Table 3.
Frequencies and Percentages of Responses about an Employer's Community Involvement (CI) or Environmentally Sustainable (ES) Practices among Participants who Reported No Effect (n = 36) or a Negative Effect (n = 3) on their Attraction.
| Coded categories within signal-based mechanisms |
CI condition n = 19 |
ES condition n = 20 |
Representative quotes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) | ||
| SIGNALS SENT | |||
| No signals | 6 (31.58%) | 7 (35.00%) | #3.1: I don't recall that page suggesting anything about what it would be like to work there. |
| #3.2: Nothing in specific. | |||
| Negative signals | 1 (5.26%) | 2 (10.00%) | #3.3: It gives me the idea that the company is very concerned about their surroundings, which could potentially detract from their profits. |
| Work environment | 1 (5.26%) | – | |
| Company and other | – | 2 (10.00%) | #3.4: They seem to push employs to become involved in non-profits. |
| Positive or neutral signals | 12 (63.15%) | 11 (55.00%) | #3.5: It suggests that many employees would be similar to me in an outdoorsy way which would enhance my experience working for them. |
| Work environment | 3 (15.79%) | 8 (40.00%) | |
| Company and other | 9 (47.37%) | 3 (15.00%) | #3.6: An involved company in the community and one that doesn't just focus on manufacturing and profit. |
| REASONS CI OR ES DID NOT ENHANCE ATTRACTION | |||
| Poor fit with employer | 5 (26.32%) | 3 (15.00%) | #3.7: I don't have much desire to work for a company like that. |
| #3.8: I am interested in a particular field which Active Style is not in. | |||
| Compensation priority | 1 (5.26%) | 2 (10.00%) | #3.9: It didn't affect my desire in the least bit…When companies donate percentages of their revenue to certain organizations it doesn't make me want to work there more. All I care about is my personal pay and how well I like my job. |
| #3.10: I guess if I was offered a job at both places that was identical in terms of pay and promotion opportunity then I would choose ActiveStyle, but other than that it's not as important to me. | |||
| Other priorities | 3 (15.79%) | 4 (20.00%) | #3.11: It would be far more important to me that I felt comfortable working there, liked my role there, and most importantly that I be compensated well. |
| #3.12: It didn't affect my desire to work there. It's nice to see that a company cares about specific things, but when looking for a job, there are more important things that I would like to find out about the company before I find out what the company's values, ethics, etc. | |||
| Detracts from profits or company success | – | 2 (10.00%) | #3.13: It gives me the idea that the company is very concerned about their surroundings, which could potentially detract from their profits. |
| #3.14: It seems as though they are making many great steps toward helping the environment but a company cannot possibly be successful if they concentrate more on being socially responsible than their mission statement. | |||
| Misunderstood information | 1 (5.26%) | – | #3.15: I would be asked to do community service in my free time in order to keep the companies vision of “we care” in mind. Therefore, more of my free time goes to being an employee at the company, making me not want to work there. |
| Skepticism and cynicism about CI or ES | 7 (36.84%) | 6 (30.0%) | #3.16: I thought it looked like it was just a load of BS to try and enhance their image. |
| #3.17: It didn't really affect my desire too much because I feel like a lot of companies just say that they care and are environmentally friendly because it looks good to customers. | |||
| FACTORS AFFECTING SKEPTICISM AND CYNICISM ABOUT CI OR ES | |||
| Must see or experience to believe | 1 (5.26%) | 2 (10.00%) | #3.18: No because you cannot know how the work environment is until you see the work place or actually start to work there. |
| #3.19: I believe that every company is going to act like they care. I don't know the validity of the page because I haven't experienced the actual work environment. | |||
| More detail needed | 2 (10.53%) | 1 (5.00%) | #3.20: It gives no indication of how the “we care” aspect would be backed up and nothing about me specifically engaging in those activities. |
| #3.21: It suggests that they care more than just sustaining profits. However, it was not detailed enough to prove anything really. | |||
| Prior experience | 1 (5.26%) | – | #3.22: The company that I work for claims to be “paperless” and environmentally friendly, but my experiences tell me the exact opposite…I can't even begin to tell you about the vast amounts of waste that is produced. For me, pages like the “we care” page don't mean anything. |
| Poor fit with business | 1 (5.26%) | – | #3.23: Their program seems like it is more being done for the sake of being done because other than the clothes drive it doesn't relate to their business or local community at all. |
| Non-distinctive impact | 1 (5.26%) | 2 (10.00%) | #3.24: It is nice to know that they care about the community, but there are many other companies out there that do much more than donate 2% of their revenue and have employee volunteering. |
| #3.25: I believe that every company attempts to be environmentally friendly and sustainable and their proposal wasn't impressive enough to stand out. | |||
| Motives for CI or ES | 3 (15.79%) | 3 (15.00%) | #3.26: It suggests that the management is concerned with their effect on the environment. Whether they truly care or are just practicing good CSR/Triple bottom line theory for the purpose of improving profitability is anyone's guess. |
| #3.27: It's a growing company that may or may not be successful. It seems like the slogan is only there to attract prospective employees to apply and to attract potential customers into the target market. | |||
| All firms claim to care | 2 (10.53%) | 3 (15.00%) | #3.28: I think every company would write that on their website. |
| #3.29: I honestly didn't pay too much attention to the “we care” page because I feel that is a much more common thing to include on websites as many companies are going green and giving back. Because of this many of these statements don't seem as personal. | |||
Frequency counts and percentages reflect the number of participants in each experimental condition who wrote one or more explicit statements that we coded in each category based on responses to two open-ended questions, except for results under the “Signals Sent” heading that are based only on responses to Question 2: “Does the information on the We Care page suggest anything to you about Active Style or what it would be like to work there?”.