Job attributes: Preferences compared with reasons given for accepting and rejecting job offers

Applicants of a large chemical company completed an adapted Job Preferences Form (Jurgensen, 1978) and, after making a job offer decision, indicated the importance of the same attributes in their decision to accept or reject the offer. This study investigated which job attributes applicants reported they preferred in a job, which attributes applicants indicated influenced their job offer decision, and whether the preferred attributes actually were important in the job offer decision. The majority of applicants ranked type of work as the most preferred job attribute. There were differences, however, in the reasons applicants gave for accepting or rejecting the job offer. Specifically, the job was rejected because of the location and accepted because of the type of work. A comparison of job attribute preferences with the importance of those attributes in the employment decision suggested that preferences were more similar to reasons given for accepting than for rejecting the job. Finally, the implications of the finding that applicants accept and reject jobs for different reasons were discussed, and it was suggested that applicants may be using a non‐compensatory decision process.