An Examination of HR Strategic Recruitment and Selection Approaches in China

by
Guozhen Zhou
2006
A Dissertation presented in part consideration for the degree of MA Management.

Abstract

In the past two decades, the manner in which organisations in the Peoples Republic
of China (PRC) managed their human resources has changed dramatically (Braun and
Warner, 2002). As the economy grows and moves into higher value-added work,
strategic recruitment and selection are vital to an organisations success. This
dissertation seeks to examine the recruitment and selection strategy approaches in
China. This research is based on 15 well-known firms, of which 11 are multinationals
and 4 are distinguished medium to large sized domestic firms. The Western
recruitment and selection practices are changing the traditional selection model in
China. This dissertation portrays that the role of the HR of the participating
companies is supportive and administrative but not strategic. A combination of
recruitment channels are used when attracting talent. Although organisations in China
use a combination of recruitment methods, they are far more reliant on external online
recruitment agencies. The recruitment and selection process is more bureaucratic and
less dependent on personal relationships. More organisations tend to adopt
sophisticated selection methods. Management style and organisation culture play an
important role in the recruitment and selection practice in China. It is recommended
that organisations should take the initiative to set up a progressive programme of
recruitment and selection change. Also, executives and regional managers need to
build strong organisational culture with values that encourage employees to apply
their individual potential to the conduct of their work.

Contents
Abstract
List of Tables/Charts
Acknowledgements

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CHAPTER 1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose of the Dissertation
1.2 Structure of the Dissertation
1.3 An Overview of the Recruiting and Retaining Challenges in China

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1
2
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CHAPTER 2 Literature Review

2.0 Introduction
2.1 General Recruitment and Selection in the Western Practice
2.1.1 The Role of Recruitment and Selection
2.1.2 Factors of Successful Recruitment and Selection
2.1.3 Selection System: Common Configurations
2.1.3.1 Phase I Recruitment
2.1.3.2 Phase II Pre-screening and Phase III Assessment
2.1.3.2.1 Interviews
2.1.3.2.2 Psychological Tests
2.1.3.2.3 Assessment Centres
2.1.3.3 Phase IV Introduction
2.2 Recruitment and Selection Practices in China
2.2.1 Recruitment Methods
2.2.2 The Important of Guanxi
2.2.3 Selection Practices
2.2.3.1 Selection Attributes
2.2.3.2 Interviews
2.2.3.3 Aptitude Tests and Assessment Centres

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CHAPTER 3 Research Methodology

3.0 Introduction
3.1 Research Method
3.2 Research Rational
3.3 Research Framework
3.3.1 The Case Study Protocol
3.4 Collecting and Managing the Data
3.5 Analysis the Data
3.6 Reflexivity
3.7 Research Limitation

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CHAPTER 4 Research Findings and Analysis

4.1 General Recruitment and Selection Strategy

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4.2 Methods of Recruitment

4.3 Methods of Selection
4.4 Errors and Bias in the Interviewers Decision Making Process
4.5 Hiring Through Guanxi

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CHAPTER 5 Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Recommendations for further research

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Appendix 1 Turnover Rates in Sino-foreign Joint Ventures, 1997

Appendix 2 Employee Turnover Rate, 2001-2005
Appendix 3 Why Chinese Managers Leave Their Jobs
Appendix 4 Errors in Interviewer Decision Making
Appendix 5 Interview Questions
Appendix 6 Interview Schedule
Appendix 7 Pitfalls in Talent Acquisition in China

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94

References

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ii

List of Tables/Charts
Chat 1.3 Why Employees Leave, 2005
Table 2.1.2 Potential Benefits and Problems with
Person-organisation fit
Table 2.1.3.1 Forces in Online Recruitment
Table 2.1.3.2.3 A Typical Agenda for an Assessment Centre
Table 2.2.3.1 Chinese and US Selection Criteria Analysis
Chart 3.1.1 Research Method
Table 3.2.1 Strengths of Interviewing
Table 3.3.1 A list of Chosen Respondents
Table 3.7.1 Weakness of Interviewing
Table 4.2 Methods of Recruitment
Table 4.2.1 Personal Recommendation from Existing Staff
Table 4.3 Methods of Selection
Table 4.3 Selection Criteria

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Hiring

6
for 12
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49
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69

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation could not have been written without the help and support from a
number of people.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents, without whom I would have
been unable to pursue my studies abroad. Thank you for your invaluable support
during my stay in the UK.

I would also like to thank Professor Graeme Currie for his guidance and assistance
throughout this dissertation. His insightful comments helped me tremendously when I
was writing the dissertation.

Finally, my gratitude and appreciation must go to Michelle Draper and all of the
participating interviewees.

iii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

In the past two decades, the way organisations in the Peoples Republic of China
(PRC) managed their human resources has changed dramatically (Braun and Warner,
2002). Looking back in time, Human Resource Management (HRM) function was not
considered to be important and organisations paid little attention when recruiting
workers for their business. In recruitment and selection, educational backgrounds
seemed to be a very good predictor of success for job applicants. For entry level jobs,
workers were selected based more on the university they graduated from than on the
actual skills they possessed. Job interviews were usually omitted in China and
organisations offered jobs to university graduates without seeing them in person (Huo
and Glinow, 1995). Majority of employees were recruited through personal or family
contacts. There has been a dramatic change in recruitment and selection practice as
the economy grows and moves into higher value-added work. Within todays
challenging business environment, human capital management plays a vital role in
organisations irrespective of their origin, size, structure and sector. In fact,
recruitment and selection is becoming top of the agenda for numerous companies in
the country. The organisation leaders and human resource managers spend
considerable time and energy to recruit talent who fit well into their organisational
culture. Nonetheless, many enterprises have not come to recognise the importance of
recruitment and selection until now. Instead, building brands is listed at the top of
their business agenda. Some corporation leaders in the private sector still rely on their
personal networks to recruit senior managers for their organisation.

