The sources and accuracy of job applicants' beliefs about organizational culture

We focus on the beliefs that applicants develop about organizational cultur e during the anticipatory stage of socialization. Data from 240 job applica nts suggested that an organization used product and company information to encourage applicants to hold favorable, rather than accurate, culture belie fs. For example, the organization appeared to overstate the degree to which its culture was risk-oriented. Information that is less susceptible to ima ge management attempts (for instance, word of mouth) was unrelated to appli cants' culture beliefs.