Search results

In recent years, theory and research have been increasingly devoted to understanding organizational behavior in cross-cultural and global contexts, with particular attention being paid to the appropriateness of various human resources management (HRM) practices because practices that may be effective within one cultural context may not be effective in other cultural contexts. This chapter argues that a multi-level perspective is needed to explain the interplay between HRM practices and employee responses across cultural contexts. Specifically, the multi-level framework developed in this chapter elucidates the importance of fit between HRM practices, individual values, organizational values, and societal values. Societal values play a key role in the adoption of HRM practices, and the effectiveness of these HRM practices will depend largely on “fit” or alignment with the values of the societal culture in which the organization is operating. HRM practices also shape the collective responses of employees through organizational climate at the organizational level and through psychological climate at the individual level. For positive employee attitudes and responses to emerge, the climate created by the HRM practices must be aligned with societal and individual values. Building on these notions, the strength of the societal culture in which the organization is operating serves as a mechanism that links relationships between climate, value fit, and attitudes across levels of analysis. The chapter concludes with some recommendations for future research and implications for practice.

As the shortage in the information technology (IT) workforce continues, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the cultural dimensions of IT occupations that attract or drive away potential IT professionals. In the present study, the authors take an occupational culture approach to study the cultural fit of newcomers to IT occupations and to understand how young people perceive the culture embedded in this occupational community as they become part of it.

The authors take a sequential mixed methodology approach composed of two phases, one qualitative and the other quantitative. In the first phase of the study, nine focus groups and 27 interviews with college students were conducted to learn about the challenges and barriers that they personally experienced while becoming part of the IT occupational community. The second phase used results from the first qualitative phase to design a survey instrument that was administered to 215 IT college students who were currently or had recently been involved in IT work experience to evaluate their cultural fit to the IT occupational culture (ITOC) and its influence on their occupational commitment.

The results suggest that women, ethnic minorities and those with less work experience encountered greater difficulty fitting into different dimensions of ITOC. The results also showed that cultural fit is a good predictor of occupational commitment and affective commitment in particular.

An initial survey instrument was developed to measure cultural fit to ITOC. This instrument can be further modified and adapted to be used in the hiring process by HR departments to measure cultural fit to organizational subcultures, such as the one in the IT occupational group.

This paper constitutes an important contribution to the rigor and development of the theory and research of human resources in information technologies.

We explore the effects of three categories of fit on US‐China joint‐venture performance using four performance measures. Many studies prescribe strong fit across multiple categories as necessary for high performance, but little rigorous analysis supports this. Three important threads of existing “fit” research resonate in the literature: strategic, cultural and organizational fit. We analyze an original survey dataset of over 80 US‐China JVs, and test for effects of fit‐categories using two measures for each thread. Additionally, multiple control factors give a compelling look at a complete model of fit’s effects on JV performance. Objective congruence (strategic fit) among JV partner‐firms, impacts two performance‐measures. Efficacy of managerial communications (cultural fit) also matters, as does harmony regarding hiring decisions (organizational fit). Our findings are a step forward empirically, and partly resolve persistent questions about partner‐fit in JVs and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an employer perceptive on the employability of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) by contrasting SIEs with other identified staffing groups available for the staffing of MNC subsidiaries in China.

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 24 Westerners with direct staffing responsibilities in subsidiaries of western MNCs located in China. The employability of each identified staffing group was assessed using the person-to-environment fit approach from four-fit perspectives (person-to-job and to-group, organisation and cultural context).

The study revealed how from the employer perspective SIEs do not form a heterogeneous group, but instead there are two groups with different fit profiles. The study illustrates how western SIEs are an uncommon and under-used staffing group in cross-cultural staffing settings in China due to their low employability in comparison to alternative staffing groups. The study also revealed the prevalent bipolarity (the Westerners vs the Chinese) and heterogeneity within the identified staffing groups.

The study recognises the lack of employer perspective in SIE literature and also that SIEs are an under-represented group in the staffing literature.

The findings help explain how MNC staffing is culturally bound and how the staffing process should incorporate more than just an assessment of job-related qualifications. The findings also help explain the challenges SIEs can experience in cross-cultural career settings.

The study is one of the first to provide an employer perspective on SIE careers and contrast SIEs to the other alternative staffing groups available to MNC subsidiaries in China.

While there is an increasing understanding of the challenges that can emerge in integration processes of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, there is a scarcity of research on how the different integrative activities should be temporally sequenced. Based on an in-depth analysis of three acquisitions, we find that structural and cultural integration are intertwined. We find that cultural integration will begin only once structural integration is in progress. Cultural differences can, however, impede structural integration if structural integration is done in conflict with the existing culture of the acquired company. Thus, structural integration should come first, but it should be done in appreciation with the acquired company’s existing culture. Cultural change is then facilitated in an iterative manner over time by the new structure. Our chapter contributes to an improved understanding of the temporal dynamics of integration by demonstrating the mutually reinforcing effects of structural and cultural integration in cross-border acquisitions.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce new perspectives on the job position analysis practice rooted in the traditional person-job fit approach. It highlights selected theoretical assumptions and the case of a company challenged by hidden cultural constraints on the work environment. The author attempts to show how human resources management may benefit from incorporating the aspect of cultural traits in job position analysis. Next, the author provides a regulatory definition of a job position culture, followed by practical guidelines to facilitate a better person-job fit across various work environments.

