Attracting Altruistic Talents - A quantitative study on how ethnic diversity portrayals in advertising impact organizational attractiveness

Abstract: This thesis examines the effects of consumer advertising on potential employees. More precisely, it investigates how consumer advertising portraying ethnic diversity impacts the advertising company's organizational attractiveness as an employer. The results from one experimental study show that ethnically diverse advertising signals third-party justice. Further, it does not affect perceived organizational attractiveness nor employer reputation among the general public. However, when dividing participants into groups of lower versus higher levels of altruistic values, it turns out that the former group reacts neutrally to ethnically diverse advertising in regard to employer reputation, third-party justice, and organizational attractiveness, while the latter group reacts positively to all three. Hence, the effects are contingent on altruistic values. Moreover, a mediation analysis being moderated by potential employees' levels of altruistic values reveals that employer reputation mediates the effect that ethnically diverse advertising has on organizational attractiveness among people with higher levels of altruistic values. The findings contribute to the literature on consumer advertising's effects on other stakeholders than consumers. Moreover, the results guide corporations and managers in how they can broaden their advertising goals from only focusing on consumer responses to also involving potential employees' responses.