1.1 Purpose of the Dissertation

Although there is a growing body of literature on Human Resource Management

(HRM) in foreign investment enterprises and state owned enterprises in China, very
few have undertaken an in depth investigation on the recruitment and selection
practice in Mainland China. The purpose of this dissertation therefore is to examine
1

HR strategic recruitment and selection approaches in China.

1.2 Structure of the Dissertation

This dissertation is structured as follows. Chapter two discusses the general

recruitment and selection issues in the Western practice and then reviews the
recruitment and selection practices in the Chinese context. Chapter three includes the
research method, research rational, research framework and limitations of the thesis.
Chapter four presents the results, analysis and discussion of the research findings.
Finally, some concluding comments and recommendations for further research are
addressed in Chapter 5.

1.3 An Overview of the Recruiting and Retaining Challenges in China

Talent Shortage in China

In China, problems in recruiting and retaining local talent are partly driven by short
staffing. In fact, the situation of talent demand outstripping supply has been
recognised since early 1980s, for a number of reasons. First, the causes of staff
shortage can be traced back to the Cultural Revolution in 1966-76, as formal
university education was largely demeaned and derogated. Many of the workers
learned politics and subsistence farming rather than marketing and strategy planning,
plus millions of Chinese learned that capitalism was evil during that period
(Economists, 2005). As a result, the event of the Cultural Revolution has wiped out a
generation of management potential, particularly for middle management positions
and skilled workers. The talent shortage is also partially attributed to the sharp rise in
foreign direct investment inflows that began in the mid 1980s (Keith and Willem,
1998). Besides this, talent shortage is due to the fact that many local highly talented
employees have followed the trend to emigrate elsewhere, usually to a more
prosperous economy in order to seek better opportunities. Fischer (2006) pointed out
that China has, in fact, suffered from such loss several times in the past, although
2

probably less so today. Moreover, it is argued that the recruitment challenge is due to
the fact that there are few strong business schools in China and local Chinese
executives often lack global know-how (Yee, 2006).

As Tsang (1994) noted that there were no qualified staff who could meet
multinationals requirements. It is said that people over 45 have working experience,
but without English language skills. In contrast, people under 25 age have the
language skills but without any working experience. It is also said that the group from
which middle managers should come are between 25 and 45 years old, but they do not
meet either the requirement of language proficiency or working experience. In
addition, Jake Perkowski, boss of Asimco Technologies, a supplier of vehicle parts
recently commented that the talent pool consists either of managers from state firms
who are too bureaucratic or entrepreneurs who have come up through the private
sector and are unconstrained by capital or the law (Economist, 2005). Besides,
several HR managers criticised Chinas education system as being unable to foster
people with the management style and skills that modern employers need. It still
emphasises on rote learning, which is a root cause of the lack of independent thinking
and problem solving skills among local staff, including supervisors (Hulme, 2006,
p.21). Despite the fact that the number of university graduates and business schools
have increased dramatically over the past two decades, there is no surprise that China
still suffers a huge undersupply of qualified managerial staff (China Daily, 2006).

Fierce Competition for Talent

Competition for the local managers is very high and good ones are head hunted away.
It is common to find local managers being lured and recruited by headhunters in
China today. Those professionals like twenty-eight-year-old Anderson Gui, who is
smart, well-versed in his field, has training in western countries and speaks English is
the kind of person headhunters in China fight over (Dolven,2003). Mr. Gui evidence
shows that headhunters play a role in luring him to a job in Shanghai with Texas
Instruments Inc. Therefore, better offers come through headhunters (e.g., a
3

satisfactory package, a challenging position, or an exciting working life in cities such

as Shanghai) which could be the underlying reason for the trend of short term
retention.

China is well-known for its huge population but there is fierce competition for
qualified professionals among companies (Overham, 2001). Multinationals have faced
serious competition to recruit young talents, given that the upward demand trend for
staff is continuing across the country. It is known that fierce recruitment competition
across MNCs has started since early 2000s. According to sources from China Daily
(2001), up to 20 world famous companies, including McKinsey and Company, held
recruitment fairs at prestigious universities such as Tsinghua University and Beijing
University during the recruitment week. Besides, MNCs also face competition for
young talent with top tier, domestic private and state-owned enterprises. This is
supported by Chen Jihe, director of the Tsinghua employment center, who pointed out
that many Tsinghua students want to work for distinguished domestic companies such
as China Telecom and China Unicom in the telecommunication industry (China Daily,
2001). Additionally, a recent investigation conducted by ChinaHR.com, the countrys
leading online recruitment Website, revealed that the Haier Group has once again
been voted by university students across the country as the most-favoured company
(China Daily, 2005).

Frustration of Glass Ceiling Impeding Retention

Further issues which impend employee retention is the frustration of glass ceiling.
According to Lyons (2005, p.13), ambitious Chinese already well established in their
careers are eager to join a new company if they believe their current organisation has
a glass ceiling when it comes to promoting employees to director level positions.
This sort of eagerness also comes from local hires in lower positions. To address
factors that cause glass ceiling, Wang Changjiang, manager of Beijing based Haozhu,
Headhunting Company, pointed out that in foreign firms, few Chinese managerial
staff can expect to be elevated to top positions on the China corporate ladder and their
4

chances of making it to the board of directors in these companies headquarters are

even slimmer. Wang further explained that the promotion of Chinese staff is
hampered due to cultural differences and language barriers, which makes it difficult
for them to convey their ideas to upper-level managers abroad (China Daily, 2002).
Thus, it is tough for a number of foreign companies to fight the perception that there
is a glass ceiling that blocks their career ambitions and reduces chances of promotion.

