The influence of cultural beliefs, stereotypes and selection merit on executive selection outcome in multinational organizations in Kenya

Abstract

Culture refers to the underlying values, beliefs and codes of practice that makes a community what it is. It reflects the meanings and understandings that people typically attribute to situations, the solutions that they apply to common problems. They inform the stereotypes, which people have against other ethnic groups and gender, as a result find their way into organizational decision making process. In any executive selection process, it is assumed that final decisions are based purely on merit. However, studies have shown that other than merit, there are other factors that influence organizational decision making process such as executive selection decisions. This study intended to determine the influence of cultural beliefs, stereotypes and merit on executive selection outcome. Ninety six (96) organizations were randomly selected from among the multinational organizations operating in Kenya for the study, out of which fourty seven (47) responses were received making a response rate of fourty nine percent (49%). The key findings of this study show that cultural beliefs influence executive selection outcome, stereotypes and merit. It also found that the existence of stereotypes weakens the relationship between cultural beliefs and executive selection outcome and that merit influence executive selection outcome. Stereotypes on the other hand was found to have an influence on merit but no direct influence on executive selection outcome, however this relationship is reversed by the introduction of merit. These finding are in line with previous studies. Studies have found that feminized job description resulted to discrimination of agentic women, who were perceived not to be nice enough for the job. Organizations need to take a critical look at what constitutes “merit” in executive selection, this includes how it is defined, developed, acquired and measured. The first conclusion from the study is that cultural beliefs do influence executive selection outcome and that stereotypes have an intervening effect on this relationship. Secondly, that gender and ethnic stereotypes do exist in organizations and are deeply entrenched in the minds of senior executives, thirdly that executives can modify their behaviour to act in contrast to these deeply held beliefs in order to conform to organizational culture and values; fourthly that stereotypes by themselves do not have a direct influence executive selection outcomes, however they do so when embedded in merit instruments. A major implication of this study is the introduction of use of the principle of “bush fire effect” in social learning and attitude change strategies.