Managers’ Evaluations of Immigrant Job Applicants

Abstract

This study examined the impact of immigrant job applicants’ private domain acculturation preferences on managers’ evaluations of person-organization (P-O) fit and hiring decisions. We employed an experimental design and presented Norwegian managers ( N = 74) with video-clips of three job applicants. One of the applicants’ (target) ethnicity (Norwegian vs. Turkish) and private domain acculturation preferences (separated, assimilated, and integrated) were manipulated across four experimental conditions. Among the three applicants, the target applicant was presented as the best qualified. The results showed that the separated target was perceived as less similar to existing organizational members and the organization (i.e., lower supplementary P-O fit) than the three other targets, and as less valuable in terms of being different (i.e., lower complementary P-O fit) than the assimilated and the integrated targets. The separated target was rated significantly lower on hirability than the native and integrated targets. Despite the different hiring ratings, all targets received equal ratings on person-job (P-J) fit. The findings imply that managers placed a stronger emphasis on P-O fit than formal work competence when evaluating the separated target. Because private domain acculturation preferences can be deemed irrelevant for immigrant applicants’ job performance, our results suggest a biased employment decision against the immigrant applicant expressing private domain cultural maintenance preferences.