High Turnover Impeding Retention

High turnover has significantly impeded retention for many foreign firms operating in
PRC. It is known that the current turnover levels in China are high since 1998 (The
Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 1998, See Appendix 1). Companies in China
have faced turnover rates averaging between 11 and 14 percent between 2002 and
2005, according to the Hewitt China TCM study, some have even experienced
turnover as high as 30 percent (China Business Review, 2006, See Appendix 2).
There are a number of reasons that drive Chinese managers to leave their jobs. A
survey conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide in 2005 revealed that better
compensation package is the major concern for Chinese managers leaving their jobs,
voted by 46% percentage of respondents, better benefits, more stability and security,
better career opportunities, better training and personal development opportunities and
new company with better prospects has filled up the next five reasons, respectively
(China Business Review, 2006, See Chart 1.3). This implies that individual attitudes
toward job-seekers are altering alongside Chinas rapidly changing economy,
compared with the same survey conducted in 1998 (See Appendix 3). Furthermore,
high turnover has resulted in many well informed and ambitious employees leave
their jobs, seeking to run their own business.

Chart 1.3 Why Employees Leave, 2005

SOURCE: China Business Review 2006: p.28

Besides, a recent study conducted by Hudson Recruitment, a Nasdaq-listed
headhunting firm, surveyed 705 decision makers at MNCs in China - mostly based in
Shanghai and revealed that the difficulties in recruiting new staff has added to the
pressure on their existing employees. Clare Chen, a Hundson analyst said that long
stretches of overtime work have also caused burnout among staff. There is evidence to
show that over one third of companies found that the quality of employee output had
fallen, up from 30 percent compared with the year ahead. The implication of these
findings is clear: the high burnout percentage has shown a warning signal for human
resources managers that their companies are likely to suffer from a high turnover rate
at some point (Shanghai Daily, 2006).

Professional Ethics Impeding Retention

Professional ethics also pose a threat to staff retention. The question why Chinese
employees are known for changing jobs quickly has been raised by Business Weeks
Beijing Bureau CHIEF, Dexter Roberts, during the interview with CEO Liu Hao, one
of Chinas leading online recruitment firms. Liu responded that this is because
Chinas job market is still not very mature, and professional ethics are still in the
process of developing (Business Week Online, 2006). Liu also pointed out two
current situations that are caused by their weak professional ethics. One is due to the
fact that suitable candidates sometimes decide not to take the offer, although they
6

make an acceptance earlier. A latest report (surveyed total 645 executives in local
MNCs) from Hudson Recruitment, revealed that 63 percent employers surveyed said
they often or sometimes had their offer rejected (China Daily, 2005). Another
situation is that now in China, people jump ship more often than ever mainly because
rival firms offer greater incentive. Some talented employees see working at
multinationals as a steppingstone, which helps them gain working experience in
foreign firms (can either make their CV look good or provides them with better access
to top positions on the corporate ladder) before hopping to local or private companies
(China Daily, 2002).

Many managerial employees in MNCs are known to conduct illegitimate under-table

dealings. According to Wong and Law (1999), Chinese managers from a toy
manufacturer have been known to sell the designs of the companys product to
competitors regardless of copyright protection. Wong and Law further revealed that in
a high-tech company, design of the products have been stolen by a top executive, and
then used to manufacture the same products in his established firm. Afterwards, the
firm that was owned by the top executive contacted the customers of the original firm
and served as its direct competitor during his appointed post in the original firm. Thus,
it is very hard to keep and retain skilled and experienced talents regarding the issues
of low professional ethics.

Chinas Traditional Employee System/Policy Impended Mobility Workforce

Last but not least, an additional issue that drives retention to get tougher is Chinas
traditional employment allocation system. Well into the 1990s, the government
assigned jobs to graduates on the basis of examination results and other (often
irrelevant) indicators, giving companies virtually no say in the selection process
(Business China, 2001, p.11). The problem of staff retention was also due to the
hukou (residential) policy controlled by the state as all urban residents required
hukou registration to qualify for employment, housing etc., which created a highly

inflexible labour market and a big challenge in terms of hiring and moving people
around (Overman, 2001).

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

To examine the different approaches to HR strategy in terms of recruitment and

selection in China, this chapter will review a set of generic issues of recruitment and
selection, and then key questions raised in the western-orientated literature will be
identified. This chapter will then review the recruitment and selection practices in the
Chinese context. Following the discussion of literature around Chinese recruitment
and selection, a further set of research questions regarding the important of guanxi,
selection criteria, and selection fairness will be identified.

2.1 General Recruitment and Selection in the Western Practice

The importance of recruitment and selection has become increasing apparent to many
organisations across the world. Key issues stimulating the potential importance of the
selection decision to organisations have been identified by Beaumont (1993). First, a
more diverse workforce has been induced by demographic trends and changes in the
labour market, which have placed great pressure on the notion of fairness in selection.
Next, the purpose of recruitment and selection has been adjusted. Organisations are no
longer just match individuals to immediate job requirement. Instead, organisations are
driven by the desire for a multi-skilled, flexible workforce, and an increased emphasis
on teamwork. Therefore, selection decisions are concerned more with behaviour and
attitudes. Last but not least, the process of recruitment and selection is likely to be
more strategic and the notion of strategic selection is caused by the emphasis between
corporate strategy and people management. This implies that recruitment and
selection are linked with the overall organisational strategy and aimed to match the
flow of people to emerging business strategies.

