Evaluation of success criteria in job search A process perspective.pdfVIP

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (1999), 72, 57–70 Printed in Great Britain 57 Ó 1999 The British Psychological Society E va luation of s ucc ess criteria in job s earch: A proc es s perspective E ric E . Brasher* and Pe ter Y . Che n Department of Psychology, Ohio University, USA Job-s earch studies poss ess a dis turbing lack of consis tency in the operationaliz - ation of search s uccess . This prevents researchers from attaining their goal of explaining and predicting the use of job information sources and search activities. In the current study, we examined two theoretical models that depicted s tructural relations among nine succes s criteria often employed in the job-s earch literature. Overall, the criteria are weakly related to each other. The ndings s uggest the importance of careful consideration of the meaning and process of job-s earch success criteria, and that these iss ues should not be further overlooked. A t any giv en time, millions of indiv iduals are s earching for job opportunities . It is apparent that knowledge of the jo b-search proces s may help job s eekers plan eYcient s earch strategies, and cope with uncertainty, as well as alleviate psycho- logical or physical strains during the course of s earching (Stumpf, Colarelli Hartman, 1983; Wine eld, Wine eld, Tiggemann Goldney, 1991). A dditionally, it can facilitate organiz ations to choose cost-eV ectiv e recruitment methods and identify prospe ctiv e applicants . Survey results estimated that Fortune 500 rms allocated 16% of their human res ource budget to