Organizational reputations and their influence on the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers : - an analysis of the fashion industry.

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Organizational reputations and

their influence on the

organizations’ attractiveness to

job seekers

- An analysis of the fashion industry

Master Thesis

MSc Business Studies – International Management Track Name: Tessa Joxhorst

Student number: 5837316 Supervisor: Dr. K. Quintelier

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1 Acknowledgements

This thesis is the final step in the completion of my Master Business Studies and with that, the final step of my educational career. It has been an interesting process and a worthy challenge to end my educational path with. I would like to express my gratitude to a few individuals for their help during this process. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Katinka Quintelier for her support and guidance. Her useful comments and suggestions have steered me in the right direction and have been of great value to me throughout this period. Secondly, I want to thank all the people who participated in the data collection. Without their sincere answers I would not have been able to have such interesting results. And finally, I would like to thank my loved ones for always listening and helping me in any way possible, throughout this thesis and my studies. I could not have done it without your help.

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Abstract

Organizational reputations are, especially in the early stages of the recruitment process, one of the most important determinants of the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers. In the marketing literature there are many studies which divide the organizational reputation into either symbolic or functional reputations. These reputations will be analysed in this study. In the creative industries literature researchers developed a different reputational framework which has a lot of similarities to the symbolic-functional framework. This framework makes a distinction between creative or commercial reputations. The creative and commercial reputations provide a general description of an organization, whilst the symbolic and functional reputations consist of specific attributes which job seekers can perceive as attractive. In this study the symbolic-functional framework will be integrated into the creative-commercial framework in order to extend and adapt the symbolic-functional framework to the creative industries. This is done by analysing the role of organizational reputations in the fashion industry. Due to the limited amount of research on reputations in the fashion industry, this study is of explorative nature. It aims to increase the understanding of the attributes of the organizational reputations in the fashion industry and the relationship between organizational reputations and the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers. The 28 attributes which determine the symbolic and functional reputation of a fashion organization were found during nine semi-structured interviews with participants whom either work or want to work in the fashion industry. They were categorized according to the symbolic-functional framework. The analysis showed that learning opportunities and work variety (functional attributes) and expressing yourself, identification, prestige, product image, and creativity (symbolic attributes) are the most important attributes that positively influence the job seekers’ attraction to a fashion organization. The symbolic attributes have more influence on the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers than the functional attributes. Furthermore, the organizational reputations of fashion organizations were categorized as mainly creative or mainly commercial. Most job seekers preferred the creative organizations. Finally, the attributes that belong to the symbolic and functional reputations where compared to the creative and commercial reputations and it was found that the symbolic attributes have most similarities to the creative and commercial reputations. Further research is needed to support these findings.

Keywords: fashion industry, reputational attributes, symbolic and functional reputation, recruitment

process, organizational reputations, creative and commercial reputation, attractiveness to job seekers.

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1. Introduction

In a fast moving industry like the fashion industry, employees with talent, creativity and an

innovative mind-set are the resources that lay at the basis of organizational success (Lampel et al., 2000). Fashion organizations (organizations active in the fashion industry) rely on the capability of employees to understand the needs and tastes of customers and their abilities to deal with volatile demands, whilst staying innovative and creative (Christopher et al., 2004). Cillo and Verona (2008, p. 651) explain that “change is an innate characteristic of style”, again confirming the importance of innovativeness in the fashion industry. Thus, to gain a competitive advantage, fashion organizations need to hire capable employees who are able to come up with new ideas and who can cope with the process of constant innovation.

It is therefore important for fashion organizations to attract the right set of creative people. This happens during the recruitment process (Taylor and Bergmann, 1987). In the recruitment literature, there is still very little known about what it exactly is that attracts these job seekers to a particular organization and what organizations can do to enhance their attractiveness to job seekers. Evidence has been found that the early impressions of an organization as employer play a pivotal role in the perceived attractiveness of an organization to job seekers and are of crucial importance for attracting high quality applicants and thus creating the right pool of creative employees (Turban et al., 1998).

The early stages of the recruitment process are characterized by the extensive search and gathering of information by job seekers, whilst there is still limited contact between the job seeker and the organization (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003; Lievens et al., 2005). The perception of the organizational reputation that a job seeker has at this stage is a strong predictor of the job seekers’ attraction to a fashion organization (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). This perception goes as far as influencing the decision to apply for a job, the willingness to accept a job and how the job seeker eventually evaluates the employment experience (Edwards, 2010; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). Recruitment literature confirms that positive and favourable reputations will lead to the

organization being perceived as more attractive to potential applicants (Van Hoye and Saks, 2011). Moreover, according to Turban and Cable (2003) a positive reputation results in more applicants and a qualitatively higher applicant pool. This can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Greening and Turban, 2000).

Despite the importance of having capable and creative employees, there is still no literature available about how fashion organizations can attract these employees from the labour market. This study takes a first explorative step in analysing the symbolic and functional reputations and the

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6 creative and commercial reputations in the fashion industry and their relationship to the

organization’s attractiveness to job seekers. The following question is explored: How do the reputations of a fashion organization influence the attractiveness of the organization to job seekers in the early stages of the recruitment process?

Before it is possible to answer this question, it is first of all crucial to understand which attributes actually constitute the organizational reputations of a fashion organization. It is necessary to conduct an explorative research since there is little literature available. The symbolic-functional framework is used to find the attributes of the organizational reputations, since it has proven to result in an extensive list of reputational attributes in previous studies (Cable and Turban, 2001; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). Additionally, the symbolic-functional framework allows for flexibility during the analysis and thus fits to the explorative nature of this study. Secondly, the creative industries literature explains that organizational reputations can be divided into creative and commercial reputations. The two frameworks are compared in order to extend the symbolic-functional framework to the creative industries. In this study, the frameworks are applied to the fashion industry in particular, since this industry is one of the most diverse industries within the creative industries. In addition to establishing what the organizational reputations of fashion

organizations contain, a first attempt was made to determine the relationship between the different reputations and the attractiveness of the fashion organization to job seekers.