The effectiveness of recruitment and selection in best practices is largely addressed in

9

the literature review. It is said that an integrated recruitment and selection process
helps recruiters to choose candidates to fit the characteristics of an organisation
culture (Bowen, et al, 1991). The use of combined selection tools can minimise the
level of adverse impact, which in turn add significant increments to the overall
validity of selection (Bartram, 2004). It is also said that successful recruitment and
selection can improve organisation performance (Robert, 2005). This is illustrated by
the findings of empirical studies. For example, a study found the use of integrated
screening, selection, induction, and training to have a positive impact on company
productivity and profitability. Similarly, there is evidence to show that a sophisticated
selection process helped the organisation deliver exemplary customer service and
helped the company stand out from the competition (Strategic HR Review, 2004). At
the same time, however, the literature also reviews the challenges and validity of
many recruitment and selection methods. It is argued that the effectiveness of
recruitment and selection is likely to be determined very largely by the interviewer
itself (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993). Until now, the question whether recruitment
and selection tests discriminate is still one of the most debatable topics in human
resource practice.

2.1.1 The Role of Recruitment and Selection

Before any detailed review on the literature of recruitment and selection, the terms of
recruitment and selection are defined as follow. Anderson (1994) describes the
process of recruitment and selection as integrated activities, and where recruitment
stops and selection begins is a moot point. Nonetheless, these two areas are different
from each other. Recruitment is the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis,
in sufficient numbers and with appropriate qualifications, developing their interest in
an organisation and encouraging them to apply for jobs within it (Mondy and Noe,
1993, p.336). Selection is carried out by organisations as a means of measuring and
predicating the candidates potential and actual performance. The intake of employees
will make the most appropriate contribution to the organisation now and in the
10

future (Beardwell et al, 2003, p.190).

2.1.2 Factors of Successful Recruitment and Selection

There are several important factors that contribute to successful recruitment and
selection. For example, personality is important as a supplementary predictor of job
performance. Despite the fact that the use of personality tests have witnessed an
upsurge in recruitment and selection between the late 1980s and early 1990s, the role
of personality testing in managerial selection has been denied. It is argued that the
evidence for predictive validity of personality tests is frequently overstated and
incorrectly assessed. It is also argued that personality is only a relative minor
determinant of managerial performance (Blinkhorn and Johnson, 1991; Dakin et al,
1994). However, there have been major changes over the past decade. There is now
extensive literature to support the validity of personality attributes for recruitment and
selection (Saville et al, 1996; Robertson and Callinan, 1998; Robertson and Kinder,
1993). There is also evidence to show that personality characteristics, in particular
measures of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience appear
related to job performance (Murphy and Bartram, 2002).

Lanphear (2003) stated that when hiring, personality matters. Bill Wagner, CEO,
Accord management Systems, says sometimes interviewers or recruiters are rational.
People are hired based on appearance and skills. Sometimes employees are fired or
quit because of personality issues. Other explanations on why personality is important
are due to the fact that personality is stable which means difficult to change, and the
impact of personality on performance is very high. Therefore, it is challenging to use
and mainly rely on the traditional selection methods when hiring, given that
personality has always been the most difficult aspect to appraise. This again suggests
that overall validity of selection and the organisations chance of hiring a competent
candidate is significantly improved by carefully using a combination of other
selection tools. Lanphear (2003) further mentioned that job matching systems help
11

employers match an applicants behavioural attributes with a jobs behavioural

requirements and competencies. Nonetheless, organisations take consideration for the
costs of job matching systems for measuring both the job and the individual.

Hiring for person-organisation fit is known as a new approach to selection in todays

competitive business environment. Person-organisation fit requires that two types of
fit be achieved in the hiring process: (1) between the knowledge, skills and abilities of
the individual and the task demands or critical requirements for the job; and (2)
between the overall personality of the individual (e.g. needs, interests and values) and
the climate or culture of the organisation (Bowen, 1991:38). According to Bowen et
al (1991), many U.S. and Japanese-owned corporations have started using this
approach to build cultures that rely heavily on self-motivated, committed people for
corporate success. This kind of hiring practice has changed the traditional selection
model, and more importantly, it has become the foundation of the best recruitment
and selection practices. The benefits and problems from hiring for person-organisation
fit, as Bowen et al (1991) considered are depicted in Table 2.1.2. Again, this shows
the importance of personality in matching an organisation culture during the selection
systems. Nonetheless, it is expected that significant internal variability will co-exist
with the person-organisation fit.

Table 2.1.2 Potential Benefits and Problems with Hiring for Person-Organisation
Fit
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
1.

More favourable employee attitudes (such as greater job satisfaction, organisation

commitment, and team spirit)

2.

More desirable individual behaviour (such as better job performance and lower
absenteeism and turnover

3.

Reinforcement of organisation design (such as support for work design and

desired organisational culture)

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POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
1.

Greater investment of resources in the hiring process

2.

Relatively undeveloped and unproven supporting selection technology

3.

Individual stress

4.

May be difficult to use the full model where payoffs are greatest

5.

Lack of organisational adaptation

SOURCE: Bowen, 1991: p.46

Other factors such as consistency of strategic recruiting (e.g., create a long-term

strategic plan for the organisation; have strategic criteria for each job, take an in-depth
look at alternatives; have an open discussion with the candidate, have a trial period of
three to six months after hiring the person), adequate job analysis, assessor training,
decision making in the whole picture approach rather than the hurdle approach,
culture awareness have lead to increased reliability and validly of recruitment and
selection. Such factors will be critically discussed in the following section.

