The development and first application of a technique to measure employer images

The purpose of this study was to: 1. develop indices which would demonstrate by a ranking process the relative attractiveness of various competitors of labor in an area and to apply this tool to a sample to determine its feasibility of operation; 2. determine which job factors have the closest association to the overall image; and 3. identify which biographical variables vary significantly with the overall image. The method by which this objective was accomplished consisted of a questionnaire which was administered to 224 high school seniors in the Christiansburg-Radford area of which 182 were applicable in this study. Two indices were constructed to accomplish the first objective: 1. an index of preferability or overall image index, and 2. an index of desirability or treated image index. These two indices were found to be identical in the rankings of the firms which indicates that they validly confirm or support one another. By the use of coefficients of correlation the second objective outlined above was accomplished. This study found that certain job factors do have a close relationship with the overall image. The five job factors analyzed were those appearing in the cluster obtained from the students’ rankings of job factors in the last question of the questionnaire. The major finding here was that although job security is the students' most important job factor, it has a slight relationship to the overall image. An analysis of variance was utilized to accomplish the third objective outlined above. It was found that certain biographical variables do not vary significantly with the image of a firm an individual possesses. The firm itself or the character traits which make up the firm's personality have the greatest effect on the students' image of firms as employers. A recommendation for further study would be to alter the sample used in this study from graduating high school seniors to unemployed workers in the area to determine if their image indices would differ significantly from those in this study.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Department dc:contributor.department

Business Administration

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Year dc:date.issued

1967

Author dc:creator

• Braccia, Joseph Carmine

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/106207

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/106207