Faculty of Economics and Business Master Human Resource Management A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Personnel Selection

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Faculty of Economics and Business

Master Human Resource Management

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Personnel Selection

September 2, 2012

ANNA PECK (1698176) Starenweg 9, 59469 Ense, Germany

+ 49 (0)160 547 1003 S1698176@student.rug.nl

University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business Supervisor: Hans van Polen

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ABSTRACT

Purpose: Investigating how personnel selection differs around the world. This is important, as today recruiting activities go beyond national boundaries. I explored how the competencies,

assertiveness, innovative capability, team orientation, and strategic thinking are measured

and assessed during personnel selection processes and on which aspects recruiters place special emphasis.

Methodology: I conducted 34 semi-structured interviews with HR employees in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

Results: In all countries, focusing on achievements of applicants is a common method to assess competencies. A behavior-based approach is applied in China, Germany, and Russia. In Brazil, China, and Russia reference checks are frequently used. In the USA stress-inducing interviews are applied.

Value: I depicted existence of cultural differences in personnel selection. This gives an impetus for future research on that topic and is of practical usage for recruiters and job applicants in an intercultural environment.

Key words: Recruiting, personnel selection, intercultural environment, Brazil, China,

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION... 4

2. THERORETICAL BACKGROUND ... 7

2.1 Hofstede ... 8

2.2 GLOBE study... 9

2.3 The countries´ scores on the nine GLOBE-dimensions ... 11

2.4 Personnel selection methods ... 13

3. METHOD... 14 3.1 Procedure ... 14 3.2. Participants ... 15 3.3 Measures... 15 4. RESULTS... 17 4.1 Hypothesis 1 ... 18 4.2 Hypothesis 2 ... 20 4.3 Hypothesis 3 ... 22 4.4 Hypothesis 4 ... 25 4.5 Other results... 26 5. DISCUSSION ... 30

5.1 Discussion of the results ... 30

5.2 Practical implications ... 33

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research ... 35

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1. INTRODUCTION

The world moves closer together due to an increasing social, political, and economical integration. Companies stop operating merely in their home countries, but often act in different countries around the globe (International Labor Organization, 2004). For companies, globalization offers on the one hand opportunities, such as increased free trade, greater ease and speed of transportation for goods and people, facilitated communication in terms of time and money. On the other hand, acting across countries provides challenges for companies – a major challenge is caused due to differences in culture (Cox Jr. & Blake, 1991). According to Cox Jr. and Blake (1991) holding companies, which recruit staff for their subsidiaries outside their “home country” should pay attention to cultural differences that might arise.

This topic is the subject of my master thesis project: I will examine how recruiters in different countries proceed in personnel selection processes and on what aspects they put special emphasis – due to different values and practices in their countries.

Obviously, personnel selection in a cross-cultural context requires certain knowledge of the HR staff about culture specific behavior. Otherwise recruiters conducting cross-cultural job interviews might be subject to unconscious biases, such as the halo effect (Choon-Hwa, Winter, & Chan, 2006). To make objective selection decisions about candidates with a different cultural background, recruiters need to know how the competencies of interest are assessed in that particular culture and as how important they are regarded.

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To summarize cultural similarities and differences among the 62 societies, societal clusters are built of countries scoring similar on the nine dimensions (House et al., 2004). The result is a division in ten clusters; Nordic Europe, Anglo, Germanic Europe, Latin Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East Confucian Asia, Southern Asia, and Latin America (see figure 1).

FIGURE 1

Country Clusters According to GLOBE adopted from House et al. (2004)

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(UNFPA-Weltbevölkerungsbericht 2011, 2012). The statistical probability to receive a job applicant from one of the above mentioned countries is therefore higher than for countries with a relatively small population size.

I will investigate how, in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA four different competencies are assessed and as how important they are considered. I selected the competencies innovative capability, assertiveness, strategic thinking, and team orientation. These competencies cover different areas: innovative capability is a business competence, assertiveness refers to a personal competence, strategic thinking is a methodological competence and team orientation can be described as a social competence. The decision for these competencies is based on the following reasons: Innovative capability is a crucial competency for managers as Carmeli, Gelbard, and Gefen (2010) state. After analyzing data from 117 firms they came to the conclusion that innovative leaders significantly enhance firm performance. For this reason I included innovative capability in my research. The second competency assertiveness, I chose to investigate, as Ames and Flynn (2007) found out that a moderate level of assertiveness is a facilitator of leadership success. Strategic thinking, I included in my research as executives’ lack of strategic thinking is mentioned by Bonn (2001) as major problem in companies. In addition, Goldman (2008) claims that as the environment is getting increasingly complex, strategic thinking skills are required for managers regardless of the organizational level. I investigate the competency team orientation, as according to Stagl, Salas and Burke (2007) team oriented leaders are an important factor in influencing the performance of work teams and by this, their success. This is noteworthy, as nowadays, companies increasingly rely on work teams (Baker, Day, & Salas, 2006). Furthermore, my selection of the four competencies was confirmed by an expert interview with Tim Riedel, Managing Director of the recruiting company Interpool Personal GmbH. Tim Riedel claims, that companies very frequently search for job applicants who possess the above mentioned competencies.

