Building identification in corporate recruitment videos

Theresa Anne Russell-Loretz, Purdue University

Abstract

The interrelated purposes of this study were to examine how organizations invite college graduates to pursue employment opportunities in recruitment videos (1) to offer insight beyond description of tools into what organizations do to attract college graduates as prospective employees; (2) to analyze the symbolic associations within these videos that construct an organizational identity deemed to be a worthy employer; (3) to discern how the organizational employer portrayed in these videos reflexively portrayed an "ideal" employee who would accept the invitation for employment; and (4) to examine depictions of the contribution/reward exchange to ascertain what incentives are offered in a proposed employer/employee relationship. To accomplish these aims, 14 recruitment videos available to college students at Purdue University in 1990-91 were examined using terminological algebra, a method grounded in Kenneth Burke's Dramatistic Approach to the study of symbols, to discover how these videos portrayed an organizational self, an "ideal" employee, and the relationship between these. Specifically, terminological algebra refines Burke's "cluster" approach to language, and allows discernment of how these videos symbolically represented a proposed employer/employee relationship, and how these symbolic representations might be summarized, or "entitled." The analysis demonstrated both common and unique values, and revealed a collective value hierarchy to answer interrelated questions about representations of employer, employee, and employment. The analysis supported the reflexiveness of identification in corporate recruitment; organizations in part defined a "self"in terms of their "people," and reflexively, organizational people were portrayed as those who possess desirable qualities and viewed the organization as mutually desirable. Moreover, the depicted exchange relationship suggested two representative anecdotes that further illumined the relationship expectations portrayed in these videos: a typical Horatio Alger story and the Mark Twain story of Tom Sawyer charged with whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence. The study concluded with implications of these presentations and with suggestions for future research.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Schiappa, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication|Mass media|Marketing

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