[lu, bill chang] executive ma thesis 2015

Storytelling in Employment Marketing:

Match the Job Seeker’s Ideal Self in Career

Chang LU (Bill)

Executive Master Thesis

INSEAD

May 2015

Storytelling in Employment Marketing: Match the Job Seeker’s Ideal Self in Career

Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………5

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….7

Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………...9

Why is storytelling important?......................................................................................10

Storytelling in Contemporary Organizational Context…………………………………...11

Storytelling in Marketing…………………………………………………………………….13

Social Identity…………………………………………………………………………..13

The ideal self…………………………………………………………………………...14

Self-referencing and Identity Marketing……………………………………………..15

The Gap………………………………………………………………………………...17

Methodology and Data Collection…………………………………………………………17

Research Setting…………………………………………………………………………….19

Selection of Participants………………………………………………………………19

Data Collection………………………………………………………………………………21

The Phase I Interview…………………………………………………………………21

The Interview Questions and Phrases………………………………………………22

The Phase II Interview………………………………………………………………...23

2


Career Stories of Selected Organizations………………………………………......24

Data Gathering and Analysis………………………………………………………………28

The Phase I Interview……………………………………………………………………….28

The Phase II Interview………………………………………………………………………34

Finding and Discussion……………………………………………………………………..37

Core attributes constituting Group A and B’s self-identity and ideal self in career …..37

The Self-referencing Effect…………………………………………………………………39

Managerial Implication………………………………………………………………………43

Limitation………………………………………………………………………………………44

Suggestions for Future Research…………………………………………………………45

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….45

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..48

3


Tables

Table 1: Group A and B Participants’ Profile……………………………………………….21

Table 2: Group A Participants’ Interview Feedback and Analysis………………………..29

Table 3: Group B Participants’ Interview Feedback and Analysis………………………..31

Table 4: Group A Participants’ Rankings …………………………………………………..34

Table 5: Summation of Group A Participants’ Ranking……………………………………35

Table 6: Group B Participants’ Rankings …………………………………………………..35

Table 7: Summation of Group B Participants’ Ranking……………………………………36

Table 8: Group A Participants’ Ideal Self……………………………………………………38

Table 9: Group B Participants’ Ideal Self………………………………………….………..39

Table 10: The juxtaposition of Group A and B Participants’ Ranking Results…………..40

4


Abstract:

Numerous studies have been conducted on the power of storytelling in creating shared

value and emotional connection among tellers and hearers in both organizational

culture and consumer marketing. However few researchers have addressed how

storytelling is used in an organization’s employment marketing process to attract

desired job seekers. In today’s digital age, the recent generations of job seekers are

highly adept at using social media channels to gather insights about a potential

employer of whether it matches their perception of an ideal place to work by evaluating

the stories publically shared. Therefore it is important for organizations to understand

what drives their desired job seekers’ selection of organizations to work for so that they

can create stories that resonate with desired job seekers’ perceptions of ideal

employers. The investigation of this topic thus has practical implications for

organizations seeking to enhance their storytelling strategy in order to situate

themselves in an advantageous position in the competitive talent market.

This study is built on various research studies on storytelling in consumer marketing

particularly its self-referencing and identity marketing concepts which drives consumers’

buying behavior. To better understand if self-referencing also drives job seekers’

selection of an organization to work for, we conducted a research study involving 11

new graduates in China divided into two groups. Participants are from similar

socioeconomic background within the same group but substantially different between

the two groups. The reason by dividing participants into two groups based on their

socioeconomic background is that organizations generally recruit a certain type of

candidates for the same job category therefore understanding what are the common

5


identities of a particular group of job seekers will help organizations to tailor their

attraction strategy. Participants were presented with a set of self-exploratory questions

designed to enable them to uncover their personal values, explore their identities and

determine their ideal self in a career. Subsequently, each participant was instructed to

read six organizations’ career stories and rank the organizations to work for as

represented by the career stories from most preferred to least. The research study

showed that participants within the same group have similar preference but between the

two groups have substantial differences in selection of organizations to work for. The

finding suggests that job seekers’ self-identity is the main motivation driver when it

comes to select an organization to work for. Storytelling in employment marketing

needs to enhance the self-referencing effect. This finding will help organizations to

enhance their appeal to desired job seekers by tailoring stories to match their ideal self

in career.

Key Words:

Storytelling, self-identity, value congruence, self-referencing, the ideal self, emotional

connection, identity marketing

6


Introduction:

Storytelling that played a central role throughout human existence has been studied

extensively in a wide variety of academic disciplines (Polkinghorne, 1988; Stern, 1991 &

1994; Gabriel, 2000; Burke, 2006; Yang, 2013). Within the contemporary context,

primary research area has focused on the effect of storytelling on marketing specifically

the emotional attachment resulted from the storytelling process. The self-referencing

concept extracted from the storytelling in consumer marketing is critical in

understanding what drives consumers’ buying behavior. Self-referencing refers to any

evaluation of an option in conjunction with, or in relation to, the individual’s self-concept

(Sood, and Forehand, 2005). Previous research indicated that individuals often

chooses products that possess “personalities” that are similar to their own identity

(Aaker, 1997). In general, storytelling cuts across diverse areas of research interest

with well recognized applications in both academic and commercial fields.

This research study has adopted a unique angle by exploring the use of organizations’

career stories to attract desired job seekers. Organizations’ career stories here

generally refer to any story that represents the organization’s culture and the impression

of a place to work including associates’ career success, organizations’ espoused values

and tips on the way to succeed within an organization. Although the use of storytelling

approach in the consumer marketing has been well-researched (Holbrook & Batra, 1987;

Edell & Burke, 1987; Folkes, 1988; Stern, 1991&1994; Hopkinson & Hogarth-Scott,

2001; Fog & Yakaboylu, 2005; Papadatos, 2006; Fog, 2010; Chu & Kim, 2011), little

empirical research has been done on storytelling in employment marketing, particularly

7


with the concept of self-referencing that might exert an impact on job seekers in shaping

their selection of the company to work for.

The research questions that were addressed in this research study are as follows: Will

the self-referencing effect elicited from storytelling in driving consumers’ buying

behavior apply to job seekers’ selection of employers? What constitutes the job

seekers’ self-identity and its extended meaning of the ideal self in a career? And to

what extent, does the distinction of job seekers’ ideal self in a career matter in their

selection of employers? Understanding what drives job seekers’ selection of an

organization to work for will help companies to situate themselves advantageously in

the competitive talent market.

In this thesis the literature on storytelling will be briefly reviewed. The key relevant

concepts including self-referencing, the ideal self and identity marketing will also be

explored.

The research study involved interviewing two groups with a combined total of 11 recent

college graduates in China collectively within each individual group. Given the future

growth potential of the China market for many global companies, it’s valuable to

understand what the recent generation of Chinese job seekers’ are looking for when it

comes to selecting an organization to work for. The participants are divided into two

groups based on their socioeconomic backgrounds in order to test how much of the

distinction of their background contributes to their selection of preferred employers

resulted from their desired “ideal self” in a career. The reason by dividing participants

into two groups is that organizations generally recruit a certain type of candidates for the

8


same job category therefore understanding what are the common identities of a

particular group of job seekers will help organizations to tailor their attraction strategy.

The set of self-exploratory questions were designed to enable the participants to

uncover their personal values, self –identity and the ideal self in career. Subsequently,

the participants were given sample organizations’ career stories and were instructed to

rank the organizations in terms of which ones they would most preferred to work for

down to the least. This study is able to help organizations with an interest in

developing their talent attraction strategy particularly utilizing career stories as major

marketing approach by understanding what resonates with the recent generation job

seekers’ preferred choice of employer particularly.

