Organizational attractiveness of firms in the People's Republic of China: A person-organization fit perspective

The authors investigated factors related to firm attractiveness as an employer in the People's Republic of China. The organizational attributes of type of ownership, nationality of the supervisor, and firm familiarity in organizational descriptions were manipulated and their effects were measured on firm attractiveness. In addition, the authors adopted a person-organization fit perspective to investigate how individual difference characteristics moderated the effects of these organizational attributes on attractiveness. Although, in general, participants were more attracted to foreign than state-owned firms and to familiar than unfamiliar firms, results provided support for the person-organization fit perspective in that the individual differences moderated the effects of the organizational attributes on firm attractiveness. For example, participants were more attracted to-state-owned versus foreign firms when they were more risk averse and had a lower need for pay. Thus, the results provide initial support for the generalizability of the person-organization fit perspective to a non-Western setting.