During the years, research has been conducted both regarding employer attractiveness, extended self, and Generation Z. The theories and the concept have sometimes been examined alone and sometimes some of them together. Furthermore, the commonly used EmpAt scale has been used quantitatively several times, but the qualitative use of it is more rare. Additionally, the extended self focus has previously been on consumer brands instead of employer brands. It was found that the theories and the concept have not been brought together in the particular qualitative way the authors intended to do. The aim of this thesis was to bring the three concepts together and fill the gap in the literature. More precisely, the aim was to find a connection between employer attractiveness and extended self, and apply the connection to Gen Z. By bringing them together, the purpose was to examine newly graduates or soon to graduate Gen Z’s perceptions on what actually makes an employer attractive and create a more nuanced understanding. Something that was examined with the help of the extended self and employer attractiveness. The literature review presents the theories and the concept that later lays the foundation for the conceptual framework. The study was deductive, and the approach was qualitative. The conceptual framework was used in order to develop the interview guide that was used for the semi structured interviews. The individuals participating in the interviews were Gen Z that had or currently were studying a degree in Business Administration or Industrial Engineering and Management. The findingings showcased that the participants' descriptions of what an attractive employer is correlated with characteristics and traits they themselves have. Which the EmpAt dimensions does not consider. However, EA acknowledges this to an extent. Furthermore, the findings showed that there were two factors that were not considered by the EmpAt dimensions that the participants found important. These were transparency and communication. Additionally, two dimensions were found to be more important than the rest for the collective. The two most important ones were social value as well as development value. This was important since the individuals found it crucial to have a good social environment and be able to develop within the employer. The other four dimensions were not of as great importance for the collective, but some individual participants found one or another more important. Therefore, illustrating that the importance of the dimensions are based on personal preference. The findings also showed that the participants related the employer brand and social environment to their extended self. This by discussing the same or similar traits and attributes when talking about themselves and a potential employer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-107447 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Brömster, Ebba, Jatko, Lina |
| Publisher | Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik, konst och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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