Finally, the implications of these findings were suggested and areas for future research

proposed. As such, this thesis has extended the research on storytelling approach from

consumer marketing to employment marketing.

Literature Review:

The following literature reviews revealed that storytelling played a central role

throughout human existence in a wide variety of academic disciplines. Our focus of

review drilled down to storytelling in consumer marketing particularly the relevant

concepts including group social identity, the ideal self as well as self-referencing and

identity marketing. The purpose of this review is to identify what has been studied

around storytelling and its relevant concepts that are pivotal to its application in

9


consumer marketing. The gap of previous studies is then revealed that little empirical

research has been done to examine the value attributes of career stories and explore

how organizations can utilize them to market themselves externally to attract job

seekers. Therefore the storytelling application in employment marketing is to be further

examined.

Why is Storytelling Important?

Research studies from a wide variety of disciplines address the central role of

storytelling in people’s life. They cover the psychological evolution of the human mind,

the neurological aspects of brain-based learning and sense making processes, as well

as the shaping of value systems (Polkinghorne, 1988; Young & Saver, 2001; Perrow,

2007; Kearney, 2011; Kademdo, 2012; Yang, 2013). According to Bruner (1990), what

does not get structured narratively suffers loss in memory so without storytelling skills

we could never endure the conflicts and contradictions that social life generates. As

Yang (2013) explained, human beings have an inherent needs for belonging,

storytelling is not only a communicative tool for transmitting and sharing information, but

also a reinforce of our social identity within a community, by providing us with the

unique common vocabularies. Storytelling is thus an adaptive mechanism of

remembering the past and reinforcing social identity.

10


Storytelling in Contemporary Organizational Context

A substantial number of research studies have focused on storytelling within the

contemporary organizational context. Specifically, the topics have included: the shaping

and transmitting of corporate culture and values, leadership manipulation, and effective

communication (Neuhauser, 1993; Gabriel, 2000, 2008; Brown, 2005; Adamson & Van

Steenhoven & Kroupa, 2006; Burke, 2006; Denning, 2006, 2007a, 2007b; Loffreda &

Gargiulo, 2008; Boje, 2008; Lapp & Carr, 2008).

Storytelling is typically employed as an effective tool for the management to create,

share and transmit the proposed culture and ideology in order to instill organizational

values and norms within the existing workforce.

“True Leaders are really CSOs – Chief Storytelling Officers…. And the stories

they tell become the stuff of dreams. This is where real emotional capital

originates. It’s the energy that provides the focus, inspiration and meaning the

ordinary people as well as organizations need to move forward”.

- Burke, 2006, pp. 22-23

According to Dolan and Bao (2012), the purpose of storytelling in the organization is for

managers and employees to understand each other’s values and come to an

agreement on a common set of value in an interactive process in which the values of

both sides intermingle. Once the values of both sides in congruence, the storytelling

process is successful.

11


To better understand the use of storytelling in modern organizational context to create

value congruence, Huy and Shipilov (2012), discussed the organizations’ usage of the

internal social media platform to create “emotional capital” – the aggregated feelings of

goodwill toward a company and the way it operates. Some interesting tips were offered

in this research article which concentrated on the creating of compelling stories

including being authentic, producing “the moment of pride”, creating attachment and

making it fun. Obviously using the techniques offered in storytelling, there’s an

opportunity to build congruent set of values and gel employees together toward

common vision.

However, Yiannis Gabriel who has done a significant amount of research on the use of

storytelling in organizational context has challenged the unquestioned “truth” of

storytelling. In particular, Gabriel (2008) pinpointed the dangerous qualities as

consequences of the seductive powers of storytelling by organizations’ leaders.

“A story, even if inaccurate and maybe especially if inaccurate, opens windows

into an organization’s narrative universe, its clashes and contradictions, its

fantasies an fictions – in short, into the meaning systems that people in

organizations construct, sustain and inhabit”.

– Yiannis Gabriel(2008)

Gabriel’s arguments suggested that storytelling risked to be used as manipulation tools

by leaders to advance their personal agenda thus questioned the truth and ethics of its

nature.

12


Storytelling in Marketing

The adoption of the storytelling concept in marketing and advertising has led to the

production of many research studies on the effect of storytelling in shaping the

emotional capital appeal of products and brands to consumers (Holbrook & Batra, 1987;

Edell & Burke, 1987; Folkes, 1988; Stern, 1991, 1994; Hopkinson & Hogarth-Scott,

2001; Fog & Yakaboylu, 2005; Papadatos, 2006; Fog, 2010; Chu & Kim, 2011). In The

Art of Storytelling, Papadatos (2006), the loyalty marketer at Canada’s Air Mile Reward

Program stated: “If your customers talk about your brand as if it’s a part of who they’re,

you have made an emotional attachment with them!”

“As consumers, we lie to ourselves every day. We lie to ourselves about what we

wear, where we live, how we vote and what we do at work. Successful

marketers are just the providers of stories that consumers choose to believe.

Marketing is all about the psychology of satisfaction”. – (Godin, 2005)

According to Holbrook & Batra (1987), in early consumer research articles, scholars in

marketing field started to show an interest in the emotional aspects of consumer. They

advocated a broadened view of consumption–related emotions, with a focus on how

storytelling in brand and product advertising can arouse the desired emotions in

consumers. This leads to the understanding of the important concepts of social identity,

the ideal self, as well as self-referencing and identity marketing

a. Social identity:

Social identities are associated with the traits, characteristics and goals linked to a

social role, or a social group that the person was, is, or may become a member of

13


(Langner et al., 2013). When an identity is salient, it can guide thinking, judgment and

behavior (Reed, 2014; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). This explains the vital role that an

individual’s traits and characteristics play in shaping his/her self-identity which then

guides thinking and choices-making, as well as the ideal self. These traits and

characteristics are ingrained inside a person’s DNA are also shaped and influenced by

his/her upbringing, family and social value system. As such to understand their self-

identity, it helps to trace back each individual group participants’ background, their

education level, their upbringing, as well as their parents and the extent of the family

influence. We can draw essence from here that the current social identity has

originated from the past and a complex social system that informs who they are now.

b. The ideal self

The ideal self is an extended understanding of the social identity with extra components

beyond the enduring traits and characteristics shaped from the past. It is a partially

conscious and partially unconscious psychological component of the self (Baumeister,

1998, a, b; Higgins, 1989a) varying from individual to individual. It is both privately

conceptualized and socially influenced (Nasby, 1997; Schecter, 1974). The ideal self is

a primary source of positive affect and psychophysiological arousal, thus helping to

provide the motivation drive for pursuing a self-desirable state (Boyatzis, and Akrivou,

2006). In their extended study of the framework, Boyatzis and Akrivou (2006)

explained that the ideal self is composed of three major components:

14


• The image of desired future consists of the person’s dreams, aspirations, and

fantasies.

• Hope and its constituents, self-efficacy and optimism – refer to the person’s

perception of possibilities. This aspect differentiates this components from “pie in

the sky” or false hope

• Comprehensive sense of one’s core identity – core identity refers to a relatively

stable set of enduring individual characteristics such as unconscious traits and

motives, as well as roles that have been adopted consistently in social settings.

c. Self-referencing and identity marketing

The concept of self-referencing is a core aspect of storytelling in marketing, as it is

directly related to a consumer’s buying behavior, be it with regards to a product or a

brand (Duan, & Hill, 1996; West, Huber & Min, 2004; Sood & Forehand, 2005;

Chowdhury, Desai, & Bolton, 2014). Self-referencing refers to any evaluation of an

option in conjunction with, or in relation to, an individual’s self-concept (Sood &

Forehand, 2005). Therefore the self-referencing process becomes associated with the

self-identity, personal values and basically who we are. As a result, it is well

established the self-referencing produces stronger memory traces and faster response

times than when information is processed without involving the self (Kuiper & Rogers,

1979).

