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What do they really want? Effects of the wording of job advertisements on narcissists’ perceptions of organizational attraction

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Abstract

Wording of job advertisements is assumed to impact job seekers’ perceptions of organizational attraction, yet little is known about the role narcissism plays in this context. To begin to fill this gap, we investigated how narcissists who self-enhance in communal domains (e.g., friendliness, helpfulness, and trustworthiness) respond to systematic wording differences in job advertisements. In an experimental study (N = 318), wording was manipulated using an agentically versus communally worded job advertisement. Results revealed that communal narcissism was positively related to company attractiveness and intentions to apply for a job and this relationship was stronger when agency (but not communion) was made salient. A practical implication is that organizations may influence the number of communal narcissists applying for particular jobs by modifying the wording of job advertisements.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. In trainee programs, young professionals systematically get to know the various departments and areas of an organization and, furthermore, are familiarized with the products and working methods of an organization (Blickle, 2019).

  2. In an ancillary analysis, we used the full (i.e., composite) score derived from all 15 OAS items to represent organizational attraction (α = .94). Consistent with the results reported above, we found a significant main effect of communal narcissism (β = .23, t = 4.47, p < .001, 95% CI = .13, .33), a significant main effect of condition (β = −.32, t = −6.21, p < .001, 95% CI = −.42, −.22), and the predicted interaction between communal narcissism and condition (β = .11, t = 2.06, p = .041, 95% CI = .00, .21). Again, simple slope tests revealed that communal narcissism was positively related to organizational attraction for agentically worded advertisements (β = .34, t = 4.51, p < .001, 95% CI = .19, .48), but not for communally worded advertisements (β = .12, t = 1.75, p = .081, 95% CI = −.02, .26).

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Sabine Sczesny, Agnieszka Pietraszkiewicz, and Amir Ghoniem for comments on an earlier version of the article.

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  1. HMKW Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft, University of Applied Sciences, Ackerstraße 76, 13355, Berlin, Germany

    Ramzi Fatfouta

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Fatfouta, R. What do they really want? Effects of the wording of job advertisements on narcissists’ perceptions of organizational attraction. Curr Psychol 42, 154–164 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01332-9

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