Nine participants whom either work or want to work in the fashion industry were interviewed. They had to evaluate how they perceive the reputations of different fashion organizations and how this affects the attractiveness of that organization. This resulted in 28 different attributes which determine the symbolic and functional reputations. The analysis further shows that learning opportunities and work variety (functional attributes) and expressing yourself, identification,

prestige, product image, and creativity (symbolic attributes) are the most important attributes of the organizational reputations to contribute to the job seekers’ attraction to a fashion organization. Furthermore, a creative organizational reputation was perceived as more attractive by the participants. These results can be used by recruiters to determine which attributes have to be promoted and emphasized during the recruitment process in order to attract job seekers and thus obtain creative employees. This study is the first to integrate the symbolic-functional framework and the creative-commercial framework to determine the attributes of organizational reputations in a creative industry and relate this to the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers. It was found that the symbolic attributes best described the creative and commercial reputations of fashion

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7 This study is organized as follows; the second chapter discusses the available literature about (i) the influence of reputations on the organization’s attractiveness to job seekers and (ii) the two frameworks which are used to find the attributes of the organizational reputation. Then the methodology is briefly explained. In the fourth chapter the attributes which were found during the interviews will be displayed. The attributes which have a significant influence on employer

attractiveness will also be examined more in-depth in this chapter. Finally, the results will be discussed and some conclusions and recommendations for future research will be given.

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2. Theoretical framework

The attributes which determine the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers differs amongst industries. Where sporting activities are considered as an attractive attribute of working for the Army (Lievens et al., 2007), it is doubtful that applicants will find this important when applying for an organization that belongs to the fashion industry. So it must be kept in mind that organizations in different industries have different attributes which shape organizational reputations and therefore also the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers. Provided that the reputation of an organization is an important determinant of the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers, this paper will take a closer look at the reputational aspects of organizations in the fashion industry in particular. Because there is a very limited amount of research that describes the fashion industry specifically, let alone the influence of reputation in the fashion industry, the literature about the larger industry where the fashion industry belongs to, the creative industries, is also examined. Forthwith, a definition of organizational reputation will be given and the two different frameworks which are used to analyse organizational reputations will be explained.

2.1 Organizational reputation

Many different disciplines add to the literature on organizational reputation. All disciplines explore different facets of reputation, leading to ambiguity and divergent definitions of organizational reputation (Fombrun and Van Riel, 1997). It is therefore important to clearly define how this concept will be used throughout this research.

Organizational reputation is a signal of the key characteristics of an organization (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). It is formed by the organizations’ prominence or familiarity in the minds of stakeholders (Cable and Turban, 2003; Lange et al., 2011; Rindova et al., 2005) and the direct experience with the organization, symbolism, and other forms of communication provided by the organization. It provides the job seeker with information about the organization’s actions (Gotsi and Wilson, 2001; Lange et al, 2011). Additionally, Lange et al. (2011) explain that reputation also conceptualizes generalized favourability, which means that people can perceive the organization as more or less attractive, based on their perceptions of the organizational reputation.

The most common definition of organizational reputation found in management research describes reputation as the overall evaluation of an organization (Gotsi and Wilson, 2001; Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Fombrun and Van Riel, 1996). However, Jensen et al. (2012) say that the

reputation is not the overall evaluation of the organization, but that organizations will have different reputations which are based on the different roles of an organization. In addition, reputations can be perceived differently amongst different stakeholders, dependent on their personal background

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9 (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). The organizational reputation can therefore not be defined as an

overall assessment applicable to all stakeholders, but as: “a prediction of future behaviour based on the perception of the congruency between past behaviours and the role expectations of the

organization which follow from a particular social status”(Jensen et al., 2012).

The organizational reputations consist of different attributes, meaning the qualities or key characteristics inherent to an organization, and they can be seen as the categories of characteristics associated with an organization (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). When reputations are viewed as attribute specific, and not as an overall evaluation, stakeholders can assess one attribute as negative, whilst they assess another attribute as positive Jensen et al. (2012). Consequently,

reputational damage of one attribute does not necessarily affect the reputation of another attribute (Dollinger et al., 1997).

The different roles of organizations are described in other studies. For example, Bhat and Reddy (1998) say that brands have symbolic and functional attributes and that these result in a mainly symbolic or functional reputation. When organizations do not stick to either a symbolic or a functional reputation they create confusion and can be perceived as less attractive. Fisher (2010) found that there is a distinction between the artistic and marketing reputation of organizations in the creative industries. Beverland (2005) names these reputations design excellence or market execution. Demestri et al. (2005) describe that organizations in the creative industries have commercial or artistic reputations which “seem to go their separate ways” and are thus evaluated independently of one another.

So the organizational reputation is not one overall evaluation of an organization but consists of different reputations based on the particular social status of the organization. These

organizational reputations encompass different attributes. The reputations will furthermore be evaluated differently by different groups of stakeholders. In this study the symbolic and functional reputations found in the marketing literature and the creative (artistic) and commercial reputations found in the creative industries literature will be applied to the fashion industry to examine how these affect the attractiveness of the organization to job seekers.

2.1.1Influence of the organizational reputation on the recruitment process

Organizational reputations have a significant impact on the recruitment process and the perceived attractiveness of an organization to job seekers (Turban and Cable, 2003). Before explaining the different reputations that will be analysed, this section will describe how organizational reputations influence the recruitment process.

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10 The recruitment process is the process of attracting capable individuals from the labour

market willing to fill job vacancies (Taylor and Bergmann, 1987). There are multiple stages in the recruitment process and the focus of this research will be on the early stages of the recruitment process. This is the stage of the recruitment process before the potential applicant even had an interview or any form of personal interaction with the organization (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). Hence, the applicant population will be examined, i.e. the population from which potential

applicants have to be attracted. Therefore the term 'job seekers', or 'potential applicants', is used to describe the population which is investigated and not the term applicants. The difference is that job seekers are still searching for an attractive organization to work for, whilst applicants have already chosen which organizations they find most attractive and have made a first step in approaching the organizations, and are thus further in the recruitment process.