In a marketing research study on the affective nature of autobiographical memories,

Sujan, Bettman and Baumgartner (1993), found that the retrieval of autobiographical

memories influences consumers’ thought processes/judgments. As a result, the

15


consumers tend to focus on their personal memories and their associated effects thus

reducing their tendency to analyze of product information. Therefore they are more

likely to choose the products associated with their past positive memories which are

part of their self-concept. In addition, they found that the increased retrieval of mostly

positively autobiographical memories leads to a more favorable attitude towards the

product. Autobiographical memories are an integral part of the self-identity thus the

retrieval prompts the self-referencing process leading to affection.

Identity marketing is directly linked to self-referent processing-: it connects a brand to a

consumer’s identity by accentuating the self-referencing effect through storytelling. As a

recent successful sales example, a marketing story of a luxury wrist watch brand selling

on the rareness and exclusivity of possessing a piece “our watch is not for the

ordinaries” as a marketing approach to pitch for the most successful, and affluent

consumers who are looking for something that can differentiate their selves as being

unique and superior and truly represent who they are. The marketing story prompted

the consumers’ self-referencing by connecting the brand to their self-identity. In their

recent research paper, Chowdhury, Desai and Bolton (2014) pointed out “If a brand can

be connected to central aspects of the self–concept (Oliver, 1999), the consumer will

view the brand as part of him – or herself (Kleine et al., 1995), that is, an extension of

the self (Belk, 1988).”

Hendry (2007) made a strong case about the connection between our narratives and

identities:

16


Our narratives, be they life stories, autobiographies, histories, sciences, or

literature are the tales through which we constitute our identities. We are our

narratives. They are not something that can be outside ourselves because they

are what give shape to us, what gives meaning. (p. 495)

The research findings seem to lead to the conclusion that identity marketing leverages

on consumers’ identities to enhance consumer preference and choice of a brand.

(Chowdhury, Desai, & Bolton, 2014).

The gap

The utilization of storytelling in marketing particularly the self-referencing and identity

marketing concepts provides great insights about what drives consumers’ buying

behavior towards a brand or product. However, little research has been done to

determine whether these concepts are applicable to an organization’s employment

marketing strategy of using career stories to attract desired job seekers. To what extent,

does the distinction of job seekers’ ideal self in a career matter in their selection of

employers?

Methodology and Data Collection:

The main purpose of this study is to understand the job seekers’ self-identity which is

part of the ideal self in career and how self-referencing elicited from organizations’

career stories connecting with job seekers’ ideal-self contribute to the selection of

17


organization to work for. That interest led to a qualitative research methodology to be

chosen in particular to the use of narrative analysis “centering around the study of

stories or accounts – usually of individuals, but also of groups, societies, and cultures”

(Reissman, 2008). According to Chase (2005), the focus of the narrative analysis is to

explore life stories that described the personal experiences, self-identity and many other

social and cultural experiences.

The basis of the study was the collection through semi-structured interviews, of

participants’ defining moments in life such as personal experience, views and attitudes

i.e... In the second phase of the data collection, the participants are asked to rate their

preference for the organizations’ career stories and rank organizations from most

preferred one to work for to the least preferred

The data was then analyzed to further explore participants’ self-identity and the ideal

self in career. Data analysis was conducted through interpretation and association in

accordance with psychoanalysis approach “The in-depth discoveries of

unconscious…go beyond an existential or phenomenological approach. We

hypothesize unconscious dynamics…that influence direct experience” (Long, 2013.

p.103). The focus of the analysis is to go beyond the data given by participants

through the interview with the employment of “night visioning” approach as the clinical

psychology lens as described in INSEAD EMCCC in order to reveal the unconscious

dynamics such as fantasies, and dreams that is fundamental in understanding the

participants’ self-identities. Finally the key attributes were derived from the analysis

which worked as the main motivation drivers for participants in pursuing their ideal

18


selves in a career. The results from the participants’ response to organizations’ career

stories were collated. The underlying meanings and connections of the results from the

interview process, and the rankings of the preferred sample organizations’ career

stories, along with their implications were explored.

Research Settings:

The data collection process that lasted for a full day was conducted was conducted in

Shanghai, China on November 27th 2014, in a hotel meeting room. Participants were

selected from the hotel management company operating in China where I worked as a

senior HR executive in the corporate office. The reason for choosing my own company

to conduct the research study was mainly due to the convenience of access and the

opportunity to conduct in-depth interviews. In addition, China has been all the way a

key growth market for my company given the scale we are rapidly expanding into

therefore understanding the recent generations of workforce particularly what they are

looking for in career is critical for the shape of our talent strategy. As the participants

were of Chinese origin, the language used in the interview and the sample

organizations’ career stories was all in Chinese.

Selection of Participants

The purpose of this research study is to understand the recent generations of job

seekers’ preference of the type of organizations by evaluating the sample organizations’

career stories. With that interest in mind, one of the selection criteria is recent college

Chinese graduates currently working at our hotel company. A further interest of the

19


research study is to identify the extent of influence on preferred career choice as a

result of the distinction from participants’ socioeconomic background as this determines

self-identity. I therefore intentionally selected participants divided into two groups based

on their socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels, and the job positions they held.

Given the designed length and the intention of in-depth interview, the sample size was

controlled around 10 participants. It ended up having 11 participants with 6 in group A

and 5 in group B.

The general characteristics of the participants from two groups:

- Age and level of job experience: Participants were all recent graduates with less

than six months of experience working for the organization.

- Diverse job categories: Participants were selected from different job categories in

order to provide a good spread in the sample in terms of job functions which will help

in understanding the commonality and variances in their career pursue.

- Differences in family upbringing and level of academic achievements. This criteria

was used in order to evaluate the relationship between self-identity and

socioeconomic backgrounds.

Based on their socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels, and the job positions they

held, the participants were further divided into two groups as shown in Table 1 below.

20


Table 1 Group A and B Participants’ Profile

Data Collection:

Phase I of the data collection is through semi-structured interview. This study focuses

on identifying the personal values and self-identities of the individual participants

through interviews.

The Phase I Interview:

Interviews were conducted in the following manner: Group A participants were

interviewed individually during the four-hour morning session, while the four hour

afternoon session was allocated to Group B participants.

All interviews were tape-recorded with the permission of the participants in order to

facilitate further analysis. To break the ice before the actual interview, I spent the first

Group A Participants Group B Participants

Current Program 6 participants in fast-track management development program

5 participants in a six-month internship program

Job Category Food & beverage, Rooms operation, Finance and revenue functions

Food & beverage, Rooms operations

Gender All females (non-purposely) 4 females and 1 male (non-purposely)

Age Age between 22-26 years old Age between 21-23 years old

Educational Institute Graduated from top American Universities

Graduated from local vocational institute

Educational Level 3 bachelor’s and 3 master’s degrees 3 year junior college diploma

Family Income High income families Low income families

Place of Origin Mega provincial cities in China Remote rural town in China

21


half an hour introducing myself, learning more about the participants through casual

conversations, and explaining the purpose of the research study.