The paper opts for a conceptual contribution by introducing a new term “job position culture” as, companies are challenged by new management difficulties when creating universal job position descriptions and a better person-job fit. The paper highlights the need of including additional, cultural aspects of the work environment to better manage organizational change.

The paper shows how cultural traits could be implemented in human resources management such as recruitment and selection, as well as efficient job position management. A regulatory definition of job position culture is proposed, and some practical implications for a more complete organizational change management in job cultures.

The regulatory definition for the job position culture, presented in the paper, is at the preliminary and theoretical stage. It requires being operationalized and implemented it in each job analysis case.

The new, cultural perspective on the job analysis may serve for the more adequate fit of personnel to the work environment and better manage organizational change including distinct job cultures.

The cultural perspective on a job analysis may serve a more adequate fit and work satisfaction of workers resulting in job attachment and better work performance.

The paper shows the need to study additional work environment traits on the bases of the regulatory definition of job position culture.

The aim of this paper is to expand the knowledge of buyer‐supplier relationships by investigating the extent to which organisational cultural fit between a buyer and supply chain participants influences performance.

The study was conducted in a FMCG supply chain. A cultural dimensions questionnaire was used in a focal organisation (the buyer) and it identified best and poorest performing supply chain. The results were analysed using a series of ANOVA's within the respective supply chains. The findings were then triangulated via qualitative methods.

The findings demonstrate that complementarity rather than congruence between the supply chain partners achieved successful performance outcomes. Organisations in the high‐performing supply chain had significantly different cultural profiles, reporting significant statistical differences across all six cultural dimensions. Organisations in the low‐performing supply chain had almost identical profiles across all six cultural dimensions with significantly lower mean scores across each dimension.

The deconstruction of organisational culture into its constituent dimensions in a supply chain provides insights for academics. Propositions are presented which provide a platform for further studies. Future studies could develop these findings by using a larger sample, over a longer period of time, and adding mediating variables that impact supply chain outcomes.

Managers should pay attention to cultural evaluation within the supplier selection process as well as finance or strategic evaluations. A shared supply chain culture of norm‐based trust and openness may yield better outcomes and reduced conflict and uncertainty throughout the supply chain.

This is one of the first papers to deconstruct and measure organisational cultural fit empirically in a supply chain context.

Multidimensional fit (MDF) has been coined as “elusive” and relevant to an individual’s social identity and self-concept, unfolding over time as individuals assess their fit relative to Person-Organization, Person-Vocation, Person-Job, and Person-Team Fit. In this chapter, the literature as it relates to the refugee employment journey, MDF, and HRM practices that facilitate or inhibit MDF is reviewed. Furthermore, in this study, the process-oriented view of the refuge path highlights the complexity of their experience, noting an array of antecedents as they relate to country, host country and individual differences, interventions through NGOs, refugee resettlement agencies, and organizations, as well as the less explored entrepreneurial path. These diverse paths and the process of finding fit, and the obstacles refugees face, are viewed through the lens of shocks and reassessment of MDF throughout their journey. Finally, the study’s outcomes illustrate individual wellbeing factors, organizational level benefits, as well as community level benefits to MDF.

This chapter aims to make sense of the growing research that examines the role of culture in mergers and acquisitions. We provide a detailed review of the many related but distinct constructs that have been introduced to the literature. While each construct has contributed to our understanding of the role of culture, the lack of connections made among constructs has limited the consolidation of contributions. The review shows what these constructs mean for mergers and acquisitions, what major findings have been discovered, and, most importantly, how constructs interrelate. Our discussion provides several opportunities to foster the needed consolidation of this research.

The paper proposes that public sector organizations facing institutionalized reform pressure may not only integrate the reform into their operation when it fits but also pace the integration while undergoing organizational cultural transformations to fit with the reform. The newly cultivated cultural characteristics, nonetheless, need to be compatible externally with the ideational basis of the reform and internally with existing values and beliefs embodied by the organizations.

Building on a neo-institutionalist perspective, the paper develops a model which considers the possibilities and conditions that local cultural change in the reforming organizations may facilitate reform integration. To test the model's analytical potential, the paper analyzed reform responses of semi-autonomous agencies from Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden under the New Public Management (NPM) reform. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression models were performed on the survey data collected from agency heads (or representative) during the peak of the reform trend. Analyzing this sample of later adopters whose government generally enjoyed high degrees of capacity and autonomy provided a preliminary test to the model's potential.

Significant statistical relations were found between the adoption of operation-level NPM practices and the extent that an agency's cultural characteristics fit with both the ideational basis of NPM and the exiting value-belief mix the agency embodied. Agency characteristics of “proactive responsiveness” and “goal-oriented cooperation” were found significantly related to adoption of NPM practices, showing the possibility of cultivating local cultural changes in reforming organizations.

While compatible with neo-institutionalist emphasis on local continuity, the paper describes an alternative scenario of reform integration for public managers.