Recruiting Experienced Educators: A Model and a Test.

Abstract

Recent recruitment studies have advanced a theory of recruitment-as-job marketing. This study developed a model for recruiting experienced educators and extended the recruitement-as-marketing theory to include the following proposition : recruitment practices have marketing practice couterparts that inform recruitment program design. A laboratory experiment was conducted to assess the utility of the model as a framework for investigating educational recruitment practices, and as a tool for informing administrative practice. Experienced teachers served as participants. Using formal position advertisements as the recruitment medium, and a 2 x 2 x 3 experimental design, three independant variables were examined : (a) job attributes, (b) job message tone, and (c) stimulus to apply. Position advertisements were constructed as specified by the proposed model and by the underlying recruitment-as-marketing theory. Participant reactions were more favorable when advertisements contained intrinsic job attributes, a personal tone, and a stimulus to apply. Implications for theory, administrative practice, and future educational research are discussed