The interview was conducted by using pre-developed interview questions as described

in below section. All participants were given the same set of questions in order to

provide a consistent comparison. During the interview, I built upon the participants’

initial responses to ask probing questions in order to clarify his/her responses.

The Interview Questions and Phrases

The aim of Phase I of the research study was to reveal the personal values and self-

identities of the individual participants. The interview questions and phrases were thus

designed with the purpose of challenging participants to reflect on the moments of life

including personal experience, career motives and ideal self in career. The objective is

to identify the enduring attributes & characteristics, fantasies and hope which are key

components of ideal self (Boyatzis, and Akrivou, 2006).

- What did my parents always tell me I should do?

- What is the best measure of personal success?

- What’s the main driving force in my life?

- When will I be happiest and most satisfied?

- I know that I’ll be successful if I …

- If I could magically choose any career, I would become a … because…?

22


The interview questions and phrases were a slightly modified version of the INSEAD

EMCCC program entry essay questions as those questions are designed with the

purpose of enabling participants for self-identity exploration particularly their ideal-self in

a career. As an example, the question quoted from above “what’s the main driving

force in life?” is designed in the way to help participants reflect on past moments in life

that fundamentally motivated their desire to continue in life. By reflecting on the

particular moments, participants are supposed to be more aware of the motives

unconsciously driving them forward in life. Those motives identified then became

important components of self-identity. The slight modification is to ensure those

questions are relevant to this research study and the sample group of participants.

The Phase II Interview:

The second part of the data collection is also through interview. The participant was

instructed to read the six stories, and rank the desirability of working for the

organizations (as represented by the six career stories) on the following scale: “1 – 6”

with “1 = Most Preferred” and “6 = Least Preferred”:

• Story 1 – rank #






23


Career Stories of Selected Organizations

To provide participants with authentic career stories, six sample stories were obtained

from actual websites of size organizations operating in different business sectors in

China. The stories were deliberately selected from a wide range of industries to make

sure that the representation is not limited to one sector like hotel in order to test

applicability of findings in general. However, they all share a common theme of

promoting career success and reflect the organizations’ values and culture. The stories

selected vary in expression of being “implicit” to “explicit” and “weak” to “strong” in their

representation of the values of the respective organization. As an example of a strong

and explicit expression, one selected story used “We’re the Best Employer” as caption.

The names of the organizations in the sample stories were concealed to ensure that the

participants would not have a bias due to their identities.

The following are the summarized descriptions of the six organizations’ stories:

Story 1 (from an international accounting firm): Career tips for new hire – don’t just

focus on your work responsibilities!

- Summary of story from the transcript: don’t just focus on your job responsibilities as

you will miss out on the opportunity to network. You should first get to know your

environment, the culture and the core value of the company. The following 4 points

will help you to succeed in your new role : 1) get familiar with your job; 2) be friend

with someone who has influence; 3) Listen more; 4) build your network

24


- Level of value expression : Medium explicit (clearly expressed the organization’s

espoused culture and ways to succeed)

Story 2 (from a local financial institution): Why organizations should choose people with

values that are congruent with their own?

- Summary of story from the transcript: By choosing candidates with personal values

and beliefs that match the organization’s espoused culture, the organization is able

to attract and retain key talents, as well as reduce turnover and promote higher

engagement. Four seasons hotel is a good example in recruiting employees who

treat guests as king.

- Level of value expression: Implicit (simply shared the story without directly relating

this to the organization’s own criteria of selection. Used the story from Four

Seasons to support the value congruence concept however without mentioning

about the organization’s own culture)

Story 3 (from a luxury hotel company): No title

- Summary of the story from transcript: This story shows how a hotel guest relations

employee anticipated a guest’s request and went extra miles to make a nice surprise

to the guest. The guest is celebrating the fifth anniversary with his wife at the hotel

and the employee wanted to leave the guest with a memorable experience. She got

to know that the guest is a tree lover so she mobilized her team for help and

25


eventually arranged an event for the guest to plant trees together with his wife. The

guest was touched and shared his gratitude with her.

- Level of value expression: medium explicit (our expectation of the role model for

service. Our expectation of the sort of attitude from our employees. Indication of

what we expected if you join us)

Story 4 (from a global oil and gas company): The time when worked at the company

- Summary of the story from transcript: narrative self-description of memoirs of a

retired employee in his 90s who was invited to the company’s old premise for a

photo shoot. Mr. Pan joined the company in 1928 and had worked there for 17

years. At the beginning he knows nothing about oil but later one of his English

colleague trained him and helped him to learn by providing him with academic

journals and magazines. They then became good friends. During the World War II,

the company was closed down and didn’t resume until after 1990s.

- Level of value expression: implicit (a long history for the company’s operation in

China back before 1920s and showed the company’s commitment to the market in

the past and today. Showed how is the company valuing its tradition and

recognizing its employees’ service)

Story 5 (from a global consumer goods company): The mystique of the magic school –

welcome to join us!

26


- Summary of the story from transcript: self-explanation of the secret of success in

career at the company. The company’s HR department is like a magic school that

turned me into a magician. Magician is the business partner, magician is the leader

for change, and magician is the close friend of employees. Look forward to seeing

you at the magic school.

- Level of value expression: explicit (HR department has a systemic process in turning

new hire into a successful executive. Welcome to be one of us)

Story 6 (from a global travel company): We’re the best employer

- Summary of the story from transcript: The story highlights the fact that the

organization has recently won the “Best Employer in China” award. It also quoted

self-statements from employees at the company in different function and level of

positions in terms of how they feel of working here. In addition, it includes an

interview of the company’s senior executive on the myth of success which is taking

care of employees and making them feel that they belong to the family.

- Level of value expression: explicit (the organization is recognized as the best place

to work for by the market and our success lies in our company’s culture of taking

care of our associates)

Finally an interview was conducted with each participant in order to probe the

underlying reasons for their responses. Throughout this interview process, I was trying

to make sense of their decision and relating their answers to the discussion of their self-

identity and ideal selves in a career from the phase I interview.

27


Data Gathering and Analysis

The phase I Interview:

In phase I exploratory interview, below table was used to capture notes, and

observations. Insights and interpretation was derived from participants’’ responses by

using clinical organizational psychoanalysis approach in INSEAD EMCCC program. A

final link to “there” and “then” from INSEAD EMCCC’s psychoanalysis approach, of

which understanding of the unconscious level of mental activities shaped in the past is

fundamental in understanding the “here” and “now” phenomenon. Therefore, the

exploration of participants’ self-identity and ideal selves in a career had to go beyond

the direct responses from participants. Insights were made by fully exploring

participants’ past and how participants’ today was nurtured in their unique family, social,

and culture context.

The interview data was gathered and analyzed using the tables 2 & 3 below for both

Group A and Group B participants.

28

Table 2: Group A Participants’ Interview Feedback and Analysis

Interview Questions Responses from participants Observations Insights and analysis

• What do your parents always tell you that you should do?

• Take care of myself and don’t worry about them.

• Don’t be afraid of hard work. • Don’t be picky. • Get married soon. • Play harder. • Set longer term goal in career and don’t

just focus on short term returns. • Do good planning for life and career.

• Some participants dislike the values imposed upon them from their parents

• The ought-self not desired self

• The ought-self has been integrated with the participant’s ideal self.

• What is your best measure of personal success?

• Be needed by others. • Freedom to choose career and lifestyle. • Create change and impact. • Inner peace and composure. • Help others. • Achieve target. • Respect diversity.