So, even before job seekers actively apply for a job or even consider seeking a job, they have often come across some information about an organization. This information can come from a wide variety of sources, such as the type of industry, news, a consumer standpoint, or general

advertisements and it can have a major impact on the interpretations one has of the organization when someone becomes a job seeker (Cable and Turban, 2011). Job seekers use this information to shape their perceptions of organizational reputations and thence make a decision whether they want to apply at this organization or not. The perception of organizational reputations is so important that further recruitment processes, like interviews, have little influence on changing the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers (Turban, 2001). So it can be said that organizational reputations play a major role in the recruitment process (Collins and Han, 2004; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003; Turban, 2001).

Organizational reputations serve different roles during the early stages of the recruitment process. For example, the attributes of the organizational reputations are used by job seekers as information signals of what it would be like to work for an organization (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Greening and Turban, 2000). Since job seekers do not have complete information at this stage, reputations are used as a signal of the organization’s working conditions (Turban and Cable, 2003). Cable and Turban (2001) use the term ‘employer knowledge’ to describe the information that a job seeker has about what the organization will be like as an employer. Employer knowledge is firstly based on the familiarity with the employer and secondly on the employer’s reputation. Familiarity with the organization is a prerequisite for job seekers to create perceptions of organizational reputations (Cable and Turban, 2001), since a job seeker needs to know the organization and some attributes it contains, before the job seeker can attach value to these attributes and thus be

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11 employer in the early stages of the recruitment process, other sources, such as the attributes of

organizational reputations, become important information signals (Turban and Cable, 2003). Job seekers try to imagine what it would be like to work for the organization and they use the reputation of an organization to envision the organization’s working conditions (Turban, 2001).

Organizational reputations are not only important as information signals though, they are also an important determinant of organizational identification. Organizational identification is “when members consider worthy the perceived corporate image (e.g. what people believe is central, distinctive, and enduring about the organization) and incorporate these into their sense of self” (Dukerich et al., 2002, p. 509). Every organization has an own and unique corporate image. When job seekers can identify themselves with that image, they perceive the organization as more attractive and additionally show more cooperative behaviour (Dukerich et al., 2002; Van Hoye, 2008). So the organizations that have a corporate image congruent with the self-image of job seekers are considered to be more attractive to job seekers (Van Hoye and Saks, 2011). This is consistent with the concept of social identity theory, which states that individuals partly define themselves as members of different groups and that the membership of a social group influences the job seeker’s self-image (Dukerich et al., 2002; Edwards, 2010; Lievens et al., 2007;Turban and Cable, 2003). In this study, the social group is the organization that job seekers consider applying for. If job seekers feel that they can identify with the social group (i.e. the organization), they will perceive the organization as more attractive (Greening and Turban, 2000; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003).

In addition, Edwards (2010) found that organizations which are highly recognizable and are considered to be prestigious also have a higher level of organizational identification. Turban (2001) says that employees feel proud when they work for an organization which is familiar and has a good reputation. The more positive the reputation of an organization, the more pride individuals expect to experience when they would work at this organization (Cable and Turban, 2003). Job seekers can enhance their self-esteem when they can work for (and thus identify with) an organization that has a positive organizational reputation.

Highhouse et al. (2003) claims that organizational attraction consists of three interrelated constructs: attractiveness, intentions, and prestige. Attractiveness is the job seekers’ affective and positive perceptions of an organization as a place of employment. Intentions involve actual job pursuit and are not relevant for this study. Prestige is the perception of the social consensus about the positive or negative attributes of organizations and whether the organization is well-known and renowned by others. Highhouse et al. (2003) claims that organizational attraction is a surrogate for organizational pursuit, which could be a questionable statement, since attitude (attraction) and behaviour (pursuit) are two separate and distinct concepts which cannot be used interchangeably

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12 (Ghoshal and Moran, 1996).Attraction or the perception of positive attributes of an organization are

a prerequisite for organizations to even be considered as a place of employment by job seekers (Cable and Turban, 2001; Ebbers and Wijnberg, 2012). Behaviour is influenced by attitude as these attitude creates the intent to engage in a particular behaviour (Highhouse et al., 2003), such as applying at a particular organization. Thus organizational attraction is examined in this study since it is a first prerequisite for job seekers to actually apply at an organization.

To conclude, the perception of organizational reputations that a job seeker has prior to the active recruitment process is an important determinant for the job seeker’s attraction to the organization and has a significant influence on job acceptance. The organizational reputation plays an important role in the recruitment process, as (1) an information signal of how it would be like to work for an organization and (2) as something job seekers can identify themselves with.

Organizational attraction is construed of job seekers’ own perceptions of the organizational reputation but also of the image that the job seeker thinks others have of the organization (prestige). The different attributes of organizational reputations need to be further explored to understand how fashion organizations can manage and promote their reputation in order to create a highly qualified applicant pool to choose from.

2.1.2 Benefits of positive organizational reputations

After establishing that organizational reputations have a significant impact on the recruitment process, this section examines how positive reputations influence the applicant pool characteristics and how this can benefit the organization.

Turban and Cable (2003) found that firms with a positive reputation attract more applicants than firms with a less positive reputation. A more positive reputation results in higher quality applicants interviewed by the organization, probably because the expanded applicant pool provides the organization with more options. Corporate advertising, which results in a more positive

organizational reputation, is also positively related to the amount of applicants and the quality of the applicants (Collins and Han, 2004).

An organization benefits when job seekers strongly identify with the organization. Since every organization has unique key values which differentiates them from other organizations (Edwards, 2010), job seekers can identify with these key values and hence make a decision which organization best fits their self-image. Dutton et al. (1994) found that a more positive reputation leads to employees and job seekers identifying stronger with the organization and therefore will try harder to behave in the best interest of the organization. Furthermore, when organizations are able

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13 to enhance their perceived employer image, they can increase the willingness of employees to

recommend the organization as employer to potential applicants (Van Hoye, 2008).

