WHEN DOES IT HURT TO TELL THE TRUTH - THE EFFECT OF REALISTIC JOB REVIEWS ON EMPLOYEE RECRUITING

Increasing competition for new employees may limit the use of realisti c (i.e., negative as well as positive) job information by employers du ring recruiting because it might reduce job acceptances. We examined t his issue in a study of job acceptances among state correctional offic ers and in a comprehensive review of earlier studies in public and pri vate organizations. Since research indicated that previous job exposur e could influence how one processes information about a job, we also c onsidered the impact of prior job exposure. Our study showed that pers ons who had prior exposure to the job they were applying for overempha sized negative job information, resulting in reduced job acceptances. However, those with no prior job exposure showed increased job accepta nces. When categorized according to prior job exposure, the findings o f previous realistic job preview studies supported this conclusion.