A Process Without Honor?

Last week I wrote a post wondering how colleges and universities that are less obviously desirable places to work can compete for strong candidates.

Many of the responses to that post, as well as numerous discussions on The Chronicle‘s forums, stress that many institutions fail to attract strong candidates because of a lack of honesty about salaries, workloads, working conditions, and so on. Job candidates are generally smart people, and can spot disingenuous behavior and find it off-putting.

Is it just fear of telling the truth about a college’s specific circumstances that drives this behavior, or has the faculty-hiring process developed traditions of dishonesty that ultimately benefit neither hiring institutions nor candidates?

What are the limits of truth for a hiring institution?