• “Desired state” (idealized state) of possible selves

• It might be the self-defense that those key characteristics such as “freedom to choose career and lifestyle” did not take place in the past therefore is now so much wanted?

• What is your main driving force in life?

• Independence • Self-esteem • Sense of fulfillment • Recognition from others • Happiness • Passion and enthusiasm • Make a difference (a happier life for

others) • Learn new things • Make progress • More exposure

• Lots of commonalities of motives but also distinctions between individuals

• Reflects fundamental human motivation needs and the distinction of the needs varying from one person to another

• When are your happiest and most satisfied?

• Accomplishing a task • When I was needed by others • Succeeded in making changes • Celebrate success together with dad • Compassion, love and care among

family members • Recognition from others • A song “I think I’m gonna marry you

• A memorable experience – celebrated and shared with the most loved one.

• dad is distant • some of those happy

moments might be rare from participants past

• Lack of love and compassion at childhood.

• Family members being distant particularly dad

• Being recognized by family and society is fundamental in Chinese culture


today”. • A moment that I was appreciated by a

guest • Won lottery

experience hence became a defining moment

• being the best and making parents feel proud is fundamental to participants’ source of happiness

• I know that I’ll be successful if I can…

• Be confident • Be balanced • Be more proactive • Hold bigger responsibility • Be calm and composed • Plan better • Am a guy • Be objective • Be patient and hands-on

• Desired self attributes • Self-awareness and

Self-reflection are less delicate given the age and life experience

• Some of the responses reflected the idealism and simplistic mentality

• Equality (don’t want to be demeaned)

• Look for ways to improve self-efficacy reflecting the dissatisfaction with the self and initial self-awareness

• Some of those responses might learn from previous failure in the past or new attributes to acquire such as “plan better” “be more proactive”

• It’s also an evaluation of possibilities of achieving hope by activating some of the potential or sometime controversy characteristics that participants do not possess now.

• If I could magically

choose any career, I would become a …because…

• Chef (food lover, female chef, make others happy, passion)

• Biographer and travel writer (experience different culture, location and way of life)

• Mystery Shopper (cool, mysterious, travel the world, offer professional advice)

• Industrial designer, architect (magically delight people’s life)

• Own and run a hotel

• Some participants’ ideal selves in career resonates with their recent job experience and others have completely different path of professions from their current ones

• What’s more important is the implications underlying those desired selves and the key attributes derived from the way they described about their ideal selves

• Some of the responses of ideal selves resonate with their previous descriptions of driving forces and success measures

30


Table 3: Group B Participants’ Interview Feedback and Analysis

Interview Questions Responses from Participants Observations Insights and analysis

• What do your parents always tell you that you should do?

• Work hard and study hard to have a better life

• Be careful, be well-behaved • Take care of self and family • Don’t offend others • Be wealthy

• Be successful as to earn a better life for self and family

• Be respectful to parents, family and seniors

• Follow the rules

• Unfulfilled parents’ expectations

• Parents are unsatisfied with their current selves and impose their expectations onto their children

• Counter transference • Value traditions and

conventional ways

• What is your best measure of personal success?

• Being the breadwinner • Achieving what you wanted • Happiness • Do the right thing with no regrets • Do things in accordance with your

passion

• Financial success plays an important role

• Results driven • Passion is another

motivation driver

• Partially fulfilling parents expectation and partially ideal self in a career

• Success measures have has lots of influence from parents

• This might be due to the facts of low family income some participants grew up with resulting in their stronger desire to pursue financial success

• What is your main

driving force in life? • Happier life for self and family • Recognition by parents • Youth, health and energy • Happiness • My dream and hope

• Parents and family play the an important role

• Parents, family and society recognition

• Personal dream and passion play another important role

• Parental impact and personal passion each plays half in driving force

• Participants juggle between family recognition and personal passion

• When are you happiest and most satisfied?

• Live together with family • Having parents around • When needed • Being liked by friends • Being together with people I like and

doing what I like

• Family first and parents first

• Self-esteem being valued plays another important role in happiness

• Family value ingrained in personal values

• Participants’ happiness is much driven by how they are perceived by parents and friends than self-interest

31


• I know that I’ll be successful if I can…

• Work harder • Learn from others • Be assertive • Be extroverted

• Desired self attributes • Self-awareness and

Self-reflection are less delicate given the age and life experience

• Look for ways to improve self-efficacy reflecting the dissatisfaction with the self and initial self-awareness

• If I could magically choose any career, I would become a …because…

• Overseas tour guide • Hotelier (meet different people and

learn from serving them) • Wedding gown designer (like drawing

and other beautiful things) • Pastry chef (fun, like food)

• Their ideal selves in a career is somehow more aligned to their current career path than Group A participants

• Very pragmatic and realistic as it’s much more of something achievable

• Most participants’ ideal selves involving an improvement of their competencies in their current role to be more successful in their current career path

• Cherish available opportunities

• Desire equal treatment and opportunity from a company

• More realistic, fundamental and practical than Group A participants

32

Insights were derived from interpretation of the interview feedback showed that parents’

influence is a major source of motivation drivers for both Groups of participants as some

participants’ success measures and happiest moments are related to family recognition.

Family income also plays a key role influencing participants’ success measures as

participants from lower income family generally desire to hold more financially

responsibility compared to those from higher income family. Participants’ ideal career

choice varies both within each group and between the two groups. However in general

Group B participants’ ideal career is much closer to their current jobs than Group A.

In the Chinese society context, family background is a significant contributor to an

individual’s access to social resources such as education and network to people in

power. In addition, the social status of the family also influences the role an individual is

expected to play within the family. In an affluent family, an individual’s parents are less

reliant on his/her economic support. Conversely, the individual that comes from less

affluent family would bear a considerable burden in having to take care of his/her

parents, especially within the context of the single-child families in China and the

absence of social welfare services in the system. Even at this juncture, the participants

in the two groups are already pursuing contrasting career programs/job categories, thus

illuminating the significance of the contribution of socioeconomic background to their

access to education and job opportunities.


The Phase II Interview: Ranking of Organizations (as represented by career stories)

from Most to Least Preferred to work for

All participants were instructed to read the six career stories and rank the organizations

as represented by the career stories from “1”, the most preferred to work for to “6”, the

least preferred to work as shown in below tables:

Table 4: Group A Participants’ Rankings of Their Preferred Organizations to Work For

Participant

a

Participant

b

Participant

c

Participant

d

Participant

e

Participant

f

Total Score

Story 1 4 1 6 5 6 5 27

Story 2 1 2 3 1 2 2 11

Story 3 6 3 5 2 1 3 20

Story 4 5 5 2 4 3 6 25

Story 5 2 4 1 6 5 1 19

Story 6 3 6 4 3 4 4 24

Based on the results from Table 4, we can tell the rankings of most preferred to least

preferred organizations to work for by both individual participant and together as a

group. The score from Table 4 is used to generate the overall rankings by Group A

participants. By tallying these scores, the Group A’s rankings of organizations as

represented by career stories are shown in Table 5 below: (the highest the total score =

the least preferred organization to work for as represented by “6”, the lowest the total

score = the most preferred organization to work for as represented by “1”)

34


Table 5: Summation of Group A Participants’ Ranking

Total Score Rankings of preferred company from 1 (most) to 6 (least)

Story 1 27 6

Story 2 11 1

Story 3 20 3

Story 4 25 5

Story 5 19 2

Story 6 24 4

Results from Table 5 summation of ranking shows that story 2 is most preferred while

story 1 is least preferred by Group A participants. The following table 6 shows the

results from Group B participants

Table 6: Group B Participants’ Rankings of Their Preferred Organizations to Work For