As discussed above Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA are described as very diverging countries according to the outcomes of the GLOBE study (House et al., 2004). Consequently, I expect the four competencies to be assessed in diverging ways and considered to be of different importance. Therefore, I would like to address the following research question:

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The objective of answering this research question is to make a theoretically and practically useful contribution to a relatively unexplored field of research, namely personnel selection in a cross-cultural environment. A further goal is to deduce guidance for recruiters from the results, in order to provide assistance for intercultural personnel selection situations in dealing with candidates from different cultural backgrounds. With the goal that recruiters in future will know which aspects need special consideration. On the other hand I want to derive implications for applicants who search a job abroad. So that they know which differences or similarities exit compared to their country of origin. To answer the research question I will investigate the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The competency “assertiveness” is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

Hypothesis 2: The competency “innovative capability” is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

Hypothesis 3: The competency “team orientation” is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

Hypothesis 4: The competency “strategic thinking” is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

In the upcoming section “Theoretical Background”, the research question is further elaborated and related to underlying concepts, like insights from cross cultural research and how personnel is generally selected. It is followed by the section “Method”, in which I will explain in detail how I conducted the research. The outcomes from this research are subsequently presented in the section “Results”. In the “Discussion”, there is a critical connection made between the contents of the theory section and the results section. These results lead to new theoretical speculations and give rise to suggestions for new research that can be conducted, and finally, new practical lessons that can be learned.

2. THERORETICAL BACKGROUND

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2.1 Hofstede

The foundation for research on cultures in work places was laid by the Dutch social psychologist, Geert Hofstede (Oudenhoven van, 2002) in the 1960s/1970s with his broadly set up study on IBM employees. Hofstede did research on values of employees. He analyzed data of more than 110,000 IBM employees in over 50 countries. According to Hofstede´s research outcomes, nations can be described along five dimensions on which they differ. The dimensions are power distance, collectivism versus individualism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and short term versus long-term orientation, see Table 1 for definitions of the dimensions.

TABLE 1

Hofstede´s Cultural Dimensions (Oudenhoven van, 2002)

Dimension Description

Power Distance Countries scoring high on this dimension accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Low power distance countries expect a more equal distribution of power.

Collectivism versus Individualism Individualistic societies emphasize personal achievements and individual rights. Collectivistic societies value groups, communities and extended families. This dimension does not refer to politics. Masculinity versus Femininity Masculine societies value competitiveness,

assertiveness, materialism, and power, feminine cultures in contrast place more value on relationships and quality of life.

Uncertainty Avoidance This dimension refers to the degree of avoiding uncertainty, by planning, rules, laws and regulations. Short term versus Long term

Orientation

This dimension describes the orientation towards the time horizon.

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was conducted within one company. This reduces generalizability. Lastly, the data was collected during the 1960s/1970s, therefore changes in values are possible. An example for sudden changes in values in Germany was the event of its reunification.

2.2 GLOBE study

A comprehensive cross-cultural research project that overcomes Hofstede´s shortcomings is GLOBE (House et al., 2004). As mentioned in the introductory part, GLOBE identified nine dimensions along which societal and organizational cultures can be described. A dimension consists of two scales, one asks for practices within a society (as-is state) and the other asks for values (to-be state) (House et al., 2004). Below, you find an overview of the nine GLOBE-dimensions as well as a short description of each. Five of the dimensions, in-group collectivism, power distance, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness and uncertainty avoidance, are based on the work of Hofstede. The remaining dimensions, as institutional collectivism, performance orientation, future orientation, and humane orientation, have different research origins (House et al., 2010).

2.2.1 Dimension “in-group collectivism”. The dimension in-group collectivism refers

to “the degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families”, (House et al., 2010). Societies that score high on the dimension in-group collectivism are characterized by strong distinctions between in- and out-in-groups, emphasis on relatedness with groups, a slower pace of life, and the fact that duties are seen as important determinants of social behavior. In contrast, societies that score low show less distinction between in- and out-groups, emphasis on rationality in behavior and needs and attitudes of the individual are important determinants of behavior (House et al., 2010).

2.2.2 Dimension “power distance”. According to GLOBE (House et al., 2010) power

distance expresses the extent to which societies have and support differences in status,

authority, and power. This variable is especially important, as it has a vast influence on the culture of a society. Communities scoring high on power distance are societies that are strongly separated into classes with a constricted upward social mobility. Furthermore, resources and information are only available to a few. Low power distance societies usually have a large middle class, power is associated with coercion and corruption, upward social mobility is common, and resources and information are largely available.

2.2.3 Dimension “gender egalitarianism”. Gender egalitarianism represents the

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participating in the work force, a higher percentage of women in positions of authority and of women having more influence in decision-making processes in community affairs. In addition, less segregation in the work context based on sex and similar levels of education for men and women can be found (House et al., 2010).

2.2.4 Dimension “assertiveness”. The dimension assertiveness indicates to what

extent individuals show assertiveness and aggression and are confrontational when dealing with other people. Countries that score high on this dimension typically put emphasis on competition, success, and progress. The communication is straight and unambiguous. Furthermore, individuals try to control their environment, and leaders expect their subordinates to take initiative. In highly assertive societies, trust is built upon calculation. Generally, people value what someone does and not who he/she is. It is different in less assertive societies; there, value is placed on cooperation and relationships. Communication is more indirect and people try to “save face”. The environment should be harmonious. People value who someone is and not what the person does. Bosses expect their employees to be loyal and trust is not built upon calculation but on predictability (House et al., 2010).

