On April 10, we welcomed Dr. Moritz Appels (Erasmus University Rotterdam) to the TransforM Seminar Series in Munich. Dr. Appels is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Rotterdam School of Management, where his research focuses on the relationship between strategic leadership, social evaluations, and broader societal change.

In his presentation, Moritz introduced his Attraction via Firm-CEO Attribution (AFCA) model, which explains how job seekers draw inferences about CEO characteristics from observable firm-level signals. Focusing on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the research shows how job seekers attribute such activities to CEOs’ political ideologies and use these inferences to assess their fit with organizational leadership and anticipated work experiences. The findings highlight how CEO-level evaluations emerge from firm-level cues and influence employer choice.

The discussion that followed engaged with the broader implications of cross-level attribution processes and the role of signaling in shaping employer attractiveness. Participants reflected on how job seekers interpret organizational actions and translate them into expectations about leadership and workplace environments.

We thank Dr. Appels for visiting and sharing his work with the TransforM community.