used to form intentions.