2.1.3 Selection System: Common Configurations

According to Anderson and Shackleton (1993), good recruitment and selection

depends on the efficient use of a system for selection and which is based on three
fundamental assumptions. First, it is assumed that any recruitment and selection
system is comprised of a series of inter-related and inter-connected stages. For
example, the design of recruitment advertisement will affect the range of applications
received. The second assumption is that in the selection system, the later stages are
chronologically dependent upon preceding stages. Next, it is assumed that each stage
of assessment is both a predictor and an affecter of the candidates future behaviour.
To better understand how selection systems operate in practice, Anderson and
Shackletons systems model of recruitment and selection, which is perhaps the most
common configuration, is introduced. The selection procedures are multi-stage
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comprising of four inter-related sub-stages, and these are recruitment, pre-screening,

candidate assessment and induction (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993). In the
following paragraphs, each selection stage will be critically considered.

2.1.3.1 Phase I Recruitment

To attract a suitable quality and quantity of applicants, the best recruitment and
selection practices include the use of sophisticated selective hiring methods,
techniques, support from line management and senior management. In attracting
potential applicants, for example, organisations can choose from a wide variety of
methods. Externally, it includes the use of informal personal contacts, such as existing
employees, informal grapevine (word of mouth) and speculative applications.
Externally, it includes formal personal contacts, such as careers fairs, open days and
leaflet drops, advertising, including local and national press, specialist publications,
radio, TV, and the Internet, or external assistance, including job centres, career service
(Beardwell and Wright, 2003). Organisations should fully consider factors to be taken
into account when choosing the most appropriate method. For managerial and
professional recruitment foreign firms should post advertisements via specialist
journals and the national press. Furthermore, the choice of method will depend on the
time constraints, budget limitation, and existing customs and practices within the
organisation (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993).

The use of online recruitment has been increased globally as a result of technological
facilitation of communication through official corporation website or job referral site.
According to Galanaki (2002), the term online recruitment or internet recruiting
implies the formal sourcing of job information online. This is a fairly new practice
tool. Online recruitment can reduce costs significantly. According to Mader (2001),
recruitment advertising in a major metropolitan newspaper may cost more than $1,000,
while the cost of Web recruiting averages $183. In addition, Nike, the worlds number
one shoemaker claims that it has saved 54% of recruitment costs since its online
14

recruitment system was introduced in 2002. Nikes average time to fill vacancies has
fallen from 62 days to 42 days (Strategy Human Resource Review, 2005). Technology
database enables an electronic recruitment advertising to store and retrieve data,
whereas a newspaper gets thrown away. As the Internet has no geographical boundary,
it can reach more places than a newspaper. Galanaki further addressed several
commonly identified advantages and drawbacks of online recruitment (See Table
2.1.3.1).

Table 2.1.3.1 Forces in Online Recruitment

For Online Recruitment

Against Online Recruitment

Cost savings

Needs an integrated recruitment process

Shorter recruiting cycle time

Internet still is not the first option

Reaches a wider range of applicants

Is mainly perceived as suitable for young

graduates

Better quality of response

Is more effective for companies already

known

Gives the company a more up-to-date Involves higher risk of overload of

image

answers

Opportunity to address specific labour Its implementation implies extra time and
market niches

effort

Attracts the passive job-seeker

Provides global coverage a constant basis

SOURCE: Galanaki, 2002

However, online recruitment is not for every organisation. It is hard for companies
that have adopted online recruitment to achieve all of the listed benefits. A study

15

based on UK IT companies showed that online recruitment does not necessarily

provide better quality of applicants. This is probably due to the fact that other factors
and variability as mentioned previously are involved. It is wise to consider the risk of
overload of answers because it may delay and influence the recruitment and selection
process. Despite the fact that a short recruitment cycle time is considered in the
literature review as the most important attribute of the online recruitment, the study
attributed to it is mediocre. Furthermore, one manager claimed that the company has
not experienced on time effect of online recruitment. Online recruitment is not always
about improving the effectiveness of recruitment and selection. Some companies
follow the trend of online recruitment without any consideration to its specific needs,
because organisations fear staying behind. Regarding the legal implications, online
recruiters should keep applicants resume confidentially and online recruiters should
not sell applicant CVs either indirectly to recruitment agencies, or directly to
companies that may be interested.

2.1.3.2 Phase II Pre-screening and Phase III Assessment: Candidate Assessment

Techniques, and their Usage

2.1.3.2.1Interviews

Once the number of shortlised applicants have been identified and invited, the process
of in-depth assessment can begin with an extensive range of assessment methods.
Such selection techniques, if applied, utilised, and analysed properly, can play an
important role in organisations. For example, to search for competent candidates that
meet the employers candidate profile and fit the organisation culture. The purpose
here is to review critically the major methods (interviews, psychological tests and
assessment centres) in the best human resource practices today, and how each method
can improve the effectiveness of selection.

Interviewing is universally used in selection process (Beardwell and Wright, 2003).

16

There is evidence to show that interviews are used by every organisation in a

recruitment survey published by Chartered Institute of Personnel Developing (CIPD)
in 2001. Recent studies in the UK by (CIPD) and others have shown that the interview
is used in more than 90 per cent of selection processes (Roberts, 2005). This is not a
phenomenon particularly limited to the UK. In fact, such conclusions also arise from
studies in various countries around the world, for example, in the United States.
Although many studies have reported the limitations of interviews (summarised in
Anderson, 1992), interviews remain reliable and valid as a means of employee
selection. To fully understand and maximise the uses of the interview, its
opportunities and potential problems are discussed as follow.

