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Hiring Rankings of Immigrant Job Applicants: Immigrants’ Acculturation Strategies and Managers’ Personality Trait Perception

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Abstract

This study examines how non-Western immigrants' acculturation strategies are related to managers' hiring rankings. It examines whether hiring managers differ in personality trait inferences depending on whether the candidate is a Turkish immigrant or a native Norwegian. Managers (N = 436) evaluated three job applicants in terms of personality and hirability. Across three experimental conditions, the information of one (target) was manipulated and presented as either a native, as an integrated Turkish immigrant, and as a separated Turkish immigrant. The separated Turkish target received lower hirability rankings compared with the other target applicants. The integrated Turkish target was rated as more open, extraverted, conscientious, agreeable, and neurotic than the two other targets. Personality ratings of the Norwegian and the separated Turkish target did not differ significantly. Evaluations of personality were associated with hiring ranking of the Norwegian target only.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7807, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Jøri Gytre Horverak, Gro Mjeldheim Sandal & Ståle Pallesen

  2. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Marieke E. Timmerman

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  1. Jøri Gytre Horverak
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  2. Gro Mjeldheim Sandal
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  3. Ståle Pallesen
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Correspondence to Jøri Gytre Horverak.

Appendix

Appendix

The interview resume presented to managers:

  1. Condition 1

    (Integrated target applicant (N = 119): “The candidate is 39 years and is of Turkish origin. He has lived in Norway for the last 7 years. He is married and has two children, aged 9 and 12 years. During the interview, he appears calm and relaxed. The interview panel gets an impression of the candidate as an honest and likable man. The candidate is wearing a suit and a tie for the interview. The candidate seems well prepared for the interview by demonstrating great knowledge and insight related to the actual position he applies for. However, the candidate seems a little modest and gives little eye contact during the interview. Even though the candidate has accomplished highly successful results in his former career, he seems to underestimate the value of these results. Instead of taking the credits himself, he explains the good results by honoring his working colleagues and his managers. When the interview panel asks him how his colleagues would describe him as a person, he mentions that they would probably say that he is a nice and a trustworthy man. He says that the reason for applying for this actual job is that the company he now is working for is about to merge with another firm. In that regard, he wants to seek other possible work challenges before the firm initiates a downsizing process. The candidate has a record of good achievements, and by his former employers, he is described as conscientious, reliable, and ambitious. When asked about what he usually does when he is not working, he admits that he has an interest in collecting different kinds of things. He also enjoys physical activity, and he mentions that he socializes with both Norwegians and Turks during his spear time. Otherwise, he spends a lot of time together with his children, following them back and forth to all the different activities that they are engaged in.”

    The description of the target applicant differed across the three experimental conditions (marked with italics):

  2. Condition 2

    (Norwegian target applicant, n = 214): Wearing a suit and a tie for the interview. No sentence describing his socializing pattern with others.

  3. Condition 3

    (Separated target applicant, n = 103): Wearing a traditional Turkish costume for the interview. He mentions that he socializes with Turks only.

Manipulations

Perceptual Cues

Clothing style and socialization pattern were used to serve the managers with impressions of the immigrants’ acculturation strategy. Clothing is a form of non-verbal communication, described as a “systematic means of transmission of information about the wearer”(Damhorst 1990), suggesting that viewers translate cues into meanings, whether intended, unconscious, or imagined, from another’s dress (Johnson et al. 2002). The socialization pattern indicates the immigrants’ willingness to initiate and maintain contact with majority group.

Language

In attempt of convincing the managers that the immigrant applicants’ language is evaluated as adequate, the interview resume (conducted by colleagues within the organization) does not refer to language as an important issue to consider. Also, the content of the information presented in the resume indicates that the applicant communicates precisely and is easily understood. In addition, the resume refers to a successful work career both in former, and in his present job, indicating that he is well adjusted in the Norwegian work life.

Acculturation Strategy Across Domains

The immigrant applicants are both presented as formally well qualified and integrated in work life (public domain). However, the separated target applicant is described as separated in the private domain while the integrated target applicant is described as integrated in the private domain.

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Horverak, J.G., Sandal, G.M., Pallesen, S. et al. Hiring Rankings of Immigrant Job Applicants: Immigrants’ Acculturation Strategies and Managers’ Personality Trait Perception. Int. Migration & Integration 14, 493–510 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-012-0247-3

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