The Effect of Job Previews on Role Clarity and Unmet Expectation: A Scenario-Based Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

無中文摘要

High turnover rate among employees in young generation and fresh graduates has been a continuous problem in job market. In order to prevent the long lasting problem, recruiters are considering recruiting better matched employees instead of attracting a lot of people to apply for the job. Before offering a job, recruiters provide a job preview for applicants which enables them to evaluate if the job does match their expectation and interest. In current study, there were five hypotheses proposed. Firstly, realistic job previews (RJPs) have a stronger effect on increasing individuals’ perception of unmet expectation and role clarity than traditional job previews (TJPs) do. Secondly, job preview has a positive effect on unmetexpectations during pre-hire phase. Thirdly, job preview has a positive effect on role clarity during pre-hire phase. Fourthly, role clarity has a negative effect on unmet expectation. Lastly, role clarity mediates the relationship between job preview and unmet expectation. A quantitative study was conducted through a scenario-based quasi-experimental approach. The participants of the study were either students about to enter job market or current employees. There were 298 valid responses in the study. By presenting RJP video and TJP video to participants and comparing differences between responses in pre-test and post-test, it was found that both job preview videos increased role clarity and unmet expectation, and that role clarity had a negative effect on unmet expectation, although there was no mediating effect of role clarity between job preview and unmet expectation. No significant differences between RJPs and TJPs were found on their effect of increasing unmet expectation and role clarity.