Participant

A

Participant

B

Participant

C

Participant

D

Participant

E

Total Score

Story 1 3 5 4 2 2 16

Story 2 2 1 2 6 6 17

Story 3 1 2 4 4 4 15

Story 4 6 6 4 5 3 24

Story 5 5 4 3 3 1 16

Story 6 4 3 1 1 5 14

35


Based on the results from Table 6, we can tell the rankings of most preferred to least

preferred organizations to work for by both individual participant and together as a

group. By tallying these scores, the Group B’s rankings of organizations as represented

by career stories are shown in Table 7 below: (the highest the total score = the least

preferred organization to work for as represented by “6”, the lowest the total score = the

most preferred organization to work for as represented by “1”)

Table 7: Summation of Group B Participants’ Ranking

Total Score Rank of preferred company to work for from 1 (most) to 6 (least)

Story 1 16 3

Story 2 17 5

Story 3 15 2

Story 4 24 6

Story 5 16 3

Story 6 14 1

Results from Table 7 summation of ranking results, story 6 is most preferred while story

4 is least preferred by Group B participants.

By comparison, there is a clear distinction between Group A and B participants in terms

of their perception of preferred organizations to work for as represented by career

stories. What constitutes those variances in perception and how is it related to their

self-identities and ideal selves in a career were further explored in the following Findings

and Discussion section.

36


Findings and Discussion:

From the above interview responses and analysis, the data was further interpreted to

identify what are the key motivation drivers constituting the Group A & B’s self-identity

and their ideal self in career.

Core attributes constituting Group A and B’s self-identity and ideal self in career

Both groups were motivated by recognition, the opportunity to learn and improve skills,

and the pursuit of happiness. These motivation drivers reflect a human being’s

fundamental motivation needs including self-determination, competence, and

connectedness (Ryan, and Deci, 2000). As described in the literature review, the ideal

self is an extended meaning of self-identity. Boyatzis and Akrivou (2006) explained that

the ideal self is composed of three major components:

• The image of desired future such as dreams, aspirations

• The hope and its constituents such as perception of possibility

• The core identity such as the enduring characteristics

With those three key components in mind, we are able to further explore Group A and B

participants’ ideal self in career.

For participants in Group A, the following unique attributes were the most commonly

stated: “Independence”, “Autonomy” and “Individuality”. They revealed a desire to step

away from their parents’ influence and assert independence in choosing their own ways

of life. Moreover, they also display an aspiration to be successful based on their own

37


efforts. Their ideal self is one who possesses the power and ability to influence others,

as well as change lives and the world as one participant stated that the key measure of

personal success is to create change and impact. Group A participants’ ideal-self in

career is summarized in Table 8 below:

Table 8: Group A Participants’ Ideal Self

Image of Desired Future (dreams, fantasies and aspirations)

Hope and its constituents, self-efficacy and optimism

Comprehensive sense of one’s core identity

Lifestyle Influencer Mysterious Power

Moderately achievable Independence Autonomy Individuality

For participants in Group B, the following attributes were the most commonly stated

“Solidarity, “Family First”, “Realism” and “Conformity”. They displayed the desire to be

financially affluent by being given equal opportunities in an organization. Their

aspiration for success is closely associated with their desire to fulfill their parents’

expectations. Their vision for their idealized-self is more aligned with their current

career option. Moreover, they tend to be more realistic, practical and hands-on as one

participant stated that her ideal self in career is to be a pastry chef as she is right now

an intern in culinary department. Group B participants’ ideal-self in career is

summarized in Table 9 below:

38


Table 9: Group B Participants’ Ideal Self

Image of Desired Future (dreams, fantasies and aspirations)

Hope and its constituents, self-efficacy and optimism

Comprehensive sense of one’s core identity

Passionate Fun Practical Meaningful

Highly achievable Solidarity Family and parents Realism Conformity

With the identification of Group A and B’s ideal self, it is now time to explore how it is

related to the organizations they select to work for from the interview. Will the self-

referencing effect elicited from consumer marketing apply in organizations’ career

stories? And to what extent is the distinction in Group A and B’s self-identity

contributing to the selection of preferred organizations to work for?

The self-referencing effect

According to Sood & Forehand (2005), Self-referencing as derived from storytelling in

consumer marketing is an evaluation of an option in relation to an individual’s self-

concept. Therefore the self-referencing process becomes associated with the self-

identity, personal values and basically who we are. As such the juxtaposition of the

interview result in Table 10 from identity exploration and selection of organizations to

work for are able to help to identity the career stories’ self-referencing effect on

participants’ selection results.

39

Table 10: The juxtaposition of Group A and B Participants’ Ranking Results

Key attributes of the story and level of expression of organizational values

Group A Ranking

Group A’s Ideal Self Group B Ranking

Group B’s Ideal Self

Story 1 Medium explicit (clearly expressed the organization’s espoused culture and ways to succeed)

6

Desired future attributes: Lifestyle

Influencer Mysterious

Power

Possibility of Hope: Moderately achievable

Core Identity: Independence

Autonomy Individuality

3

Desired future attributes:

Passionate Fun

Practical Meaningful

Possibility of Hope: Highly achievable

Core Identity: Solidarity

Family first Realism

Conformity

Story 2 Level of value expression: Implicit (simply shared the story without directly relating this to the organization’s

own criteria of selection. Used the story from Four Seasons to support the value congruence concept

however without mentioning about the organization’s own culture)

1 5

Story 3 Level of value expression: medium explicit (our expectation of the role model for service. Our

expectation of the sort of attitude from our employees. Indication of what we expected if you join

us)

3 2

Story 4 Level of value expression: implicit (a long history for the company’s operation in China back before 1920s

and showed the company’s commitment to the market in the past and today. Showed how is the company valuing its tradition and recognizing its

employees’ service)

5 6

Story 5 Level of value expression: explicit (HR department has a systemic process in turning new hire into a successful executive. Welcome to be one of us)

2 3

Story 6 Level of value expression: explicit (the organization is recognized as the best place to work for by the

market and our success lies in our company’s culture of taking care of our associates)

4 1

Interpretation of the ranking results:

For Group A participants, their most preferred organization to work for is represented by

career story 2 with implicit expression of organizational value while their least preferred

organization to work for is represented by story 6 with explicit expression organizational

value. By relating Group A’s ranking results to their core identities, it appears an

alignment. Group A participants were mostly motivated by “independence”, “autonomy”

and “individuality”. As such their ranking results reflected their preferences for stories

that promoted value congruence as elicited from story 2, which reaffirms the respect for

“individuality” attributes and offered a platform for one to pursue an independent, rather

than an imposed path towards success. This ranking result resonates with the

feedback from the interviews conducted earlier in self-exploration of participants’ ideal

self in career that Group A participants’ pursuit of freedom, life style and independence

from the influence imposed by their parents. The result also showed that story 6 was

least preferred by Group A participants as the expression of organizational values are

too explicit by claiming their organization is the “best employer”. Group A participants

don’t like the imposed accolade as they trust more of their own judgment so they don’t

want to be told that what the best is for them. In general, Group A participants wanted

to stand out from the competition and be different from the crowds. They prefer an

organization that can provide them with a platform and flexibility so that their career

progress can be fast-tracked. This resonates with Group A participants’ current job as a

voyager which is a fast-tracked program to develop managers.

