The Boundaries of a Small Company's Human Voice: Insights into Dark Humour in Internet Recruitment Advertising

This study develops a framework on how a small company's human tone of voice involving dark humour can be communicated in Internet recruitment advertising. A case study approach with an abductive logic provided a synthesis of the different recruitment communication perspectives [sender, message, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)] and a dark humour tone of voice used in a small company's Internet recruitment advertising in a holistic framework. The developed framework was able to demonstrate the dynamics related to a tone of voice based on dark humour from different communication perspectives in Internet recruitment advertising, and the process of how the limits for an acceptable human tone of voice are formed. Further, the study proposed a new definition for eWOM in recruitment advertising which included a human tone of voice as a relevant aspect of eWOM. For managers, the boundaries of the human tone of voice, in this case dark humour, should be handled as it might become an irritating employer brand message element and might negatively affect the construction of a positive and consistent employer image.