There are several important reasons for organisations to employ interviews in

selection. First, the interview is seen as a two way social encounter between the
interviewer and the interviewee. Anderson and Shackleton (1993) have pointed out
that interviewing is an effective selection tool. This is because the interview serves
not only as a predictor of suitability, but as an affector of both parties outcome
decisions and future behaviour (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993, p.48). However, the
nature of the interview may also be a cause of the major source of errors, being prone
to interviewer bias. Interviewing has become a trend in selection methods because of
their acceptability to interviewers, especially line managers, peers and candidates
(Barclay, 2001). The interview is an appropriate and fairly reliable method for
assessing job-related social skills, particularly in sales positions. The interview
situation can therefore be used to assess candidates selling, persuading, and
negotiating skills. Besides this, a number of studies demonstrated that interviews are
significantly more accurate if based upon detailed job analysis technique and structure
interview formats. The reason why the interview is most frequently used can be
additionally explained by the time and cost constrains of other methods such as
psychometric tests and assessments centres (Barclay, 2001).

However, it is argued that the most popular method in selection is not necessarily the
17

most valid assessment technique at predicting the future job performance of

candidates. Over the years interviews have been criticised as being overly subjective,
prone to interviewer bias, and misused or over-burden of the interview (Breadwell and
Wright, 2003; Anderson and Shackleton, 1993). In terms of misuse of interviews,
many organisations, especially domestic private small sized firms have traditionally
used the interview as the only method of candidate assessment. This is often
supplemented by the application form and followed-up by the ubiquitous reference
check. It has been criticised that organisations often overload the interview by
attempting to meet and fulfil the multiple functions, for example, using the interview
as a surrogate of ability, personality, and work sample test. To maximise the uses of
the selection interview, recruiters should not attempt to meet such diverse aims in one
interview. It is suggested that these diverse aims of the systems of selection should
really be seen as independent but overlapping areas of assessment (Anderson and
Shackleton, 1993). Organisations are beginning to use techniques like structured
interviews that have high validities. Nevertheless, numerous organisations are still
using selection techniques that have dubious validity rather than using techniques that
have been shown to have higher validities if properly used (Makin and Robertson,
1986). As a result, interviews can be misinterpreted as one of the least effective
selection methods if improperly focused, used, and analysed.

The Role of Interviews

The uses of interviews depend on the purposes of the interviews. To maximise the
contribution of the interview to the systems of selection, it can perform three distinct
functions as suggest by Professor Peter Herriot of Sundridge Park Management
Centre (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993). One is mutual preview to set up
expectations for the selection proves and to give candidates a realistic job preview.
This can avoid snap judgement on the candidates suitability. Good talent is scarce
and they have the advantage to choose among different offers. The interview as
mutual preview can be an effective technique for attracting and helping candidates to
make decisions on their career choices. The second use of an interview may be for
18

assessment purposes to predict future job behaviour from interview questions, which
are based on the detailed job analysis. This can avoid interviewer biases as discussed
in this section. Next, the interview can be performed as a negotiation tool to reach
agreement over outstanding issues contained in the contact of employment.

Interviewers are major source of error (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993). This is
particularly true when interviewers are not qualified or well trained. In such cases,
there is no surprise to see these interviewers are unclear about the purposes of
interview and are therefore likely to use invalid prediction methods throughout the
selection process. Research into the effectiveness of interviews has shown a variety of
dysfunctions in interviewers information processing strategies. These are: halo/horn
effect, contrast and quota effect, primacy effect, expectancy effect, confirmatory
information seeking bias, stereotyping and prototyping, negative information bias,
similar- to-me effect, personal liking bias, information overload and selective
attention, fundamental attribution error, and temporal extension (Anderson and
Shackleton, 1993: See Appendix 4). Among the common criticisms are: interviewers
form judgements of candidates, usually within the first few seconds of the interview.
The interview therefore becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy with the interviewer only
gathering information to reinforce that snap judgement. The contact or environment in
which the candidate is working is often ignored by interviewers when forming
judgement. It is important to seek information on the environment in which
candidates are working and to judge answers in context. There is a danger in
stereotyping, where interviewers possess notions of stereotypical ideal job holders and
screen candidates against these notions. This can be highly erroneous and
discriminating against certain ethic groups, but also possibly illegal in developed
countries (Roberts, 2005).

Although interviewing has been reported as one of the best established selection tools,
it suffers from a number of problems. For example, the increasing workplace diversity
and cross-cultural interviewing have created challenges for interviewers and
19

interviewees. Many societies and workplaces become increasingly multicultural

(Osman-Gani and Tan, 2002). It is important for both interviewers and interviewees to
prepare for job interviews. To conduct an effective interview, a proper welcome is
suggested before assessing competencies for a given position. Interviewers need to
develop rapport with the interviewee based on trust, understanding, and acceptance.
Discrimination has a negative impact on employees attitudes, which could, in turn,
compromise individual and organisational performance (Snape and Redman, 2003).
For example, the situational interview has the potential to be discriminatory for ethnic
minority applicants (Roberts, 2005). To be fair, each candidate should be given equal
opportunity throughout the recruitment and selection process. Recruitment
professionals need to be aware of the potential impact of discrimination caused by
cultural misunderstanding. Sometimes interviews are used as a test of language
fluency rather than an investigation into the particular competency. However,
speaking the same language does not mean sharing the same culture. This is
highlighted in the paper of cross-cultural interviewing (Chan et al, 2006).

