Work Assessment Methods and Cultural Competence

Half-Standardized Procedures

• Critical Incident Technique: With different methods, critical incidents are deduced, where the employee's reaction is decisional for success.
• Job Diary: The position holder is asked to report their work activities over a certain period. Instructions can be given in a more or less standardized way.
• Semi-Structured Interview: An interview guideline specifies the frame of course and content of the conversation. The interviewee is given room to use their own words to describe issues.
• Systematic Observation: The working person's behavior and/or the working conditions are assessed. A more precise observation plan specifies what to observe and how to record.

Standardized Procedures

• Questionnaires: Highly standardized. The interviewees only have the opportunity to select given reply alternatives.
• Checklists: Questionnaires for the experimenter, consisting of a wide range of statements or descriptions concerning the task/occupation. The operator decides if they apply or not. Some checklists include a quantitative rating.
• Observation Interview: A combination of systematic observation and inquiry. The observation is directed towards the accomplishment of the task and workplace conditions. In parallel, the position holder is interviewed about the currently observable behavior.

Mean Tendency

• The average judgment is biased compared to the average actual performance.
• Effects of Leniency and Severity:
  • Raters judge all people systematically better or worse.
  • Judgment habit contingent on motivational factors.
  • Maybe based on assumed negative reactions to judgment, such as demotivation, service by the book, or a decline in team climate.
• Context Effects:
  • Assimilation Effect: Underestimation of performance differences caused by the allocation of judgments to the context (e.g., recommendation of a colleague).
  • Contrast Effect: Overestimation of performance differences (judgment moved away from context, e.g., sequence effect in Assessment Centers).

Important Skills

Adaptability, flexibility, communication skills, openness, initiative, ability to establish social relations, long-term orientation, stress resistance, empathy, and knowledge of languages.

Definition of Culture

Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures, and behavioral conventions that are shared by a group of people and that influence (but do not determine) each member's behavior and their interpretations of the 'meaning' of other people's behavior.

Cultural Notes

• Culture Shock:
  • Honeymoon Phase (happy with new experience)
  • Negotiation Phase (discomfort)
  • Adjustment Phase (starts adapting)
  • Mastery Phase (accustomed to new cultural norms and new environment)
• Fons Trompenaars:
  • Universalism vs. Particularism
  • Individualism vs. Communitarianism
  • Affective vs. Neutral
• Religions:
  • Buddhism (Tripitaka) - more of a philosophy
  • Christianity (Bible)
  • Hinduism (Vedas)
  • Islam (Qur'an)
  • Judaism (Torah)

Avoid the number 4 in China.