The brand of a university as an employer

Abstract

The brand of a university as an employer entails its particular identity or image as an academic institution. Often looked at as an asset, the brand of a university determines its reputation as an employer among current and future employees. This study assesses how the employer brand of the University of Tehran affects this academic institution’s capability to attract, to retain and to inspire its current and future faculty members. Current faculty responses are seen as internal consequences, while the potential faculty responses are pegged as the academic institution’s external moments. Based on 308 electronic questionnaires distributed among the study participants, an employer-brand conceptual model was analyzed according to the data gleaned from 86 current faculty members and 222 students. The results show that the brand of a university as an employer might have a significant effect on an academic institution’s internal and external consequences, regarding organizational commitment and employee retention, yet no significant relation was established between job satisfaction and employee productivity. Despite the study’s limitations, the article offers future-research directions as well as policymaking recommendations.