2.2.5 Dimension “uncertainty avoidance”. The dimension uncertainty avoidance

describes the degree to which “society, an organization or a group relies on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events” (House et al., 2010). A high degree of uncertainty avoidance corresponds amongst others with highly formalized interactions with others, written forms of contracts, a resistance to change and a low tolerance for breaking rules (House et al., 2010). Contrary, societies that are less uncertainty avoidant display more informal interactions with others, trust is more important than written contracts, less change resistance and more tolerance for breaking rules (House et al., 2010). The following dimensions, institutional collectivism, performance orientation, future orientation, and humane orientation, are, as already mentioned, not based on the work of Hofstede but have different origins.

2.2.6 Dimension “institutional collectivism”. Institutional collectivism is similar to

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2010).

2.2.7 Dimension “performance orientation”. Societies that score high on the

dimension performance orientation highly value properties such as quality, innovation, training and development, ambition, assertiveness, competitiveness and achievements (House et al., 2010). This is different from societies that score low on this dimension; there emphasis is on relationships, loyalty, tradition, harmony, seniority and experience, and the person itself rather its achievements (House et al., 2010).

2.2.8 Dimension “future orientation”. The dimension future orientation contains

behavior that is oriented towards the future, e.g. planning and long-term thinking. Societies that can be described as future-oriented display saving-behavior, organizations have a long-term strategic focus, and strong economic achievements (House et al., 2010). Contrary, countries that have a lower score on this dimension tend to spend money now, instead of saving it for the future. The organizations pursue short-term strategies and the level of economic success is generally lower than in future oriented societies (House et al., 2010).

2.2.9 Dimension “humane orientation”. The last dimension of the GLOBE-study,

humane orientation is defined as “the degree to which an organization or society encourages

and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others". In highly humane oriented societies others are more important than the self. Values like love, altruism, benevolence, and kindness play a critical role. Protection for the individual is induced by personal and family relationships. Children in those societies are expected to be obedient in humane oriented societies (House et al., 2010). These characteristics are opposite to societies that score low on this dimension. In these countries self-interest is more common than interest for others. Central values are pleasure, self-enjoyment, and comfort. Social and economic protection for the individual is guaranteed by a welfare state. Children grow up with the understanding to be autonomous individuals (House et al., 2010).

2.3 The countries´ scores on the nine GLOBE-dimensions

Next, I will display how the five countries that I investigate score on the nine dimensions of the GLOBE study (House et al., 2010). As mentioned above, each dimension includes a value-scale (to-be state) and a practice-scale (as-is state). The results are divided in low -, medium -, and high scores. For each country, I will concentrate on the dimensions with low or high scores. For the detailed results of all nine dimensions find Table 15 in the Appendix.

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important to society. In practice, assertiveness and performance orientation are lived, although the value-scores for those two dimensions are low. The USA show low scores for the values connected to the dimension uncertainty avoidance. This means they appreciate informal interactions, low resistance to change and little concern with orderliness and maintenance of records. The USA value institutional individualism. Typical for this are short-term relationships between employees and their employers, wages are related to individual performance. Pro-social behavior and organizational commitment are less prevalent. On the other dimensions the scores for either values or practices are in the mid-range.

2.3.2 China. Within the Chinese society, assertiveness and uncertainty avoidance are

highly valued. Uncertainty avoidance received as well a high score on the practice-scale of this dimension. Another high scoring practice is collectivism (in-group and institutional); interestingly, collectivism is only low (in-group) to medium (institutional) valued. This shows a discrepancy between how collectivism is valued and lived in practice. A further high scoring practice is performance orientation. Gender egalitarianism is less valued in China, as well as performance- and future orientation.

2.3.3 Germany. In Germany, the only dimension that has a high score on a value-scale

is gender egalitarianism, in contrast, on the practice-scale of this dimension, Germany has a medium score. But the practices are somewhat different. On the practice-scales the dimensions assertiveness, future orientation, and uncertainty avoidance reach high results. Surprisingly, uncertainty avoidance has a low score, as it “should be”, on the value scale. Another less important value in Germany is in-group collectivism; it is low rated on the practice scale as well. The dimensions assertiveness and future orientation also score low on the value-scales. Practices that are categorized as less common are in-group collectivism, institutional collectivism and humane orientation. This last result is especially striking. All five reviewed countries except Germany have mid-scores on the practice- and the value-scale for this dimension. Germany scores low on the practice side of humane orientation. Typical for those societies area state providing social and economic support, people expecting to solve their problems on their own, and people being motivated by power and material possessions.

2.3.4 Russia. Russia scores high on the value-scale of the dimension uncertainty

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performance- and future orientation.

2.3.5 Brazil. In Brazil, high emphasis is put on the values gender egalitarianism, future

orientation and institutional collectivism. Interestingly on the practice-scale of the dimension institutional collectivism Brazil has a low score, meaning a gap between wish and reality. On the value-scales Brazils shows low results for in-group collectivism, power distance, and assertiveness. On the practice scale the picture is different, here uncertainty avoidance and performance orientation have a low score.