2.2 Creative industries and the fashion industry

The previous section discussed the influence of organizational reputations on the recruitment process and it was found that positive reputations increase job seekers’ attraction to an organization. This raises the question of which attributes actually contribute to a positive organizational reputation and thereby the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers. The purpose of this study is to find the attributes which determine the organizational reputations of fashion organizations. The fashion industry is still a very underdeveloped research field and there is no literature available about the determinants of organizational reputations and their effect on the organizations’ ability to attract potential applicants. Before the two frameworks which are used to analyse the different organizational reputations can be explained more in-depth, the nature of the fashion industry and the larger industry where it belongs to – namely the creative industries – has to be clarified. The creative industries and thus the fashion industry differ substantially from the “traditional industries” and the attributes which determine organizational reputations will therefore be different from these industries. Hence, the nature of these two industries will now first be explained.

2.2.1 The creative industries and the fashion industry

The creative industries have become a popular field of research in the last few decades. The most commonly used definition of the creative industries is given by the UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s (2001, p.4), whom describes it as: “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” According to Potts et al. (2008) this basically comes down to inputs that stem from creativity and knowledge and outputs in the form of intellectual property. The fashion industry is the part of the creative industries which focuses on the business of producing and selling clothes. It encompasses everything from the mass-produced street styles till the most exclusive “high fashion” (also known as haute couture). Design, production, distribution, retailing and marketing are all part of the value chain of the fashion industry. The creative industries differ substantially from industries with more traditional inputs (labour and capital). This is because the economic value of knowledge is quite uncertain and value differs amongst different agents, whilst the economic value of the more traditional inputs is relatively certain (Audretsch, 1998). Some of the most important differences of the creative

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14 industries and the more traditional industries will be mentioned in this section. The fashion industry

is part of the creative industries, but is not completely similar to all other creative industries, and has in its turn a few different and unique characteristics which will also be discussed here.

Organizations belonging to the creative industries are often dependent on their social networks and collaborations with other organizations or individuals (Cunningham, 2002; Potts et al., 2008). Clare (2012) found that the reliance on networks is particularly important in the fashion industry. Moreover, the value of a creative product is highly dependent on information provided by social networks because economic value is determined by the value other social actors assign to the outcome (Potts et al., 2008). Bilton and Leary (2002) found that the value of creative goods depends on the end user (consumer, viewer, audience) whom decodes the value of the good or service and hereby gives it the proper economic value. This makes it hard to define measurable standards of quality in the creative industries, whilst demand is very unstable at the same time (Christopher et al., 2004, Jansson and Power, 2010, Lampel et al., 2000; Wijnberg and Gemser, 2000). Hence, it is more difficult to predict economic outcomes and thus performance in the creative industries in

comparison to other industries with more traditional inputs. The dependence on social networks in the creative industries also stresses again how valuable creative and capable employees are to a creative organization since these employees have to maintain these networks.

Creative goods are often intangible (Lampel et al. (2000). And even though clothes are more tangible than a theatre play or a concert, much of the economic value of the outcomes in the fashion industry are determined by the fashion and design-based images which are related to the garments (Jansson and Power, 2010). This means that also in the fashion industry the intangible (or symbolic) attributes of the outcome will determine most of the economic value and thus the performance of the organization.

Additionally, according to Lampel et al. (2000) creative products often have a more

aesthetic, symbolic or expressive function, instead of a purely instrumental function. For example, in fashion organizations the symbolic or experience functions of a product (for example a new brand concept) can influence the perceptions of innovativeness in the mind of consumers to a larger extend than the actual technical innovations can (for example new ways to process a fabric) (Cillo and Verona, 2008;Jansson and Power, 2010). Innovativeness is highly regarded in the creative industries and much value is attributed to product differentiation (Jansson and Power, 2010; Wijnberg and Gemser, 2000). Thus the perception of the innovativeness of the symbolic or expressive function seems important in the creative industries.

There are many similarities between the fashion industry and the creative industries (where it is a part of). The fashion industry is however seen by some as being on the edge of the creative

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15 industries because it is one of the most commercial of all creative industries (Jansson and Power,

2010). The fashion industry can be divided into different layers (on which more in the next section). These different layers often put different weights on the commercial (economic) goals or creative (artistic) goals of the organization and can have different balances between these two goals. Whilst other creative industries are dominated by organizations focusing on the commercial goals (pop music industry) or mainly on the creative goals (museums) (Hirsch, 2000), the fashion industry encompasses the broadest spectrum of variations within the creative industries. In some cases the commercial or creative successes do not influence each other, so they seem to behave

independently. Hence, it is interesting to study the influence of organizational reputations on the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers in the fashion industry, since it provides the broadest spectrum of variations within one industry.

Lastly, it is interesting to notice that many other industries outside the creative industries are also moving towards a more extensive use of knowledge and creativity, which are integrated in their organizational processes and products. This leads to a higher level of dynamism in other industries. Henceforth, it is becoming more important to understand the underlying dynamics of creative products.

2.2.2 Fashion pyramid

The fashion industry focuses on the business of producing and selling clothes. It encompasses organizations with predominantly economic goals (mass-market) to organizations with more creative or artistic goals (haute couture), and all combinations in between. There is a useful tool which, amongst other things, divides the fashion industry according to their economic and artistic goals. This tool is called the fashion pyramid (Cillo and Verona, 2008). The fashion pyramid explains the contrasts between the different layers of the fashion industry which together encompass the entire industry. It is the most commonly used segmentation of strategic positions within the fashion industry.

The fashion pyramid divides the fashion industry into five different categories from a high-end – high margin – low-volume category at the top, to a low-high-end – low margin – high-volume category at the bottom. The categories are named respectively; haute couture, prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), diffusion, bridge, and mass market (Cillo and Verona, 2008; Doeringer and Crean, 2006). At the top is haute couture, which can be compared to other art forms and is based on pure design and aesthetic value (Cillo and Verona, 2008). It produces often small quantities to establish exclusivity (Doeringer and Crean, 2006). The bottom line, mass market, makes fashion available for the large public and is constituted by retailers such as H&M. It is more on the periphery of fashion and closer

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16 to commodities (Godart, 2012). The higher up the pyramid, the more important creativity,

innovation and symbols become for the organizational identity. The position that a firm chooses in the fashion industry is vital for competitive advantage according to Jansson and Power (2010).