Regardless of its problems interviews remain one of the useful selection techniques. It
is necessary for organisations to ensure, these errors, biases, and negative impacts of
the interview in public relations, as mentioned earlier, are eliminated as much as
possible from the entire selection process. To be effective, organisations should use
interviews in conjunction with other methods such as psychometric tests, worksample tests, and assessment centres. Different types of interviews are most
appropriately based on different degrees of structure to fulfil different purposes. A
focused structure is preferred for mutual preview purposes. A highly structured
approach is appropriate for assessment purposes. The use of interviewing as a
negotiation tool can follow a semi-structured design (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993).
In order to minimise the pitfalls and potential problems that are caused by the
interviewer itself, interviewers should therefore be consciously guarding potential
problems against stereotyping bias. In fact every candidate should be regarded as
unique, and assessed as such (Roberts, 2005). The interviewers can reduce
20

subjectivity (e.g., candidates are rated positively or negatively according to whether

their traits are similar or dissimilar to the interviewer) in decision marking by
consulting and working with professional recruiting expertises. However, it may be
expensive and challenging to bring together these two parties of professionals in
pursuing the same purpose. The fairness of interviewing selection can be ensured by
conducting the structured interview in the same environment, asking all candidates the
same series of questions, using a systematic scoring procedure to record, concentrate
continuously, and rate candidates performance.

2.1.3.2.2 Psychological Tests

Psychological testing is one of the oldest, and perhaps most contentious, selection
tools (Roberts, 2005, p.132). The origin of psychological testing can be traced back
to 500 BC. A battery of psychological tests was used by the Chinese to assist in the
selection of government officials. Psychological tests can be defined as
Psychometrics to denote that they are concerned with identifying the mental
characteristics of people (psycho-) and putting a measurement (-metric) against such
characteristics (Roberts, 2005, p.132). The two main types of psychometric testing
most commonly used are tests of ability (divided into achievement tests, aptitude tests,
and intelligence tests) and tests of personality (e.g., Big Five: Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness). Among these
psychological testing, aptitude tests are often used to measure candidate primary
mental abilities, for example tests on verbal reasoning, numerical ability, abstract
reasoning. These tests if used properly, can contribute substantially to the accuracy
and fairness of selection systems. If the tests are taken in advance, test results can be
used in the interview. This can bolster the accuracy of the interview by generating
unforeseen questions areas for the interviewer to delve into (Anderson and Shackleton,
1993). However, there has been some argument over the value of intelligence tests,
especially for predicting performance in high-level roles such as managerial positions
(Roberts, 2005). There are also debates about the value of personality tests, for
21

example, it is said personality tests lack agreement on the extent to which personality
is measurable (Taylor, 2002).

It is important to recognise that while psychological tests are generally reliable, they
are not perfectly accurate. Candidate abilities also change overtime and other skills
may be important. Success will often depend on other factors such as interest,
personality, motivation and opportunity. Psychometric tests can be discriminated to
those whose have little experience of tests. As Roberts (2005) has pointed out that
there have been high-profile discrimination cases in the UK in recent years
concerning the use of testing and these have usually been ability tests. One notable
case was that of train drivers being required to undergo a test that measured their
competency in English. It was argued that this was directly discriminatory to those
whose first language was not English (Roberts, 2005). Nonetheless, it is questioned
that there may be an over-reliance on psychological tests with respect to their use in
predicting future job performance resulting from the increasing popularity of
psychological tests (Bratton and Gold, 2003). No matter which types of tests are
applied for the selection purpose, firms should choose the tests carefully by looking
for evidence of reliability and validity. The firm should also confirm the availability
of benchmark comparison for the particular group in selection, and avoid buying an
over-sued test (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2002).

Last but not least, due to the recent development of online recruitment, minority
organisations administer selection testing online. Some corporations may also plan to
introduce online testing in the future, to reduce delivery costs, thus making testing
more affordable for lower-paid jobs (Breadwell and Wright, 2003). Although online
testing provides organisations with the ability to test the applicants without time and
geographical constraints, there are some potential disadvantages of using online
testing. For example, firms will find it difficult to control the environment in which
the test takes place and problems in verifying candidates identity (IRS, 2002).
Bratton and Gold (2003) also point out that online testing may also cause a loss of
22

control over the administration of the selection test since firms can not prevent
applicants involving other peoples help.

2.1.3.2.3 Assessment Centres

Due to the weakness of relying on a single selection technique, organisations are

increasingly using a combination of assessment methods and applying them together
in order to enhance the overall reliability and validity of the selection process. Among
which, assessment centres are perhaps regarded as the most valid of all selection
methods (Aaron and Shore, 1990). The assessment centre is not a place but rather a
process that consists of a small group of participants who undertake a series of tests
and exercises under observation, with a view to the assessment of their skills and
competencies, their suitability for particular roles and their potential for development
(Fowler, 1992: p244). The assessment centres are used to select the best candidates(s)
for the job by observing and analysing behaviour in a range of simulated work related
situations. As well as being used to choose between external candidates, assessment
centres are often also used in internal promotion/assessment schemes (Robertson and
Makin, 1993).