2.4 Personnel selection methods

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3. METHOD

In the upcoming section “Method” I will describe the research methodology used for my thesis. I will introduce the procedure, participants and measures to provide the reader with the methodological foundation of my thesis.

3.1 Procedure

In order to find answers for my research questions I conducted semi-structured interviews, on the one hand to guarantee a standard for comparability and on the other hand to gather quantitative data. The topic of personnel selection in an intercultural context is a relatively unexplored field of research. Therefore, an interview is an appropriate method to gather qualitative data (Boyce & Neale, 2006). Interpool Personal GmbH, a German personnel consultancy specialized on international recruitment, supported me with arranging contacts with recruiters for the purpose of interviewing. Additionally, I contacted responsibles working in the field of HR via the international professional social networking website Linked in and via the German professional social networking website Xing. I sent messages with the request to participate in an interview on competency assessment. Secondly, I posted my request in groups of networks like “recruiting specialists in the US” or “HR professionals in Russia”.

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management and leadership positions in their home country, how and how often the competency is measured. During the interviews, I made use of the method communicative validation, which is a recommended technique for qualitative interviews (Wittkowski, 1994). It implies confronting the interviewee with the interpretation or the summary of the responses made by the interviewer in order to receive the interviewee’s agreement and to prevent misunderstandings.

At the end of each interview I thanked the responder for participation and asked for the email address to share the results later on (see the appendix for interview guide). The interviews took approximately 30 to 40 minutes; depending on how detailed the interviewee answered the questions. Most of the interviews were conducted via telephone and some via Skype. Notes that I had taken during the interviews, I transferred subsequently to a spreadsheet. The interviews were held in English, except for the German participants, these interviews were conducted in German. The interviews took place from end of May until mid of July 2012.

3.2. Participants

The sample consists of 34 participants from the USA, Russia, China, Brazil and Germany. All participants work in the field of HRM and are in charge of recruitment. The level of HRM experiences varies from 2 to 30 years. One third of the sample is male and two thirds is female. The participants work in different industries, like oil & gas, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), insurance and consulting.

3.3 Measures

20 questions were formulated for a questionnaire that provides the basis for the interviews. To test the quality of the questionnaire, four interviews with interpool Personal GmbH employees were conducted. The first purpose was to check the face validity, meaning does the test to appear to measure what is intended to measure. Secondly, I wanted to check the content validity, this means are the questions suitable operationalizations of the construct. Especially for this type of validity, interviews with subject matter experts are appropriate (Saris & Gallhofer, 2007). After carrying out adoptions, I started a pilot study. I conducted five interviews with recruiters from Brazil, China, Germany, Russia and the USA (Saris & Gallhofer, 2007). These steps led to the final version of the questionnaire that can be found in the Appendix B.

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freely and include more information. Examples for the open questions are “in general, what is important to you when you conduct a job interview?”, “how do you proceed to reach the goal you mentioned?”, “for general management and leadership positions, which skills and competencies do you consider as being most important?”, and “how do you find out if a candidate possesses these skills and competencies?”.

The reponses to the open questions are clustered into groups of categories and processed with Microsoft Excel. For developing categories, I stuck to the methodical criteria for category systems advised by Wittkowski (1994). These criteria are 1) one-dimensionality, meaning a category is derived from one principle of classification, 2) exclusivity, describing that every response is only assignable to one category, and 3) completeness, implying a complete spectrum of categories in order to assign every response, also linguistic variations, to a category.

For an analysis of the responses, I used a deductive as well as an inductive approach. Deductive strategy means that I developed categories, based on literature of theoretical concepts of personnel selection. I used the categories for occupational aptitude assessment as mentioned by Schuler (2001). These categories are an aptitude assessment based on behavior,

achievements and characteristic. The interview responses were allocated to the respective

category. Inductive approach means adding categories based on the responses of the interviewees. I added the categories process of personnel selection, types of question used for personnel selection and other aspects (see Table 2 below). This double-procedure allows a deep and differentiated analysis of the content (Wittkowski, 1994).

TABLE 2

Categories of Aptitude Assessment

Category Examples of the Category

Behavior Simulation of behavior by role-plays, work samples, situational questions, case studies, group discussions, or in-basket exercise Achievements Questions about behavior shown in the past, competency based

questions, STAR-method, critical incident questions, questions about results achieved in the past

Characteristics Information on stable characteristics derived from communication style or psychological tests

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Types of Questions Stress-interview, questions about personal issues, like hobbies or family

Other Aspects Reference checks, atmosphere during the process

Eight closed questions are to be answered by giving a number. Four of them are to be answered on a 10-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 not important at all to 10 very important), these are “as how important do you regard this competency (innovative capability, team orientation, strategic thinking, and assertiveness) for management and leadership positions in your country?”, and four of them, “in how many cases of the selection procedures, that are conducted by you, do you measure this competency? (innovative capability, team orientation, strategic thinking, and assertiveness)”, are to be answererd by naming a percentage number (0 to 100 %).