2.3 Finding the attributes of organizational reputations

Now that the differences between the nature of the fashion industry and other industries have been established, the different reputational frameworks will further be examined. The symbolic-functional framework and the creative-commercial framework will be applied to the fashion industry in order to find the attributes of the organizational reputations that influence the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers. The two frameworks were chosen for different reasons:

(i) The symbolic-functional framework is used to find a wide variety of attributes which together constitute the organizational reputations in the fashion industry. It was used before to study organizational reputations in different industries and resulted in an extensive list of

reputational attributes (Cable and Turban, 2001; Lievens et al., 2003). The fashion industry will be particularly interesting to study because the weight that organizations put on the symbolic and functional attributes varies within the fashion industry (Jansson and Power, 2010). This means that there is a broad spectrum of organizational reputations within the industry. Some organizations will focus solely on the symbolic attributes of their products, whilst others purely on the functional. Not every creative industry provides such a broad spectrum (Hirsch, 2000). In addition, the symbolic and functional attributes which describe the organizational reputation can sometimes seem

contradicting in the fashion industry. Organizations high up the fashion pyramid are often evaluated by their positive symbolic attributes and are attractive to job seekers for this reason, whilst the functional attributes like salary or work hours can be judged very negatively at the same time.

(ii) The fashion industry is part of the creative industries and, as shown above, has many similarities with them. Therefore, the tension between a creative (artistic) or commercial reputation, found in the creative industries literature, will also be examined in the fashion industry.

Organizations with a creative reputation are focused on aesthetics, self-expression and creating brand images (Djelic and Ainamo, 1999). A commercial organization is characterized by its focus on the obtainment of financial resources (Voss et al., 2000), marketing, and the needs and wants of the consumers.

The creative-commercial framework and the symbolic -functional framework have some similarities. Both frameworks differentiate between either the more practical or functional part (functional attributes and commercial reputation) and the self-expressive or symbolic part of the organizational reputation (symbolic attributes and creative reputation). There are two important

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17 differences tough: (i) The symbolic-functional framework looks at the characteristics of both the job

and the organization that affect the organizational reputations, whilst the creative-commercial framework focuses only on the characteristics of the organization; (ii) The second difference is that the symbolic-functional framework is used to find a wide array of attributes which determine the organizational reputations of fashion organizations as employer. The relationship between all these different attributes and the attractiveness of the organization to job seekers is analysed for each one of them individually. The creative-commercial framework however, places fashion organizations in two different categories and sees if organizations in the category creative or category commercial are more attractive to job seekers.

The creative and commercial reputations of an organization are often used by job seekers to distinct between different organizations in the creative industries (Ebbers and Wijnberg, 2012; Van Hoye and Saks, 2011). Additionally these reputations influence the opinion that job seekers have of a particular organization and the attractiveness of that organization to an individual job seeker. The creative and commercial reputations thus have a significant impact on the attraction of creative and capable employees to an organization and, as was mentioned above, employees are one of the most valuable resources for organizations active in the fashion industry (Lampel et al., 2000). Though the creative-commercial framework is often described in the creative industries literature, these reputations have never been related to the recruitment process of organizations and the

attractiveness of an organization as employer. It is also difficult to effectively link the organization’s recruitment policy to these reputations, since the reputations are based on the generic descriptions of organizations and thus cannot be translated to specific attributes which increase the

attractiveness of an organization to individuals. In order to understand the link between the creative and commercial reputations and the recruitment process, the symbolic-functional framework will be used. The symbolic and functional reputations are often used in the marketing literature to distinct between different organizations. As mentioned above, they result in an extensive list of attributes which describe the job and organizational attributes of the symbolic and functional reputations. These attributes describe the characteristics that individual job seekers pay attention to when they search for a job and can thus be used by recruiters to analyse and increase the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers. In this study the symbolic and functional reputations of fashion organizations will first be analysed and thereafter the creative and commercial reputations. The attributes found for the symbolic and functional attributes of the reputations are compared to the creative and commercial reputations. This will thus result in a list of attributes which belong to the creative and commercial reputations of an organization which not only shows the generic

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18 an organization. These can henceforth be used during the recruitment process to increase the

attractiveness of the organization to creative and capable job seekers.

In the next two sections the symbolic-functional framework and the creative-commercial framework will be discussed more in depth.

2.4 The symbolic-functional framework

This section discusses the symbolic-functional framework which is used to find and categorize the attributes that shape the organizational reputations in the fashion industry. This framework stems from the marketing literature and was also used in previous studies on the influence of

organizational reputations on employer’ attractiveness in different industries, like in the research by Lievens et al. (2005), who looked at reputational attributes in the army. Additionally, the symbolic-functional framework allows for flexibility during the analysis and thus fits to the explorative nature of this study. The symbolic-functional framework is a framework which improves the focus of the research, whilst being open enough to leave space for alternative findings which apply to the fashion industry in particular. Thus, this framework supports the explorative nature of this research and will help determine the reputational attributes which constitute the different reputations in the fashion industry.

The symbolic-functional framework is an important theory in the marketing literature which divides organizations into either function-oriented or symbolic-oriented organizations (Park et al., 1991). Function-oriented organizations are evaluated by the performance of the products, whilst symbolic-oriented organizations are evaluated by the expression of the organizations’ image. Both types of organizations have functional and symbolic attributes, though the first focuses more on the functional attributes, whilst the latter focuses more on the symbolic attributes (Van Hoye, 2008; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003).

2.4.1 Functional attributes

The functional attributes describe the job and organizational attributes of an organization. These attributes describe the objective and factual attributes of an organization, like salary. An

organization either does or does not have these particular attributes. The list of job attributes consists amongst others of possibility for advancement in the future’ and ‘perceptions of earning opportunities of the job’, ‘other compensations and benefits’(Turban, 2001). Furthermore, it consists of the perception job seekers have of ‘how challenging the work will be’ (Turban et al., 1998).

