From value congruence to employer brand: Impact on organizational identification and word of mouth

• Author: Audrey Charbonnier‐Voirin,Alexandra Vignolles,Juliet F. Poujol
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1379
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017

From value congruence to employer brand:

Impact on organizational identification and word

of mouth

†

Audrey Charbonnier-Voirin*

INSEEC Business School

Juliet F. Poujol

Université Montpellier 1

Alexandra Vignolles

INSEEC Business School

Abstract

The war for talent has led organizations to develop a strong

employer brand to attract and retain skilled employees. Few

studies have examined the antecedents and consequences of

the internal employer brand. We focus on (i) the inf‌luence of

employee-organization values congruence on the em-

ployee’s perception of the employer brand and (ii) the inf‌lu-

ence of the employer brand on organizational identif‌ication

and positive word of mouth vis-à-vis the employer. Results

from a survey of 308 employees show that the employer

brand fully mediates the relationship between values con-

gruence and organizational identif‌ication and positive word

of mouth. These results give rise to theoretical and manage-

rial implications in terms of employer branding. Copyright

© 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: employer brand, employee-organization values

congruence, organizational identif‌ication, positive word of

mouth

Résumé

La guerre des talents pousse les organisations à

développer une marque employeur forte af‌ind’attirer et

retenir les salariés compétents. Néanmoins, peu d’études

portent sur les antécédents et les conséquences de la

marque employeur interne. Cette recherche s’intéresse

ainsi d’une part, à l’inf‌luence de la congruence des valeurs

collaborateur-entreprise sur les perceptions de la marque

employeur et d’autre part, à l’inf‌luencedecelle-cisur

l’identif‌ication organisationnelle et le bouche-à-oreille

positif vis-à-vis de l’employeur. Les résultats de l’enquête

menée auprès de 308 salariés montrent que la marque

employeur médiatise complétement la relation entre, d’une

part, la congruence des valeurs et, d’autre part,

l’identif‌ication organisationnelle et le bouche-à-oreille

positif des collaborateurs. Ces résultats donnent lieu à

des implications théoriques et managériales concernant

la gestion de la marque employeur. Copyright © 2016

ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : marque employeur, congruence des valeurs

employé-organisation, identif‌ication organisationnelle,

bouche-à-oreille positif

Employer branding is of increasing interest to compa-

nies facing talent attraction and retention issues. As Peretti

and Swalhi (2007, p. 278) noted, “Qualif‌ied employees have

become aware of the abundant opportunities on the job

market and the possibility of guiding their careers by

accumulating experience in different companies.”Some

sectors (Mandhanya & Shah, 2010) such as IT or digital

technologies (Dunand, 2007) have taken signif‌icant

measures to remain an attractive employer in an attempt to

retain employees in the employee retention tug of war.

Employer brand aims to communicate and highlight the

distinctive features of a unique work experience for various

categories of employees, both current and potential, in order

to position itself as an employer of choice (Berthon, Ewing,

& Hah, 2005; Chhabra & Mishra, 2008; Kapoor, 2010;

Lievens, 2007; Roy, 2008). The employer seeks to develop

†

This article was submitted and reviewed in French and translated after ac-

ceptance. Both the English and French versions are available online at

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1936-4490

*Please address correspondence to: Audrey Charbonnier-Voirin,

Enseignant-chercheur en GRH, INSEEC Business School, Hangar 19 –

Quai de Bacalan, CS 60083–33070 Bordeaux Cedex, France. Email:

acharbonnier@inseec.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

34: 429–437 (2017)

Published online 14 July 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1379

Can J Adm Sci

34(4), 429–437 (2017)Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 429