The role of national culture on Mexican staffing practices

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of national cultural dimensions on staffing practices in Mexico – a major player in Latin America. US multinationals are increasing their presence in Mexico and staffing practices seem to be a great challenge.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper uses the national cultural dimensions of the GLOBE project, which is identified as the most topical theoretical framework on culture. The national cultural scores are used to develop hypotheses for specific cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty‐avoidance, in‐group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, and performance‐orientation. Examples from the literature are also used to strengthen the proposed hypotheses.

Findings

This research identifies staffing practices such as internal recruitment, personal references, succession planning, psychometric tests, and elaborate bio‐data associated with these cultural dimensions. Also, certain staffing practices, such as e‐recruitment and panel interviews, are not very predominant in the Mexican culture.

Research limitations/implications

Future research can empirically test the hypotheses proposed.

Practical implications

This study will help multinationals understand why Mexican organisations use certain staffing practices and how multinationals can adapt to these culturally bound practices.

Originality/value

While staffing studies usually look at power‐distance, uncertainty‐avoidance, and collectivism as predictors for staffing, this paper has included cultural dimensions, such as performance‐orientation and masculinity‐femininity as predictors for staffing practices. This study also proposes a staffing model identifying staffing practices to the cultural dimensions.

Citation

Rao, P. (2009), "The role of national culture on Mexican staffing practices", Employee Relations, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 295-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450910946488