Challenging work depends on the possibility of applicants to learn and develop while they work in the organization, whether they can use the latest technologies and whether they will receive

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19 challenging assignments at work (Turban, 2001). The organizational attributes consist of the location

and work environment in the company. If an organization has a positive reputation, the perceptions of the functional attributes will also be more positive and vice versa (Cable and Turban, 2003; Turban et al., 1998). Thus, the perceptions job seekers have of the job and organizational attributes, also known as functional attributes, are positively related to the attractiveness of the organization as an employer (Turban et al., 1998).

2.4.2 Symbolic attributes

The symbolic attributes on the other hand depict the subjective and intangible characteristics of the organization. They can be explained as the inferences, images, or even feelings people assign to an organization, like the prestige image of an organization (Van Hoye, 2008). So attributes are

considered symbolic when they focus on meanings beyond the tangible characteristics and serve as a communication tool between individuals (Banister and Hogg, 2003). The prestige of a company seems to have a significant impact on the job seekers choice to apply for a position within that organization (Highhouse et al., 2003; Van Hoye and Saks, 2011). Moreover, Van Hoye (2008) found that nurses were more willing to recommend the organization to potential applicants, when they considered the organization that they worked for as prestigious and competent.

In the fashion industry, consumers often let the symbolic attributes of products determine their purchase decisions, since these attributes allow them to ‘self-stereotype’ and portray their membership of a particular group , which enhances their self-image (Banister and Hogg, 2003). Hence, symbolic attributes are positively related to identification with an organization in the fashion industry. If a job seeker can identify with an organization they will perceive the organization as more attractive (Highhouse et al., 2003; Dukerich et al., 2002).

To summarize, the material exchange that comes with a job is not the only important factor influencing the organizations’ attractiveness, since the symbolic attributes associated with an organization will also have an influence on the attractiveness of that organization to job seekers. Both functional and symbolic attributes, which shape the symbolic and functional reputations, are strong predictors of the attractiveness of an organization according to Van Hoye and Saks (2011). Thus, both types of reputations will have an influence the attractiveness of the fashion organization to job seekers.

Research question 1: What are the attributes that constitute the symbolic reputation and functional

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Research question 2: Which attributes of the symbolic reputation and functional reputation of

fashion organizations are related to the perceived attractiveness of the organizations to job seekers? 2.4.3 Symbolic versus functional attributes

Bhat and Reddy (1998) found that most organizations are either more symbolic or more functional oriented, which means that organizations are predominantly evaluated by either their symbolic or functional attributes. Thus an organization which is more symbolic orientated is predominantly evaluated by their symbolic attributes, meaning that they can enhance the individual’s self-image and can create a basis for self-identification and expression of one’s personality (Bhat and Reddy, 1998). These organizations have a symbolic reputation. An organization that is functional orientated is predominantly evaluated on basis of its functional attributes and has a functional reputation. These organizations focus on satisfying specific and practical needs.

Most organizations in the fashion industry will have a symbolic reputation, since the aesthetic and symbolic elements of the products are crucial for creating a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry (Cillo and Verona, 2008; Lampel et al., 2000). Also Jansson and Power (2010) say that fashion organizations are more focused on the provision of fashion and design based images, instead of solely focussing on selling garments. Fashion nowadays is about selling an image or a self-concept and hence fashion organizations anticipate on the need for self-expression (Banister and Hogg, 2003; Bilton and Leary, 2002; Godart, 2012). Thus fashion organizations will often have a more symbolic reputation.

Moreover, Lievens and Highhouse (2003) found that the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers, particularly in the early stages of the recruitment process, is better explained by the symbolic attributes than by the job and organizational attributes (functional attributes). Hence, the job seeker’s perception of the reputations of fashion organizations is mainly influenced by the symbolic attributes. Moreover, if job seekers perceive the symbolic attributes of the organizational reputation as positive and congruent with their self-image, they will perceive this organization as more attractive. So in accordance with the literature, it is assumed that the symbolic attributes of the organizational reputation have more influence on the job seekers’ attraction to an organization than the functional attributes do (Van Hoye, 2008; Van Hoye and Saks, 2011).

Research question 3: Do the symbolic attributes of the reputation of a fashion organization have

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2.5 Organizational reputations in the creative industries

The fashion industry is part of the creative industries and thus has many similarities with this sector. To further explore the role of organizational reputations in the fashion industry, it can be interesting to see if some of the findings about organizational reputations in the creative industries literature can also be applied to fashion industry. In this study, the tension between creative and commercial reputations will be discussed, which is often described in the creative industries literature. Creative organizations are focused on the artistic production, thus on aesthetics and the creation of brand images (Djelic and Ainamo, 1999). Commercial organizations focus on commerce and the

obtainment of financial resources (Voss et al., 2000).Additionally, this study aims to find if these two different reputations influence the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers in the fashion

industry.

2.3.3 Distinction between a creative or commercial reputation

Within the creative industries, there is an ongoing tension between the artistic production and the demands of the market. Caves (2003) defined this as the contracts between arts and commerce – both are opposites and are defined by different needs and judged on the base of different grounds. When managing a creative organization, managers must deal with both the mass entertainment and market economics, at the same time there is an obligation to stay true to the artistic value of the goods (Jansson and Power, 2010; Lampel et al., 2000). A part of the tension between the creative and commercial dimensions can be explained by the fact that pursuing artistic goals will always be subjected to budget constraints and limited financial resources (Voss et al., 2000). There is no indication of this tension in other industries, though it has been extensively described in the creative industries and also in the fashion industry literature (Godart, 2012; Jansson and Power, 2010). There are thusly creative organizations that focus more on the artistic goals of the organization and commercial organizations that focus more on the economic goals of the organization. This research will especially focus on the perceptions of the creative and commercial reputations that job seekers have.

