Bo Wang

Communicating commitment to specific organizational cultures (e.g., integrity or ethical culture) to job applicants is a common marketing strategy for organizations seeking to attract talent. However, previous research suggests that organizations may strategically misrepresent their stated organizational culture. Notably, there is a negative relation between advertised and actual ethical culture—organizations that claim a commitment to an ethical culture are more likely to operate unethically in practice. In this study, we explore an overlooked negative consequence of such an inconsistency between stated and actual ethical culture on organizational attractiveness. We conducted a vignette-based experiment using a 2x3 between-subject design. The first factor was manipulated by Vignette 1, which simulated a company’s overview in a recruitment advertisement. This advertisement presented the company as committed to either both ethical and customer-oriented cultures (Ethical Advertisement condition) or solely a customer-oriented culture (Non-Ethical Advertisement condition). The second factor was manipulated by Vignette 2, which simulated employees or managers reviews of the company, describing its culture as either ethical (Ethical Review condition), unethical (Unethical Review condition), or efficiency-oriented without mention of ethics (Non-ethical Review condition) culture. Six hundred participants were recruited to complete the HEXACO personality inventory and then rate the company on perceived moral hypocrisy, behavioral hypocrisy, and organizational attractiveness after reading Vignettes 1 and 2. Compared to all other conditions, the company in the Ethical Advertisement-Unethical Review condition was rated higher on both moral hypocrisy and behavioral hypocrisy, which were in turn associated with lower organizational attractiveness. Despite strong theories and solid empirical evidence suggesting that people high in HEXACO honesty-humility have a preference for ethically sound organizations, we did not find this personality trait to moderate the relations between perceptions of moral hypocrisy or behavioral hypocrisy and organizational attractiveness. We welcome any insights that may help explain these surprising findings.