Mol, S.T.

Dynamics of psychological contracts with work engagement and turnover intention: The influence of organizational tenure (Article)

2013-02-01T00:00:00Z

This study investigated the interrelations of the psychological contract with work engagement and turnover intention, which has hitherto been a largely overlooked topic in psychological contract research. Although previous research has mainly focused on how psychological contracts influence job attitudes and behaviours, it is proposed here that attitudes and behaviours also affect the psychological contract that the employee has with the organization. Moreover, it is proposed that because reciprocity norms are more important among shortly tenured employees, mutual relationships between psychological contracts and work engagement and turnover intention were stronger for employees with lower organizational tenure. Longitudinal data were collected among 240 employees and proposed models were evaluated with structural equation modelling. The results show that indeed psychological contract fulfilment was longitudinally related to higher work engagement and lower turnover intentions, but only for employees with low tenure. Moreover, stability in work engagement, turnover intention, and psychological contract over time was higher for those with high tenure, whereas the relations between turnover intention and the psychological contract were stronger for those with low organizational tenure. These findings demonstrate that psychological contracts are reciprocally interrelated with work outcomes, and that such relations are stronger for those with low tenure.

When selection ratios are high: Predicting the expatriation willingness of prospective domestic entry-level job applicants (Article)

2009-01-01T00:00:00Z

High expatriate selection ratios thwart the ability of multinational organizations to select expatriates. Reducing the selection ratio may be accomplished by selecting those applicants for entry level domestic positions who have expatriate aspirations. Regression analyses conducted on data from a sample of 299 Dutch students about to enter the job market indicated that 20 predictors subsumed under the Five Factor Model, core self-evaluations, expatriate specific predictors, and biodata account for 50% of the variance in expatriation willingness. The predictors were ordered relative to their increasing alignment with expatriation willingness in terms of the action, target, context, and time elements reflected in Ajzen's (1988, 1991) principle of correspondence. Dominance and relative weights analysis provided strong support for the hypothesis that greater alignment on these elements translates into greater predictive power, with biodata emerging as the most powerful predictor set, followed by expatriate specific predictors, the Five Factor Model, and finally core self-evaluations.

Crossing Borders with Personnel Selection: From Expatriates to Multicultural Teams (Doctoral Thesis)

2007-12-06T00:00:00Z

Personnel selection is one of the main activities of the industrial and organizational psychologist. Yet, little is known about whether principles of personnel selection that have been developed in domestic and mainly Western (i.e., North American and European) contexts will apply in intercultural workplaces, such as those faced by expatriates. The present dissertation presents one theoretical investigation and four empirical studies into personnel selection in the intercultural and ‘alter’ cultural context, with a particular focus on both the predictors and the criteria that may be successfully employed for the selection of expatriates. In this introductory chapter, Binning and Barrett’s (1989) elaborated model for personnel decisions research is used to frame the different chapters in this dissertation. Next, this opening chapter introduces some of the main characteristics of constructs employed in the subsequent chapters. In all, three research questions that will be addressed in Chapters 2-7 are posed. These are: 1) Can performance be adequately and accurately assessed in the cross-cultural industrial and organizational psychological context (i.e. across jobs and cultural contexts), and can it be related to individual differences variables that might be employed for purposes of personnel selection? 2) Can the Five Factor Model (FFM) dimensions be usefully employed as predictors of various outcomes (i.e., job and training performance and expatriation willingness) within the crosscultural industrial-organizational psychological context? And, 3) Will predictors that match the criterion in specificity and content demonstrate a higher redictive validity than predictors that do not?

Predicting Expatriate Job Performance for Selection Purposes: A Quantitative Review (Article)

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

This article meta-analytically reviews empirical studies on the prediction of expatriate job performance. Using 30 primary studies (total N=4046), it was found that predictive validities of the big five were similar to big five validities reported for domestic employees (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hurtz & Donovan, 2000; Salgado, 1997; Tae & Byung, 2002). Extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were predictive of expatriate job performance; openness was not. Other predictors that were found to relate to expatriate job performance were cultural sensitivity and local language ability. Cultural flexibility, selection board ratings, tolerance for ambiguity ego strength, peer nominations, task leadership, people leadership, social adaptability, and interpersonal interest emerged as predictors from exploratory investigations (K<4). Surprisingly, intelligence has seldom been investigated as a predictor of expatriate job performance.

Study of the adjustment of Western expatriates in Taiwan ROC with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (Article)

2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

The present paper examined the validity of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). As criteria of validity three levels of adjustment were used. The study took place among a sample of expatriates (N = 102) during their assignment in Taiwan. The MPQ has scales for cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. The MPQ scales appeared to be predictive of expatriates' personal, professional and social adjustment. In all three domains, emotional stability appeared most consistently as a predictor of adjustment. Social initiative was an additional strong predictor of psychological well-being, as was cultural empathy of satisfaction with life and of the amount of social support in the host country. Flexibility was a predictor of job satisfaction and social support. The study also examined the effects of marital status on adjustment. Married expatriates showed higher levels of adjustment than expatriates who were single or separated.

A study of the adjustment of Western expatriates in Taiwan ROC with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) (Research Paper)

2003-01-01T00:00:00Z

The present paper examined the validity of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). As criteria of validity three levels of adjustment were used. The study took place among a sample of expatriates (N = 102) during their assignment in Taiwan. The MPQ has scales for cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. The MPQ-scales appeared to be positively related to expatriates' personal, professional and social adjustment. In all three domains, emotional stability appeared most consistently as predictor of adjustment. Social initiative was an additional strong predictor of psychological well-being, and so was cultural empathy of satisfaction with life and of the amount of social support in the host country. Flexibility was a predictor of job satisfaction and social support. The study also examined the effects of marital status on adjustment. Married expatriates showed higher levels of adjustment than expatriates who were single or separated.

On Expatriate Effectiveness and Goofy Criteria (Miscellaneous)

2003-01-01T00:00:00Z

While performance is quintessential to assessing expatriate effectiveness, significant domestic advances in performance measurement have seldom been applied to evaluating expatriate training and selection practices. In addition to a critical assessment of expatriate effectiveness research, this theoretical paper voices concerns about the conversion of domestic performance taxonomies, and offers solutions.

Het Meten van Werkprestaties van Internationale Managers : Vraagstellingen en Proposities Rond de Ontwikkeling van Criteria voor Selectie en Training (Miscellaneous)

2002-01-01T00:00:00Z

De doelstelling van dit theoretische artikel is om een innovatieve methode te beramen voor de ontwikkeling van valide en bruikbare criteria voor het vaststellen van de effectiviteit van internationale managers. Valide criteria zijn onontbeerlijk voor de ontwikkeling van valide predictoren en de evaluatie van training. Op basis van een beknopte literatuurbeschouwing zal worden betoogd dat reeds uitgevoerd onderzoek naar de voorspelling en training van de effectiviteit van internationale managers, wordt geteisterd door criteria met een twijfelachtige utiliteit en/of dubieuze begripsgerelateerde validiteit. Vervolgens zal worden beargumenteerd dat de aannames en doelstellingen die ten grondslag hebben gelegen aan conventioneel onderzoek, de ontwikkeling van criteria en predictoren die daadwerkelijk door de HRM afdelingen van multinationals kunnen worden geïmplementeerd, in de weg hebben gestaan. De aannames die de revue zullen passeren hebben betrekking op culturele, inhoudelijke en methodologische aspecten van criteria. Een voorgestelde herziening en herdefinitie van de gebruikelijke aannames en hun integratie met recente ideeën vanuit de personeelspsychologie zal leiden tot verscheidene proposities voor toekomstig onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van expatriates.