There are different definitions used throughout the creative industries literature to describe the tension between the creative and commercial reputations of creative organizations. Examples are the artistic or utilitarian identity (Glynn, 2000), artistic or commercial reputation (Ebbers and Wijnberg, 2012), symbolic or functional dimensions (Van Hoye and Saks, 2011; Lievens and

Highhouse, 2003), aesthetic or utilitarian function (Hirsch, 2000; Lampel et al., 2000), though in their core they all make the same distinction between the polarizing focus on the more artistic or creative side and the market or commercial side of creative products.

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22 According to Lampel et al. (2000) there will always be a tension between either shaping and

transforming the market or solely addressing the existing needs and demands of consumers: whether to keep producing art mainly for its creative essence or whether to produce art which delivers the best financial outcomes (Voss et al., 2000). Mezias and Mezias (2000) looked at this difference by categorizing organizations as either generalist, larger firms which are more focused on commercial goals, or as specialist, smaller organizations which are more innovative and creative. They found that the specialist organizations create more genres and henceforth address the most important facets of the creative industries: innovation and serving a broad spectrum of audiences. So drawing on findings from earlier research, it is expected that organizations in the creative industries, and thus also in the fashion industry, can have an organizational reputation that is perceived as either creative or commercial.

Research question 4: What are the attributes which constitute the creative reputation and

commercial reputation of fashion organizations?

2.5.2 Attractiveness of creative and commercial reputations

As mentioned before, the reputations of organizations have a significant impact on the

attractiveness of the organization to job seekers (Cable and Turban, 2011). Hence, the literature is further extended by assuming that fashion organizations either have a mainly creative or

commercial reputation and that this particular type of reputation will have an impact on the

attractiveness of the organization to job seekers. The personality of the applicant is a determinant of the type of reputation which is most attractive to this applicant, since organizations are more

attractive when the image of the organization is congruent with the applicant’s self-image (Van Hoye and Saks, 2011). This is supported by the ‘person-organization fit theory’ (Turban et al., 2001). This theory holds that job seekers tend to be more attracted to organizations which values and norms coincide with their personality characteristics and personal values and which provide the

opportunity for their needs to be satisfied. Social identity theory also explains that organizational identification is stronger when the attributes that characterize the organization overlap with the job seekers’ own identity and professional identity (Glynn, 2000).

Research question 5a: Do job seekers perceive a fashion organization as more attractive when that

organization has a creative reputation?

Research question 5b: Do job seekers perceive a fashion organization as more attractive when that

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3. Methodology

In order to find the attributes that shape the organizational reputations of fashion organizations, a qualitative and exploratory approach was chosen since there is still little information available about this topic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people whom either work or want to work in the fashion industry. Using semi-structured interviews allows for flexibility when obtaining data and the open approach thus allows for finding attributes that job seekers associate with an organization which cannot be found in the literature hitherto. Semi-structured interviews provide structure at the same time and lead to interview outcomes which can be compared and analysed (Yin, 2012). In addition, interesting and unexpected answers can be discussed more in-depth.

3.1 Participants

The participants were found through personal connections or by random sampling at the

Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI), to ensure that participants either work or want to work in the fashion industry. Later interviewees were also identified by referral sampling (Welch, 1975), because some participants identified other people who were willing to participate. The choice to interview people who do not work for the four fashion organizations questioned in the interviews, resulted in a research of the applicant population rather than the applicant pool (Turban, 2001). This means that the population from which an organization wants to attract individuals is examined and thus the attractiveness of the organization, instead of the pool of applicants that have already applied for a job at the organization. Hence, the first stage of the recruitment process is examined, when job seekers do not have any personal contact with the organization yet. The results can be used by organizations to improve their recruitment process in order to attract the right employees.

It was taken as a given that the participants were familiar with the organizations that were questioned here, as this is the first prerequisite for understanding organizational reputation

according to Cable and Turban (2001). All participants had a strong interest in working in the fashion industry, either by their education or their work experience. Hence, it could be assumed that they were aware of some attributes of the most familiar fashion organizations.

Participation in the interviews was voluntary and it was emphasized that the interview was completely anonymous. The demographics of the participants can be found in Table 1 below.

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24 Table 1 Participants

Interviewee Age Educational background Interested in position as International experience

1 27 Communication PR or brand manager None

2 24 Journalism, fashion

blogger Journalist fashion magazine or marketer None

3 23 Communication,

fashion blogger Editor magazine, marketing or buyer Lived in France and Netherlands 4 22 Fashion and branding Styling, design stores Lived in Germany and

Netherlands

5 27 Fashion and branding PR manager None

6 23 Fashion and design Designer None

7 20 Fashion and design Designer None

8 23 Fashion and branding Brand manager None

9 20 Fashion blogger Not – fashion blogger None

3.2 Interviews

During the interviews, the participants were first asked some generic questions about their

background, age, education, and also their experience within the fashion industry. This was meant to get some background information about the participants and to start with some non-threatening questions before moving on to more difficult ones (Leech, 2002).

In order to find the attributes that job seekers relate to the organizational reputations of fashion organizations, semi-structured interviews were used, which consisted of open-ended questions. The set-up of the interview questions was based on a method used in a study by

Highhouse et al. (1999). According to him it is very difficult to find the reasons why job seekers apply at a specific organization when you only ask them what influences their decision to apply. They explained that a more productive method is to present people with pairs of actual organizations and ask these people which of the two organizations they would prefer to work for and why. They call this the “forced-choice procedure” (Highhouse et al., 1999, p. 4) and it forces the participants to focus on the differences between the organizations, and the unique attributes that the organization has, instead of the similarities. The reasons indicated by interviewees for applying to one of the organizations, together with their description of the organization, were later codified into categories of attributes.

