Comparison of perception of organizational attractiveness according to individual and cultural characteristics: The case of Turkey-Germany

Attracting and retaining the best employees is one of the most fundamental goals of human resources practices. On the other hand, organizational attractiveness is all the benefits that encourage employees to work in an organization and motivate existing employees to continue working in that organization. Organizational attractiveness is an essential expression of this vital goal of companies. For this reason, it is a critical issue for companies to increase their organizational attractiveness levels. Organizational attractiveness perception can be affected by individual and contextual factors. The effect of demographic characteristics and personality traits as personal factors and the country factor as the effect of context constitute the subject of this study. This thesis aims to analyze the effects of personality traits and country context, among the factors that shape the perception of organizational attractiveness. Thus, it is aimed to make an academic contribution to the organizational attractiveness literature and to reach results that will contribute to the practitioners. For this purpose, Germany and Turkey were chosen as two countries that have cultural and economic differences from each other in order to create the contextual structure. The research method is the cross-sectional survey method, one of the quantitative methods. Data were collected from a total of 589 subjects from both countries. The sample was selected from people with work experience. Data collection tools are organizational attractiveness scale, resilience scale, and collectivism scale. Difference analyzes were performed with Independent samples t-test and ANOVA from statistical methods, and the effect of personal characteristics on organizational attractiveness was predicted by correlation and multiple regression analyzes. Process macro model 4 was also used for mediator effect analysis (SPSS). According to the research findings, the general perception of organizational attractiveness and the evaluation of its sub-dimensions differ in these two countries. Overall organizational attractiveness level and all sub-dimensions were rated higher by Turkish participants than by German participants. Although there is a difference in the perception of organizational attractiveness according to gender, age and education level, there is no statistically significant difference according to employee groups, marital status, being a manager and working year. Organizational attractiveness was found to be associated with collectivism and resilience, and these two personal characteristics were found to affect the perception of organizational attractiveness. Finally, psychological resilience has a mediating role in the effect of collectivism on the perception of organizational attractiveness. In line with the results of the research, it is recommended that businesses offer instrumental and symbolic benefits in accordance with the employee characteristics they expect in employer branding studies. It is recommended that multinational enterprises adapt their employer branding according to countries and demographic and personality characteristics of the target employee group and create a global brand.