As the closed questions were answered by naming numbers, the data could be used for an statiscal analysis with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software, Version 20. I used the Kruskal-Wallis-Test for this purpose. This procedure is the nonparametric dependent of the analysis of variance, used to compare the means of several groups (Voß, 2004). In contrast to the anaylsis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis-Test does not require the assumption of normal distribution. Because of this, the test can be used to compare small sample sizes. As the test only indicates that at least one sample has a different distribution, apost hoc analysis is nesessary (Broffitt, 1991). I carried out the Mann-Whitney test, to compare the sample by pairs and to draw a conclusion on which samples differ from each other.

4. RESULTS

In order to answer my research question “how do recruiters in Brazil, China, Germany,

Russia, and the USA measure and assess the competencies “assertiveness”, “innovative capability”, “team orientation”, and “strategic thinking” during the personnel selection process?”, I proposed four hypotheses. In the upcoming section “Results”, I will successively

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4.1 Hypothesis 1

The first hypothesis states that „the competency assertiveness is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

4.1.1 Open Question. According to my research, as can be seen in Figure 2 below, the

most frequently used method to assess the competency assertiveness is to find out about achievements from the candidates´ past. Except for Russia, here the most frequently method is drawing conclusions from characteristics, like the results on a personality or the way a candidate presents him- or herself. In Brazil and China this approach is also often used and takes rank two. In addition, 40 % of the Brazilian HR-employees use reference checks to find out about candidates´ level of assertiveness. In Germany, behavior shown during simulations is used to a high degree to evaluate this competency.

FIGURE 2

How is the competency “assertiveness” measured?

4.1.2 Closed Questions. The Kruskal-Wallace tests for the variables “importance of

the competency assertiveness” and “frequency measurement of the competency assertiveness” led only to a significant result for the importance of this competency, χ² [4] = .045, P < 0.05 (see Tables 3 and 4). To determine which countries differ from each other, I conducted post

hoc Mann-Whitney tests. The scores of China are significantly lower than the scores of Brazil

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TABLE 3

Kruskal-Wallace test using “importance of assertiveness” as the dependent variable

Construct n Mean Mean rank

Brazil 5 9.40 26.90 China 6 7.17 8.92 Germany 9 8.44 18.33 Russia 9 8.22 16.67 USA 5 8.40 18.40 χ² = .045, df (4), P < 0.05. TABLE 4

Kruskal-Wallace test using “frequency measurement of assertiveness” as the dependent variable

Brazil 5 6.80 14.80 China 6 6.67 14.08 Germany 9 8.22 21.72 Russia 9 7.22 17.33 USA 5 7.60 17.00 χ² = .588, df (4), P > 0.05. TABLE 5

Mann-Whitney test using “importance of assertiveness” as the dependent variable

Construct n Mean rank Mann-Whitney U Z P

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4.2 Hypothesis 2

Next, I will present the results to my second hypothesis, which states that „the competency innovative capability is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA”.

4.2.1 Open Question. In order to measure the competency innovative capability, the

most frequently method used in my sample, is again, to find out about achievements from the candidates´ past. In Brazil, 100 % of the recruiters make use of this approach. Drawing conclusions from behavior shown during simulations is commonly spread as well.

FIGURE 3

How is the competency “innovative capability” measured?

4.2.2 Closed Questions. The findings of the Kruskal-Wallace tests show significant

values for the variable “importance of the competency innovative capability” (χ² [4] = .002,

P< 0.05, see Table 6) as well as for the variable “frequency measurement of the competency

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TABLE 6

Kruskal-Wallace test using “importance of innovative capability” as the dependent variable

Kruskal-Wallace test using frequency “measurement of innovative capability” as the dependent variable

Mann-Whitney test using “importance of innovative capability” as the dependent variable

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China 6 3.58

Germany 9 8.89 35.00 -.51 n. s.

Russia 9 10.11

n. s. = not significant.

TABLE 9

Mann-Whitney test using “frequency measurement of innovative capability” as the dependent variable

Brazil 5 8.60 2.00 -2.46 .014 China 6 3.83 Germany 9 9.83 10.50 -1.98 .047 China 6 5.25 Russia 9 10.22 28.00 -2.378 .017 China 6 4.67 USA 5 9.00 21.00 -2.803 .005 China 9 3.50 USA 5 8.30 18.50 -.543 n. s. Germany 9 7.06 n. s. = not significant. 4.3 Hypothesis 3

The third hypothesis states „the competency team orientation is differently measured and assessed in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA,”.

4.3.1 Open Question. In order to assess the competency team orientation in all

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FIGURE 4

How is the competency “team orientation” measured?

4.3.2 Closed Questions. Conducting Kruskal-Wallace tests for the dependent variables

“importance of the competency team orientation” and “frequency measurement of the competency team orientation” led for both to significant outcomes. In the former case χ² [4] = .028, P < 0.05 (see Table 10) and in the latter case χ² [4] = .033, P < 0.05 (see Table 11). To detect the countries that differ from each other I conducted Mann-Whitney tests, the results are shown in Table 12 and 13 below. The variable “importance of the competency team orientation” is significantly higher evaluated in Brazil and the USA than in Russia (see Table 12). The competency team orientation is significantly more frequently measured in Brazil, Germany and the USA than in Russia.