So each participant was shown a pair of organizations and was asked which organization they would prefer to work for and why. They were shown two of the following organizations: Tommy Hilfiger, Prada, Viktor&Rolf or G-star RAW. Assignment of the organizations was random. Participants were also asked to further explain what they thought of these two organizations. All four organizations are quite well-known since opinions about the organizational reputations can only be found when the job seeker is familiar with some attributes of the organization (Cable and Turban,

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25 2001). Prada and Viktor&Rolf are high-end organizations, with high-margins and low volumes, and

they belong to the haute couture layer, as well as the prêt-à-porter layer, of the fashion pyramid (Cillo and Verona, 2008). Tommy Hilfiger and G-Star RAW on the other hand are considered less high end, have lower margins and higher volumes. Hence, these organizations belong to the lower layers of the fashion pyramid, namely bridge and diffusion (Cillo and Verona, 2008). By choosing these four particular organizations, it was possible to examine multiple layers of the fashion pyramid. These organizations were also chosen to find an answer to research question four and five, since the focus on creativity and commercial goals differs amongst these four brands.

There is no literature available about which reputational attributes significantly influence the attractiveness of a fashion organization. Therefore, a combination of an inductive and deductive approach was taken. The participants were asked which organization they would prefer to work for and how they would describe the two organizations, starting with their opinion of the organization they perceived as least attractive. Subsequently, their answers to question 5 to 7 (see Appendix: interview script) were coded into different categories of attributes (inductive). These answers were used to describe the symbolic and functional reputations. Lievens et al. (2005) also used the

symbolic-functional framework when they analysed the job and organizational characteristics which influence the decision to apply for the army. Some of the attributes they found were used to define attributes before the analysis and were tested during the analysis (deductive) (Leech, 2002). At the end of the interview (question 8) participants were asked to explain if they perceived the two organizations as either creative or commercial and their answers were compared with their

descriptions of the organization during the earlier parts of the interview (the answers to question 5 to 7). These were used to analyse the commercial and creative reputations of the organizations. In the end the two frameworks were compared to see if the symbolic-functional framework can be integrated into the creative-commercial framework. Answers to question 5 till 9 were used for this analysis.

The interview script of the semi-structured interviews can be found in the Appendix. The script was used to ensure that the interviewer obtained information on the same topics from all participants, whilst at the same time allowing enough space for depth and detail (Leech, 2002). The difficulty was to structure the interview script enough to make sure participants mentioned some attributes of the organizational reputations, whilst at the same time making sure that participants were not pushed too much in one direction. The interviews lasted approximately one hour. During the interviews the interviewer kept notes about the most important themes which were discussed and the interviews were also recorded. Additionally, they were transcribed verbatim by the

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26 researcher later. Eight of the nine interviews were conducted in Dutch; hence the quotes shown in

the results section were translated to English by the researcher.

The insights obtained from the first two interviews influenced the decisions made in later phases of data collection. After the first two interviews the questions about the financial, design and ecological values were added to the script. Question 9 was changed to a general question of what the participants found most important in their choice to apply somewhere.

3.3 Coding and analysis

When all transcripts were obtained, the data was analysed with the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program NVivo (Yin, 2013). The program helped identifying patterns and common themes about organizational reputations in the fashion industry. The common themes that were found were coded into attributes in order to abstract meaning from the data. First nodes were created which contain the attributes of the organizational reputations. The nodes were divided into symbolic and functional nodes. All quotes belonging to these nodes (i.e. attributes) were added. As mentioned above, some nodes were already determined before the analysis and were based on the literature. Some of these nodes were removed and others were further refined a few times till 28 nodes remained, either belonging to the symbolic or functional reputation. To analyse the creative and commercial reputations a new analysis was conducted which divided the quotes into quotes about either the creative or commercial reputation. Because there was no literature about the attributes of these reputations, as it is part of the purpose of this study to find them, the quotes were divided as creative or commercial and not as different attributes. Hereafter, the two frameworks were compared and the quotes which belong to the attributes of the symbolic and functional reputations were compared to the quotes of the general descriptions of the creative and commercial reputations. Based on the similarities, the attributes were ascribed to the creative and commercial reputations. This comparison was made to explore if the symbolic-functional framework, which is based on individual preferences of job seekers, can be integrated into the

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4. Results

This section displays the findings from the interviews. All participants were females between the age of 18 and 35, and have followed an education in either fashion design, communication or branding or were active as fashion blogger. In addition, 8 out of 9 participants already had some sort of work experience in a fashion organization, mainly in the form of an internship or as fashion blogger. All participants were assured full confidentiality during the interviews; hence no names or any other information which might reveal the identity of the participants is mentioned here. The first three research questions were first analysed separately from the last two research question, since they analyse the organizational reputation in accordance to two different theoretical frameworks. First the analysis and results of the symbolic-functional framework will be discussed and in the second part the findings from the creative-commercial framework. Finally, the two frameworks will be compared to one another to find if the attributes of the symbolic and functional reputations can be applied to the creative and commercial reputations.

4.1 Attributes of the symbolic and functional reputations in the fashion industry

The first three research questions were related to the attributes which determine the symbolic and functional reputations and their influence on the attractiveness of an organization to job seekers. The first step was to determine all the attributes which shape the symbolic and functional

reputations of fashion organizations. In order to find these, the transcribed interviews were analysed and unravelled to a broad list of attributes. Some of the attributes were already determined before the analysis and are based on attributes found in the literature (though no literature about the fashion industry or creative industries, since there was no literature available about these industries) (Lievens et al., 2005; Highhouse et al., 1999). Others were based on themes often mentioned by the participants. The broad list was then compared to the transcripts once again to further narrow down the definition of the attributes, which is called axial coding (Boeije, 2005).

The list of attributes then further had to be analysed to determine whether they belong to the symbolic reputation or the functional reputation. All attributes which were found during the analysis were considered functional when they described something about what the organization actually has and which are related to practical needs. Attributes were considered symbolic when they were related to feelings about the organization or the image participants had of the

organization (Banister and Hogg, 2003). These interpretations were based on the descriptions of the attributes of symbolic and functional reputations found in the literature (Lievens et al., 2005).

The attributes belonging to the symbolic and functional reputations in the fashion industry were categorized into 28 attributes, the functional attributes can be found in Table 2 and the

Organizational reputations and their influence on the organizations’ attractiveness to job seekers : - an analysis of the fashion industry.