Abstract
Cross-cultural impression management (IM) has not been considered much, which is remarkable given the fast rate at which the labor market is becoming multicultural. This study investigated whether ethnic minorities and majorities differed in their preference for IM-tactics and how this affected ethnic minorities’ interview outcomes. A preliminary study (focus groups/survey) showed that ethnic minorities (i.e., Arab/Moroccans) preferred ‘entitlements’ whereas majorities (i.e., Flemish/Belgians) preferred ‘opinion conformity’ as IM-tactics. An experimental follow-up study among 163 ethnic majority raters showed no main effect of IM-tactics on interview ratings. Ethnic minorities’ use of IM-tactics only affected interview ratings if rater characteristics were considered. Specifically, interview ratings were higher when ethnic minorities used opinion conformity (i.e., majority-preferred IM-tactic) and lower when minorities used entitlements (i.e., minority-preferred IM-tactic) if recruiters were high in social dominance orientation, and when they felt more experienced/proficient with interviewing. IM-tactics are a human capital factor that might help applicants to increase their job chances on the labor market. It is concluded that ethnic minority applicants’ preferences for certain IM-tactics might lead to bias even in structured interview settings, but that this depends on ethnic majority recruiters’ interview experience and ingroup/outgroup attitudes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Highlights
Employment interviews have always been and still are one of the most frequently used selection tools around the world (Macan, 2009), and often, even the only tool organizations use to screen applicants (Kristof-Brown et al, 2002; Levashina et al, 2014)
For instance, have investigated dispositional antecedents of impression management (IM), types of IM-behaviors used by applicants, effects of the use of IM-tactics on interview outcomes (Barrick et al, 2009; Proost et al, 2010), personal and situational factors that moderate the effect of IM-tactics on interview outcomes, and interviewers’ sensitivity to IM-tactics in structured interviews (e.g., Lievens and Peeters, 2008)
To extend the sparse body of knowledge, this study focuses on IM-tactics preferred by Arab/Moroccan applicants2, a large and growing ethnic minority group in Western-Europe, whose members are at risk of downward assimilation (OECD, 2015)
Summary
Employment interviews have always been and still are one of the most frequently used selection tools around the world (Macan, 2009), and often, even the only tool organizations use to screen applicants (Kristof-Brown et al, 2002; Levashina et al, 2014). Despite the abundance of research on IM effects, its determinants and moderators, very few studies have paid attention to cultural differences in IM use and effects on interview outcomes (Tsai and Huang, 2013; Bolino et al, 2016) This is remarkable given the fast rate at which the labor market is becoming multicultural and organizations search for talented workers, among previously unexplored talent groups, like ethnic minorities. In Western-Europe, ethnic minority applicants still suffer lower labor market outcomes when compared to qualified applicants from ethnic majority groups (OECD, 2008, 2015) Both human capital factors (e.g., language proficiency, educational level, etc.; De Meijer et al, 2007; Hiemstra et al, 2013) and biased decision-making (e.g., the use of cognitive scripts, stigmatization, and prejudiced reactions; Derous et al, 2016) may explain the observed differences to some extent
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