TABLE 10

Kruskal-Wallace test using “importance of team orientation” as the dependent variable

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TABLE 11

Kruskal-Wallace test using “frequency measurement of team orientation” as the dependent variable

Mann-Whitney test using “importance of team orientation” as the dependent variable

Brazil 5 11.50 2.50 -2.740 .006 Russia 9 5.28 USA 5 10.80 6.00 -2.271 .023 Russia 9 6.67 China 6 10.58 11.50 -1.885 n. s. Russia 9 6.28 n. s. = not significant. TABLE 13

Mann-Whitney test using “frequency measurement of team orientation” as the dependent variable

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USA 5 6.50 12.50 -.471 n. s. China 6 5.58 USA 5 10.80 6.00 -2.279 .023 Russia 9 5.67 n. s. = not significant. 4.4 Hypothesis 4

The fourth hypothesis states, „the competency strategic thinking is differently measured and assessed in Germany, Russia, China, and Brazil.

4.4.1 Open Question. Over 80 % of the Chinese interviewees answered that they

measure the competency strategic thinking by using the behavioral approach, which means conducting simulations. The achievement-approach is employed by 80 % of the Brazilian interviewees. In general, the conclusion can be drawn, that the behavior- and the achievement-method are most frequently used to assess candidates´ ability to think strategically.

FIGURE 5

How is the competency “strategic thinking” measured?

4.4.2 Closed Questions. The Kruskal-Wallace tests for the variables “importance of

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(see Table 15). Based on these findings it can be concluded, that differences between the distributions of the scores do not exist.

TABLE 14

Kruskal-Wallace test using “importance of strategic thinking” as the dependent variable

Brazil 5 8.60 19.40 China 6 8.67 19.67 Germany 9 7.78 12.78 Russia 9 8.50 18.67 USA 5 8.20 19.40 χ² = .539, df (4), P > 0.05. TABLE 15

Kruskal-Wallace test using “frequency measurement of strategic thinking” as the dependent variable

Brazil 5 6.40 14.70 China 6 6.67 16.08 Germany 9 7.56 19.83 Russia 9 6.44 15.44 USA 5 8.00 21.50 χ² = .685, df (4), P > 0.05. 4.5 Other results

In the upcoming section I will present the outcomes to the open questions “what is important to you when you conduct a job interview?”, “how do you proceed to reach the goal you mentioned?”, “for general management and leadership positions, which skills and competencies do you consider as being most important?” and “how do you find out if a candidate possesses these skills and competencies?”.

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by Brazilian (40 %), Chinese (33 %) and American interviewees (20 %). Answers concerning the process are neither mentioned by the German nor by the Russian HR-employees who I interviewed.

FIGURE 6

Important factors during job interviews

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FIGURE 7

How do you proceed to reach the goal you mentioned?

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FIGURE 8

For general management and leadership positions, which skills and competencies do you consider as most important?

To find out about necessary skills and competencies of a candidate, the method of choice is for all countries the achievement-oriented approach as shown in Figure 9 below. In Germany, more than 50 % per cent of the recruiters I interviewed make use of behavioral based measures. In Russia, more than 50 % of the recruiters named reference checks as a tool to find out about required skills and competencies.

FIGURE 9

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5. DISCUSSION

In the upcoming section, I will discuss the outcomes of my research. Based on the outcomes, I will draw a conclusion for theorists and practitioners. Of course, I will as well address limitations of my research. Derived from implications and limitations of my study, I give an impetus for future research on the topic of intercultural personnel selection.

5.1 Discussion of the results

The purpose of my research was to investigate how personnel selection differs around the world, due to cultural imprints. This is important due to an increasing worldwide social, political, and economical integration (International Labor Organization, 2004). Recruiting activities go beyond national boundaries, because of this, cultural differences should be considered in the recruiting process. Exemplary, I investigated five countries, namely Brazil, China, Germany, Russia and the USA. I wanted to explore how critical management competencies like assertiveness, innovative capability, team orientation, and strategic

thinking are measured and assessed during personnel selection processes in the respective

country.

Overall, my results show, that the most frequently chosen method to determine the level of a competency, is the achievement-oriented approach that is applied during interviews. It includes asking behavior based questions and the critical incident technique. As noted earlier, the job interview is the most widely used personnel selection instrument (Kennedy, 1994). This is in line with my findings. Nevertheless, differences exist across the four competencies in the five countries, for which I will try to give reasons.

5.1.1 Competency “assertiveness”. To assess the competency assertiveness in Brazil,

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make use of reference checks to receive information on the assertiveness of a candidate. My finding corresponds with an advice given in a Brazilian career guide, in which it is stated that at least two references should be mentioned in an résumé and that they are likely to be checked (Brazil Career Guide, 2006). In the other countries this method was used less often.

