Abstract
This chapter empirically analyses the influence of the cultural context on the comprehensiveness to which companies in different countries make use of applicant information and selection strategies in corporate web site recruiting. The elements of informing and selection are discussed as critical elements of corporate Web site recruiting in the literature. Based on Hofstede’s 4-Dimensions model of culture, seven hypotheses are developed and tested against data from 420 companies in 14 countries. The results indicate that cultural effects are relevant even though a management technique is provided on the World Wide Web. From a practitioner’s perspective, the results of this study have implications on at least three different levels. At first, companies have to train both their HR- and IT-personnel with regard to the influences of culture. Secondly, job applicants have to be aware of the different intensities of corporate Web site recruiting across countries. Thirdly, companies developing corporate Web site recruiting software should consider the development of culture-specific applications to allow for a culture-consistent implementation.
TopCorporate Web Site Recruiting: Foundations Of A New Hrm Instrument
Personnel recruiting is understood as the combination of personnel pooling and personnel selection, with the objective of obtaining (personnel pooling) and selecting (personnel selection) an adequate number of applicants with the necessary qualifications (Holtbrügge 2005, pp. 93). It is open to discussion whether the definition of recruiting should include induction and other successive activities (like mentoring), or exclude the process of selection. For the purpose of this article, all induction and introductory activities have been excluded. This, however, does not imply that these post-selection activities are less important or cannot be assisted electronically.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Applicant Selection Strategies: Applicant selection strategies combine strategies with regard to the selection and pre-selection of applicants.
National Culture: National Culture is the combination of symbols, beliefs and artefacts typical for members of one nation.
Hofstede’s Framework of Culture: Hofstede identified four dimensions along which different national cultures vary: power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity and uncertainty avoidance.
Electronic Recruiting: Electronic Recruiting can be defined as personnel recruitment using the World Wide Web.
Applicant Information Strategies: Applicant information strategies combine strategies with regard to pre-selection information of applicants.
Corporate Web Site: The Corporate Web Site is the Web-Site of a Firm on the World Wide Web.
Seemingly Unrelated Regression Analysis: The Seemingly Unrelated Regression Analysis (SUREG) method estimates the parameters of a model, accounting for heteroskedasticity and contemporaneous correlation in the errors across equations and is frequently applied in social sciences to estimate regressions in models with two or more dependent variables.