For Group B participants, their most preferred organization to work for is represented by

story 6 with explicit expression that they are the best employer while their least


preferred organization to work for is represented by story 4 with less clear expression of

how the organization is going to facilitate your career success. By relating Group B’s

ranking results to their core identities, it also appears an alignment. Group B

participants were mostly motivated by “Solidarity, “Family First”, “Realism” and

“Conformity”. As such their ranking results reflected their preferences for stories that

promoted the organization as the best employer as story 6 that such organization holds

strong value proposition and provide certainty to be successful as long as you are able

to conform to its beheld culture and value. This ranking result resonates with the

feedback from the interviews conducted earlier in self-exploration of participants’ ideal

self in career that Group B participants’ pursuit of “Solidarity” and “Conformity” as their

way to be successful. The result also showed that story 4 was least preferred by Group

B participants as there are uncertainties on how to be successful and the associated

returns from it. Group B participants don’t like too many uncertainties as they pursue

absolute clarity on how to be successful preferably with structured career path. They

prefer organizations providing equal opportunities so their socioeconomic background is

not treated as disadvantageous for their desire to become success.

From the above findings, it appears that participants from both Group A and B tended to

select organizations with espoused values aligned with their group’s motivational drivers

which are the key components of their ideal self in career. The self-referencing effect

did apply to certain extent in participants’ selection of organizations to work for.

In addition, the juxtaposition of the rankings of Group A participants and Group B

participants highlights the differences of their preference of organizations to work for.

For example the most preferred career stories for Group A participants is story 2 while

42


for Group B participants story 2 is one of the least preferred ones as ranked as number

5. For Group B participants, story 6 is most preferred while it is one of the least

preferred ones by Group A participants ranked as number 4. This almost converse

result reflects the distinction of Group A and B participants’ socioeconomic background

and the influence it has in their pursuit of different ideal self in career.

Managerial Implications:

This research study has significant implications for organizations that are seeking to

enhance their employment marketing strategy by identifying the unique characteristics

of their desired job seekers, which influence how they choose their potential employers.

As storytelling, in the form of career stories, is a major vehicle for organizations to

convey their culture and core values, ensuring that the story is matching the desired job

seekers’ ideal self in career by elevating the self-referencing effect is critical. This

means that the conventional way of deploying “one size fits all” approach in employment

marketing will not likely produce the desired outcome as job seekers’ ideal self in career

varies from their socioeconomic background.

Corporate executives should carefully analyze their targeted prospective workforce with

regards to their unique socioeconomic background including their upbringing, as well as

their family, education and social backgrounds, in order to determine their ideal selves

in their careers. Corporate stories have to be re-created or purposely selected to

ensure that the messages projected match the ideal selves of targeted potential

employees. Essentially, when organizations craft their talent attraction strategies, they

43


should emulate the consumer marketing approach in understanding job seekers

behaviors and motivation drivers. In the process of elevating the importance of self-

referencing, they would then be able to tailor their storytelling strategy to trigger within

their targeted job seekers the desire to join their organization.

Limitations

This research study was conducted with a very small sample of participants (11

participants in two separate groups). The size of the sample meant that the findings

could not be generalizable to a larger population. Nevertheless, this research study

offers a springboard for future research into the areas of understanding the self-

referencing effect from storytelling in employment marketing and the correlations with

job seekers’ preference of organizations to work for.

In addition, the participants were divided from the beginning into two groups based on

their socioeconomic background. This approach had constricted the research study by

focusing on the commonalities within the group with sacrificing addressing the

individual’s uniqueness. This approach obviously helped in understanding common

characteristics for a targeted group of job seekers from similar socioeconomic

background however was not able to address the unique characteristics varying from

one to another within the same group of job seekers.

Lastly, as the study, including the interviews and the sample stories, was conducted in

Chinese, meanings of concepts could have been lost in translation.

44


Suggestions for Future Research

Based on the aforementioned limitations, future research should be done with a larger

sample of participants from different markets. A far more diverse sample group would

have provided richer information by taking into account the personal values and

backgrounds of different nationalities. Age and gender could also be additional

variables that could be considered in these research studies. In addition, the future

research study could be conducted with actual job seekers in the market.

Finally, besides the common core identities of a target group of participants with similar

socioeconomic background, there are far more diversity from one individual to another

thus it can enrich our understanding of job seekers’ self-identity and motivational drivers

in career.

Conclusion

The war for talent is in full swing (Buhler, 2007). What is the future of employment

marketing for companies in an ever competitive market where talent seems scarce? In

the words of Danish philosopher - Kierkegaard (1843) “The tragedy of life is that you

only understand it backward but you have to live it forward”. Based on the research

study, the adoption of the storytelling approach that emulates what is done in consumer

45


marketing seems promising. Career stories can be a powerful vehicle for conveying an

organization’s values and culture in a way that could trigger a strong self-referencing

effect on job seekers in their selection of organizations to work for. Given the

competitiveness of the talent market in Asia, differentiation becomes ever more critical

for every company, regardless of its strength or brand name. Although a job seeker’s

selection of the organization to work for is a personal decision, it is still vital for

organizations to project their strengths in the right format and the right strategy in order

to maintain their edge in a market driven by job seekers.

Creating an appropriate story targeted at the desired job seekers requires a profound

understanding of the job market and each segment of the targeted talents. It also

requires a profound examination of the vision and values of one’s organization so that

they can be properly integrated with the storytelling strategy. Furthermore, an in-depth

study of the talent market landscape, as well as the upbringing, family and social

background of the targeted job seekers is needed, in order to be able to identify

precisely what are the motivational drivers of your targeted job seekers. Moreover, the

storytelling strategy should be aligned with the ideal selves of the targeted job seekers

in order to prompt the self-referencing effect.

Ultimately, employment marketing is about marketing and storytelling is a major vehicle.

However, storytelling should not only be about promoting the awareness of your

employer brand as this might not be sufficient in attracting the right talents for the

organization. This should be a sophisticated process of focusing on nurturing a rich and

caring internal culture, followed by the alignment of the management vision with the

storytelling strategy. Storytelling is all about authenticity that the leaders of an

46


organization need to be true to your selves in terms of what the organization is and what

it stands for. Creating an inauthentic story caries risk of attracting the wrong people to

the organization, this will eventually jeopardize the reputation of the organization. Thus,

an opportunity to promote an accurate image of the organization in the job market would

have been missed. Storytelling in employment marketing needs to be aligned with the

organizations’ culture and core values.

47


Bibliography

Aaker, J. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research,

34(3), 347-356.

Adamson, G., Pine, J., Van Steenhoven, T, & Kroupa, J. (2006). How storytelling can

drive strategic change. Strategy & Leadership, 34(1), 36 _41.

Barkow, J. H., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). The adapted mind: Evolutionary

psychology and the generation of culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Baumeister, R.F. (1998), “The self”’ In D.T. Gilbert, S.T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey, (Eds), The

handbook of social psychology, 4th ed., pp. 680-740)., New York, NY,: McGraw-

Hill.

Belk, R. W. (1988)., “Possessions and the extended self.”, Journal of Consumer

Research, 15, (2), 139_168.

Boje, D.M. (2008). Storytelling Organisations. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Book, E. H., (2014), Faculty Slide Page 15, Executive Master in Consulting & Coaching

for Change: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Dynamics

48


Boyatzis, R. E. & Akrivou, K. (2006)., “The ideal self as the driver of intentional change”.

Journal of Management Development, 25, (7), 624_642.

Brown, J.S., (2005)., Storytelling in organizations: Why storytelling is transforming 21st

century organizations and management.: Routledge.

Bruner J. S. (1990) Acts of meaning: Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England.