According to my research, recruiters in Brazil and Germany evaluate the competency

assertiveness as significantly more important than recruiters in China. This result is

remarkable compared to the findings of House et al. (2004). Similar to my outcomes, House and colleagues (2004) found out that Germany and Brazil score higher than China on the practice scale of this dimension. Interestingly, Germany and Brazil scored low on the value scale of the dimension (see Table 15 in the Appendix). A possible explanation for the high importance of the competency assertiveness in my Brazilian sample is found in an article by Katz (1997). She gives account of Brazils increasing dominant respectively assertive position in Latin America under the presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso around the turn of the millennium. This power shift could be the reason that recruiters see the necessity for being assertive in business context. The GLOBE study that yielded lower values was conducted prior to the presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. According to GLOBE (House et al., 2004), in Germany, a discrepancy between the practice and the value of the dimension

assertiveness exists. Germany scores high on the practice-scale and a low on the value-scale.

Hoeken et al. (2007) describe Germany and other Western European countries as modest in values and practices. Therefore, my result, a high importance of the competency

assertiveness, fits to the high score on the practice-scale, but not to the low score on the

value-scale.

5.1.2 Competency “innovative capability”. To measure the competency innovative

capability the most frequently method is the achievement-approach, used by 50 to 100 % of

the recruiters in my sample. The second most used method is the behavior approach; for which no differences between the countries of my sample exist. Chinese recruiters in my sample consider innovative capability as significantly less important than other recruiters; consequently this competency is significantly less measured during selection processes. This outcome fits to an article by Huang et al. (2004) who describe that instead bringing forward innovation, piracy of intellectual and industrial property is common.

5.1.3 Competency “team orientation”. To find out about the competency team orientation,

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Chinese recruiters do not solely consider the achievements of candidates and the performance during the application process but also the opinion of other people. In my sample, recruiters from Russia evaluate team orientation as least important and measure this competency less frequently in selection processes than other recruiters. According to House et al. (2004) Russia scores high on the scales of the dimension in-group collectivism. This is characterized by strong distinctions between in- and out-groups. The only explanation I can bring forward to elaborate my finding is that Russian employees might view colleagues or work team members as out-group and by this put less emphasis on the competency team orientation. 40 % of recruiters in the USA noted that they use “stressful” questions in order to challenge the candidate and to bring him/her out of the comfort zone. This outcome is interesting, as only US recruiters mentioned this technique to find out about someone’s team orientation. On the practice scale of the dimension performance orientation the USA score highest among the countries I investigated (House et al., 2004). Highly performance oriented societies are characterized by ambition, assertiveness, competitiveness and achievements. The usage of “stressful” questions fits in my opinion to those typical attributes of performance oriented societies as mentioned above.

5.1.4 Competency “strategic thinking”. To assess candidates´ competency to think

strategically, recruiters in Brazil, Germany, Russia and the USA use, to a similar degree, the behavior- and the achievement-approach. Contrasting, in China, there is a considerable difference between the usage of these methods. In China the behavior-based approach is used by over 80 % of recruiters. The approach based on achievements, however, is used by only 30 % of recruiters. China scores low on the practice-scale of the dimension

performance-orientation (House et al., 2010), which means that the person is more important than his or

her achievements. If this outcome is considered, it is understandable, that Chinese do not only rely on achievements in the past, but contemplate current behavior shown in simulations as well. Only Brazilian recruiters (40 %) use reference checks to find out about candidates competency to think strategically. But as mentioned earlier this method is common in Brazil (Brazil Career Guide, 2006).

5.1.5 Other results. In all countries that I investigated, receiving information about the

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Different in Russia, here management competencies, like content knowledge, entrepreneurial and strategic thinking and customer orientation, rank highest. An article from Gilbert and Cartwright (2008) can explain this finding. They describe that after the fall of the Soviet Union, Western management concepts were introduced to Russia and are still of high impact in daily business life. To find out if a job applicant possesses necessary skills and competencies 20 – 33 % of recruiters use of the behavioral-based approach, expect for Germany, here this method is used by 60 % of recruiters who interviewed. Why this method is particularly widespread in Germany, compared to the other four countries, needs further investigation. Approximately 20 % of recruiters mentioned to use reference checks to find out about qualifications of a job applicant. Remarkably, in Russia, over 50 % of interviewed recruiters make use of reference checks. According to Gibson (2001), Russian society is due to its totalitarian history suspicious in nature. Keeping this in mind, not to rely on the declarations of job applicants but to control them by means of a reference checks is comprehensible.

5.2 Practical implications

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FIGURE 10

Comparison between the countries: similarities & differences

Not only academics can benefit from my research, practitioners as well, more precisely, recruiters and job applicants can draw a conclusion from this thesis. It should be kept in mind when applying or recruiting in Brazil and China, that in these countries during the personnel selection process a focus is on a personal relation, which includes a pleasant atmosphere and contact, a proper preparation, characteristics of the applicant, questions about family and hobbies, and reference checks. In Germany, recruiters and candidates should be aware of the use of the behavioral approach, which includes practical simulations. This method is most often pronounced in Germany among the countries I investigated. In Russia, job applicants can expect reference checks as well, but less likely than Brazil or China. The recruiters I interviewed evaluate leadership competencies as crucial. This is different in Russia, here management competencies are more important. Distinctive for the USA is the usage of stress-inducing interviews to draw conclusions about the candidate’s competencies.

