Culture Fitment Based Hiring: Are Recruiters Happy?
Date | 01 October 2023 |
Author | Nair, Vinitha,Vohra, Veena,Nair, Vinitha^Vohra, Veena |
Introduction
Hiring is more than just a process of skills sorting; it is also a process of cultural matching between candidates, evaluators, and firms (Rivera, 2012). The study done by Peterson and Saporta (2004), states that the opportunity to discriminate is greatest at the point of hiring, because disappointed job applicants are unlikely to challenge the adverse decisions. Previous research shows that cultural context plays a major role in shaping hiring decisions (Rivera, 2012), whether or not a person acknowledges that culture plays a role in decision-making (Glazer, 2014). Culture is an acquired and transmitted pattern of shared meaning, feeling and behavior that constitutes a distinctive human group (Kluckhohn, 1951). Culture fit can refer to the fit between the candidate's skills and job requirements or to the fit between the person and the organization (Chatman,1989; Schneider, 1987). Managers often use the fit concept as a rationale to hire those who are like themselves and to others in the organizations (Schneider, 1987). Like culture fit, person-organization fit is defined as the con gruence between patterns of organizational values and patterns of individual values (Chatman, 1989). Values, which are the fundamental element in most definitions of organizational culture, act as the starting point, with the joint processes of selection and socialization acting as complimentary means to ensure person-organization fit (Chatman 1989).
Although scholars often hypothesize that cultural similarities between employers and job candidates matter for the employer's decisions (Lamont, 1992), systemic empirical research on the role of culture in hiring is virtually non-existent (Huffcut 2011; Stainback et al., and Skaggs 2010). From the standpoint of research literature, the need to track the effect of fit through the stages of the hiring process, ending with the job offer, has been emphasized (Kristof-Brown, 2000). Studies done recently (Hoffman & Judge, 2019; Rivera, 2020) points out that although the majority of organizations seem to be following culture fitment-based hiring, most organizations seem to be doing culture fitment badly.
This study explores the experiences of hiring managers and tries to understand their views on culture fitment hiring. This would help to throw more light on the inconsistencies that prevail in indulging in culture fitment-based hiring processes in organizations. Some of these views are contradictory. Make culture your priority and genuinely build pluralism, if you want to unleash the power within, rather than making a strategic mistake of building a sterile culture by hiring talent which is a culture fit (Jha, 2020). There are some benefits to hiring for culture fit, but it is also important to note the ways in which it can exclude rather than include (Gaskel, 2022). Despite these negative reports, studies conducted recently have emphasized the need to practice good culture fitment-based hiring in order to facilitate inclusivity in organizations (Vohra, 2015, Vohra et al., 2018). Literature also reveals that there is ample evidence that diverse and inclusive companies are likely to make better, bolder decisions, even in times of crisis, like the pandemic (McKinsey Report, 2020). To further explore these differences, a preliminary study was conducted which again revealed inconsistencies in the ratings given by the respondents in adopting culture fitment as the primary evaluation criterion. Although the majority of the respondents categorically cited culture fit as a significant evaluation criterion, there were significant variations in the level of priority these respondents associated with culture fit as an evaluation criterion. This makes it even more essential to explore and understand the exact role of culture fitment as an evaluation criterion in hiring processes. This would facilitate the creation and promotion of effective culture fitment hiring that could promote diversity and inclusivity in organizations. Exploring and understanding how organizational culture influences the hiring processes in organizations with focus on the hiring decisions made during interviews would enable more effective and efficient decision-making, promoting diversity and inclusion, and ensuring the right person at the right place and at the right time. By exploring and understanding the various perspectives of the recruiters on culture fitment-based hiring as well as the attributes they focus on and their consequences, this study proposes to contribute towards reducing the lack of clarity and confusion that currently prevails around culture fitment-based hiring in organizations.
Literature Review
Previous research has shown that recruiters attempt to evaluate applicant fit during the employment interview and this perception of fit affects subsequent selection decisions (Cable & Judge, 1997). Surprisingly P-O fit has not been considered in the context of the employment interview in any of the nine comprehensive literature reviews of interview research (Harris ,1989). There is a lack of clarity of the evaluation criteria as well as a lack of specificity of the evaluative structure (how the criteria are to be combined) which have all contributed to expectation-based distortion (Heilman, 2012). Researchers who advocate the PO fit perspective argue that managers should select job applicants who share the values and vision of the organization (Judge,1997) and suggest that interviewer's subjective person-organization fit/ culture fit assessments have large effects on their hiring decisions. This study has suggested future research to continue exploring and understanding this area further. On the other hand, Adkins et al. (1994), examined work values congruence between applicants and organizations and found that values congruence did not affect the interviewers' subjective P-O fit perceptions. Thus, uncertainty exists around the concept of culture fitment.
Again, Chatman (1991) explored how person-organizational fit is established and maintained and its consequences on organizational settings by examining the selection and socialization processes in public accounting firms. However, the extent to which high levels of person-organization fit are good for organizations and for people remains unexplored. Cable and Judge (1997) suggest that the interviewer's subjective person-organization fit assessments have large effects on their hiring recommendations relative to competing applicant characteristics and that the interviewers hiring recommendations directly affect the organization's hiring decisions. However, whether these impacts are positive or not and the factors that might be responsible for these impacts remain unexplored.
The paper by Singh (2012) examines gender inclusivity in corporate India adopting a resource-based view, considering the reality of gender inclusion becoming a business imperative. However, this study has not considered any of the contextual factors. Although the study done by Daya (2014), facilitated deep insights into the diversity and inclusion components in an emerging market context, it highlights the need for pluralistic and multicultural organizations to focus heavily on recruitment in future research, pointing it out as one of the first steps to create an inclusive environment. Again, this study does not consider any organizational contextual factors.
Elrick (2015), conducted a study on immigrant hiring processes in Toronto that revealed organizational level variation among firms in three key aspects of hiring which included the definition of skills, screening processes and the notion of 'cultural fit'. The findings cannot be generalized and call for continued research. Although Rivera (2012) investigates the often suggested but empirically unexamined hypothesis that cultural similarities between employers and job candidates matter for the employer's hiring decisions, the study does not examine the degree to which gatekeepers use cultural similarities nor the impact of relying on such cultural similarities. Very interestingly, Turco (2010) has emphasized that cultural similarities may result in greater sex or race biases, especially when culture and demography...
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