Harvard University Press

Buhler, P. M (2007). Managing in the new millennium: ten keys to better hiring. The

online archive of management magazines retrieved from HighBeam Research

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170782838.html

Burke, R. (2006). Leadership and spirituality. Foresight, 5(6), 14-25.

Burke, R. (2006). Leadership and spirituality. Foresight, 8(6), 14-25.

Buss, D.M. (2012). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind (4th ed.).

Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Chase, S. (2005) Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In Denzin, N.K.

& Lincoln, Y.S. (eds) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research. 3rd edition. pp.

651-679. Thousand Oaks, London, & New Delhi: Sage Publications.

49


Chu, S.-C., & Kim, Y. (2011). Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic

word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. International Journal of

Advertising, 30(1), 47_75.

Denning, S. (2006). Effective storytelling: Strategic business narrative techniques.

Strategy & Leadership, 34, 42-48.

Denning, S. (2007a). The secret language of leadership: How leaders inspire action

through narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Denning, S. (2007b). Learn the language of leadership. Retrieved from

http://www.stevedenning.com/Business-Narrative^definitions-of-story-and-

narrative.aspx.

Duan, C., & Hill, C .E. (1996). The current state of empathy research. Journal of

counseling psychology, 43(3), 261.

Edell, J. A. & Burke, M.C. (1987). The power of feelings in understanding advertising

effects. Journal of Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Rsearch Inc.

Fog, K., (2010)., Storytelling: Branding in practice. Denmark: Samfundslitteratur.

50


Fog, K., Budtz, C, & Yakaboylu, B. (2005). Storytelling: Branding in practice. Berlin:

Springer.

Folkes, V.S. (1988). Recent attribution research in consumer behavior: A review and

new directions. Journal of Consumer Research, (14) 548-565.

Gabriel, Y., (2000). Storytelling in organizations: Facts, fictions, fantasies. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

Gabriel, Y., (2008). Seduced by the text: The desire to be deceived in story, memoir and

drama. Tamara Journa.l, 7, (2)

Godin, S. (2005). All marketers are liars, Learn to show and sell your story. Sales and

Service Excellence, Executive Excellence Publishing. 5, pp. 7

Groopman, J. (2004), The anatomy of hope: How people prevail in the face of illness,

New York, NY: Random House

Hendry, P.M. (2007). The future of narrative. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(4), 487_498.

Higgins, E.T. (1989), “Self-discovery theory: What patterns of self– beliefs cause people

to suffer?”, In L. Berkowitz, (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology,

Vol. 22, (pp. 93-136)., New York, NY: Academic Press

51


Holbrook, M. B. & Batra, R. (1987). Assessing the role of emotions as mediators of

consumer responses to advertising. Journal of Consumer Research. 14., (3)

(pp.404 – 420).

Hopkinson, G.C. & Hogarth-Scott, S. (2001). " What happened was..." broadening the

agenda for storied research. Journal of Marketing Management, 17(1 - 2), 27- 47.

Huy, Q., & Shipilov, A (2012). The key to social media success within organizations,

MITSloan Management Review, 54, (1), pp. 429

Ioffreda, A., & Gargiulo, T. (2008). Who's telling stories? Communication World, 25(1),

37 - 39.

Kadembo, E. M. (2012) Anchored in the story: The core of human understanding,

branding, education, socialisation and the shaping of values: The Marketing

Review, 2012, 12, (3), pp. 221 - 231

Kearney, M. (2011). A learning design for student-generated digital storytelling.

Learning, Media and Technology 36(2), 169 - 188.

Kierkegaard, S. A. (1843)., Journals IV A 164. Retrieved from

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

52


Kleine, S.S., Kleine, III, R. E., & Allen, C.T. (1995)., “How is a possession ‘me’ or ‘not

me’? Characterizing types and an antecedent of material possession

attachment?”, Journal of Consumer Research, 22, (3), pp. 327 - 343.

Kuiper, N. A., & Rogers, T. B. (1979), Encoding of personal information: Self-other

differences. Journal of Personality and social psychology, 37, 499 - 514.

Langner, S., Hennigs, N. and Wiedmann, K. (2013). “Social persuasion: Targeting

social identities through social influencers”, The Journal of Consumer Marketing,

30, (1), pp. 31 - 49.

Lapp, CA., & Carr, A.N. (2008). Coaching can be storyselling: Creating change through

crises of confidence. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 21(5), 532

- 559.

Long, S. (2013). Socioanalytic methods: Discovering the hidden in organizations and

social systems. London. Karnac Books Ltd.

McAdams, D. P. (2006). The redemptive self: Stories Americans live by. New York:

Oxford University Press.

53


Nasby, W. (1997). “Self-consciousness and cognitive prototypes of the ideal self”.

Journal of Research in Personality, 31, 543 - 63

Neuhauser, P. (1993). Corporate legends and lore: The power of storytelling as a

management tool. New York, NY. McGraw – Hill.

Oliver, R. (1999). “Whence customer loyalty?” Journal of Marketing, 63, (Special Issue),

33 - 44.

Papadatos, C. (2006). The art of storytelling: How loyalty marketers can build emotional

connections to their brands. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 23(7), 382 - 384.

Perrow, S. (2007). The power of story: Touching the heart of learning. Kindred

Community., Retrieved from www.kindredcommunity.com/the-power-

ofstorytelling-touching-the-heart-of-learning-, 23.04.2010.

Pinker, S. (1995). The language instinct. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.

Polkinghorne, D. E., (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, N. Y.

Suny Press.

54


Reed, II, A. (2004), “Activating the self-importance of consumer selves: Exploring

identity salience effects on judgments”., Journal of Consumer Research, 3, (2),

286 - 295.

Reissman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. London &

Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Ryan, R. M. and Deci. E. L (2000) Self-determination theory and the facilitation of

intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist,

55(1), 68 - 78.

Schecter, D. A. (1974). “The ideal self and other”, Contemporary Pyschoanalysis, 10,

(1), 103 - 15.

Sood, S. & Forehand, M. (2005). On self-referencing differences in judgment and choice.

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 98(2), 144 - 154.

Stern, B. B. (1991). Who talks advertising? Literary theory and narrative “point of view”.

Journal of Advertising, 20(3), 9 - 22.

Stern, B. B. (1994). Classical and vignette television advertising dramas: Structural

models, formal analysis, and consumer effects. Journal of Consumer Research.

20, 601 – 615.

55


Sujan, M., Bettman J.R., & Baumgartner, H., (1993). Influencing consumer judgments

using autobiographical memories: A self-referencing perspective. Journal of

Marketing Research. 30, 422 – 436.

Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. (1979), “An integrative theory of intergroup conflict”, In W. G.

Austin, & S. Worchel, S. (Eds), The social psychology of intergroup relations, 33

– 47, Monterey, CA. Brooks-Cole.

Tilottama G., Chowdhury K., Kaushik D., & Lisa B. (2014), "Accentuate the positive:

how identity affects customer satisfaction", Journal of Consumer Marketing, 31,

(5), 371 – 379.

West, P. M., Huber, J., & Min, K. S. (2004). Altering experienced utility: The impact of

story writing and self - referencing on preferences. Journal of Consumer

Research, 31(3), 623 - 630.

Yang, C., (2013)., Telling tales at work: An evolutionary explanation, Business

Communication Quarterly., 76(2)., 132 – 154.

Young, K., & Saver, J. L. (2001). The neurology of narrative. Substance: A Review of

Theory and Literary Criticism, 30(1 & 2), 72 - 84.

56

[lu, bill chang] executive ma thesis 2015

Documents