Chinese Cultural Values and Performance at Job Interviews: a Singapore Perspective

Abstract

In a country like Singapore, which is rated high in power distance and low in indi vidualism (using Hofstede's dimensions of national cultures), interviews for entry- level positions in multinational corporations (MNCs) may reveal subtle clashes in culture. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed transcripts of job interviews involving nine English-speaking applicants from Chinese backgrounds and two experienced interviewers from Anglo-American MNCs in Singapore. Our assumption was that a person's cultural background and upbringing influence his or her perform ance at job interviews. The findings reveal that Chinese applicants tend to defer to the interviewer (i.e. superior) and focus on the group or family, besides being averse to self-assertion. Hence, applicants from a Chinese background may be dis advantaged when being interviewed for jobs with MNCs which are heavily influ enced by Anglo-American culture.

Keywords

Interviewing cultural differences in the job search oral communication

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