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might have different expectations about the selection process. 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research

My research set out to determine differences and similarities in the recruiting practices of five different countries. For this purpose I conducted interviews with recruiters. The sample I interviewed contains an international bias. This holds especially for the participants from Brazil, China, and Russia, whom I interviewed in a foreign language, namely English. I generated participants by contacting HR employees via the professional social networking website Linked in. This online network had, according to its own statement, by end of March 2012 over 160 million registered members in over 200 countries and territories (Linked in, 2012). This makes Linked in an ideal source to gain international participants for a research project. People who subscribe to a globalized network like Linked in and are willing to participate in an interview conducted in English display some kind of an international mindset. This means they learned a foreign language, eventually spent time abroad, and work for multinational companies. As I speak neither Portuguese, nor Chinese, nor Russian, it was not possible for me to conduct interviews with recruiters who are internationally inexperienced and work for local companies with a strong national culture.

I decided on the interview method for my research project. But as mentioned by Schuler (1995) the most serious disadvantage of interviews lies in a low standardization. Despite this disadvantage the interview is an appropriate qualitative research method to gain insights into topics on which relatively few research is done. Compared to quantitative research methods, the validity is low (Spata, 2003), but it was the goal of my study to immerse into the topic of intercultural personnel selection thereby and laying the foundation for further research.

As discussed above, the analysis of the interviews yielded significant different results between the countries. However, with a small sample size (Boyce, 2006), caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to the general population of recruiters in the countries I investigated. In future, quantitative research with lager sample sizes should be conducted to obtain generalizable results.

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a complete picture of intercultural personnel selection, that it is necessary to include the experiences and expectations of job applicants as well. Subsequently, a future study investigating the applicants’ side would be very interesting.

I interviewed recruiters working in diverse industries. Of course different industries face different challenges. These in turn influence the work of recruiters and thereby the responses to my interview questions. This limitation, interviewing recruiters from diverse industries, came into existence due to practical reasons. As earlier mentioned, I contacted individuals working in the field of HR via Linked in and Xing. In the first place, because of privacy settings, it is often not possible to identify the name of the company for which someone works and due to this, inferences about the industry cannot be drawn. Secondly, I had to contend with a very low response rate from five to ten percent, depending on the country. Only contacting HR-employees working in certain industries would have made the search process much more difficult. For a better comparability, I suggest a further study with more focus on similar industries.

Taken together, for future investigation on the topic of intercultural personnel selection I recommend to conduct quantitative research with larger sample sizes, to include job applicants as participants as well and to focus on both, HR employees and job applicants. In addition, it would be interesting to extend the research to further competencies or aspects of the personnel selection process.

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APPENDIX A TABLE 15

Scores of Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the USA according to GLOBE (House et al., 2004).

Cultural

Dimension High-Score Mid-score Low-score

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Practices (As Is) Russia 5.52 Brazil 5.33 Germany 5.25 China 5.04 USA 4.88 4.54 – 5.39 power distance Values (Should Be) China 3.10 USA 2.85 Russia 2.64 Germany 2.54 Brazil 2.35 2.51 – 3.03 Practices (As Is) Russia 4.07 USA 3.34 Brazil 3.31 Germany3.10 China 3.05 2.95 – 3.84 gender egalitarianism Values (Should Be) USA 5.06 Brazil 4.99 Germany 4.89 Russia 4.18 China 3.68 3.65 – 4.91 Practices (As Is) Germany 4.55 USA 4.55 Brazil 4.20 China 3.76 Russia 3.68 3.66 – 4.55 assertiveness Values (Should Be)

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Values (Should Be) USA 6.14 Brazil 6.13 Germany 6.01 China 5.67 Russia 5.54 5.53 – 6.24 Practices (As Is) Germany 4.27 USA 4.15 Brazil 3.81 China 3.75 Russia 2.88 3.38 – 4.40 future orientation Values (Should Be) Brazil 5.69 Russia 5.48 USA 5.31 Germany 4.85 China 4.73 4.76 – 5.87 Practices (As Is) China 4.36 USA 4.17 Russia 3.94 Brazil 3.66 Germany 3.18 3.55 – 4.71 humane orientation Values (Should Be) Brazil 5.68 Russia 5.59 USA 5.53 Germany 5.46 China 5.32 5.31 – 5.64

* Scales range from 1 to 7

APPENDIX B Interview Guide

1. Introducing myself

2. Presenting the research project (structure, purpose)

3. Giving overview of the interview, mention time frame (30 – 40 minutes) 4. Assuring anonymity and confidentiality of the responses

General Questions: Name:

Company: Current position:

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Questions about interview/competencies:

1. In general, what is important to you when you conduct a job interview? OR What makes an interview a good/successful one?

2. How do you proceed to reach the goal you mentioned?

3. For general management and leadership positions, which skills and competencies do you consider as being most important?

4. How do you find out if a candidate possesses these skills and competencies?

Questions about the four competencies: Assertiveness

1. As how important do you regard this competency for management and leadership positions in your country? Scale: 1 (not important) - 10 (very important)

2. How do you measure/observe this competency in personnel selection procedures?

3. In how many cases of the selection procedures, that are conducted by you, do you measure this competency? (answer in %)

Strategic thinking

1. As how important do you regard this competency for management and leadership positions in your country? Scale: 1 (not important) - 5 (neutral) - 10 (very important)

Team orientation

Innovative capability