Assessment centres take place over a period of time varying between half a day and
three days where candidates work together but perform to standards set by the
employer (Roberson et al, 2002). A one day assessment centre is likely to involve
lunch (See Table 2.1.3.2.3). A typical assessment centre is likely to involve one or
more interviews, sometimes one to one and sometimes panel interviews, a set of
exercises, and ability or personality tests (Roberts, 2005). The assessment centre
could be assessed in the form of group exercises. The idea of group work is to assess a
range of skills e.g. teamwork, leadership, problem solving, interpersonal skills, time
management, and ability to summarise (Beaumont, 1993). This will depend on
competencies the company is seeking. Group practical activity may involve timed
case studies or fictitious scenarios. The assessment centre usually involves a number
23

of assessors, which usually is a mix of HR staff and line managers. During the given
exercises, observers sit around the room making notes on individual performance. The
components of assessment centres also include presentation and written tasks.
Presentations are used to test candidates oral skills and personal effectiveness.
Candidates may be required to deliver a presentation individually or jointly with
another candidate. The assessment centres may also involve in-tray exercises to test
candidates judgement, time management and prioritising skills, as well as writing
skills. This can be on paper or on computer using email.

Table 2.1.3.2.3 A Typical Agenda for an Assessment Centre

9.00

Coffee and registration

9.30

Introduction to the day plus company presentation

10.15

Group Exercise and Presentations

12.00

Lunch with partners and recent graduates

1.15

Aptitude Tests

2.15

Coffee

2.30

Individual in-tray exercise

3.30-5.00

30 minute interview with partner

There are some advantages to using assessment centres. First, it focuses on the key
elements of the role and therefore is very specific in measuring the suitability of
candidates. Next, it avoids over reliance on a single technique but allows assessors to
employ a range of methods to gather a balanced picture. Referring to the comment
given by Feltham (1992), a good quality assessment centre should have a number of
strengths over traditional selection methods. The greatest advantage is their excellent
predictive ability in forecasting candidates future job performance accurately. Some
studies demonstrated that assessment centres are more effective at predicting
successful candidates than other techniques (Roberts, 2005). The assessment exercises
can provide a useful glimpse into the inside organisation and nature of the work.
24

Hence, the use of such a sophisticated technique, if handled well, can help the
organisation to display a positive image to potential candidates. This can also give
candidates a better view about the organisation and its value. Assessment centres, if
used properly, can be important in ensuring that the organisation is hiring the right
candidate, and in the same way, the candidate is making the right choice. Furthermore,
a case study demonstrated how assessment centres helped Energis, a technologydriven communications company, get customer-focused, and helped the company
stand out from the competition (Strategic HR review, 2004).

However, like any other selection process, the assessment centre is not a perfect
predictor of success on the job for every candidate (Caldwell et at, 2003). In other
words, assessment centres are not without their problems. Assessment centres are
usually expensive to run and their validity varies according to the criteria they are
used to predict. For the expense reason, assessment centres are most likely to be used
in the public sector organisations and by larger private sector employers. The
assessment centres can be time consuming for the organisation and the candidates.
Graduates may be able to devote time to assessment centres, but those currently in
employment will have difficulty squeezing time to attend such kind of recruitment
events. The assessment centres often engage the involvement of senior managers and
training of assessors which makes it time consuming and therefore costly for the
organisation (Roberts, 2005). Besides this, it is argued that assessment centres are
sometimes transparent and it is all too easy for candidates to act in group exercise
and other aspects. In other words, assessment centres cannot completely reflect
candidates real behaviour. It is also argued that the validity of assessment centres
merely reflect the stereotype of what the assessors consider to be a good manager
(Robertson and Makin, 1993). Nevertheless, assessment centres remain a useful tool
for selection and development. To achieve its benefits, the assessment centres need to
be well designed and the assessors must be well trained.

25

2.1.3.3 Phase IV Introduction

Workers are not homogeneous across the labour market. There are good workers and
bad workers, but information is asymmetrically distributed between employers and
employees. It is hard for employers to check and assess the credibility of individual
abilities that have been delivered during the entire recruitment and selection process.
This is because candidates are often well prepared, well coached, and often pretend to
match with the type of people that the organisation seeks. By not properly
investigating a candidate, an organisation may hire someone who has misbehaviour or
fraud history at work (NZB, 2005). To avoid such risk, firms can conduct preemployment checks, which depends on the type of position, before an offer is made.

Hiring new employees may seem like a relatively safe process, but there are hidden
dangers. This is because sometimes candidates lie on CVs. A survey conducted by
Korn/Ferry, one of the leading head-hunters, revealed there are three types of
information that are most frequently fabricated by candidates. The majority leading lie
on CVs is owing to reasons for leaving previous jobs, which accounted for 69% and
ranked as the severest lie. Results/accomplishments and job responsibilities is
accounted for 68% and 45% respectively. Besides this, candidates also fabricate
information on compensation (39%), education (24%) and dates of employment (20%)
(The Economist, 2006). Furthermore, other recent studies have uncovered that more
than 40 percent of candidates have lied about their education or previous work
experience (NZB, 2005).

Many employers, especially in the United Kingdom and United States usually make
references checks before a job offer is made (NZB, 2005 and Roberts, 2005). Other
two main areas are often checked. These are document checks (e.g. any qualifications,
certificates, and licences claimed by the applicant and pertinent to the applied
position), statutory checks (e.g. National Insurance number). Document and reference
checks verify the facts surrounding the skills and experience given by the candidate
26

on their resumes or during the selection process. It is necessary to know that the
search of criminal records and credit check must be done with the candidates consent.
Moreover, a template of reference questions should be created for each type of
position, tailoring them to specific roles, behaviours and situations.

Pre-employment check is a good way of diminishing problems arising from

asymmetric information. It is also a way of preventing risks, liabilities and disasters to
the company when hiring new staff. Thereby, the number of bad hires that may have
a direct impact on an organisations performance and reputation can be reduced at a
minimal level (NZB, 2005). Nonetheless, without a helpful database and some useful
advice from HR process expert partners, pre-employment check is time consuming
and challenging to manage, especially when a large number of applicants are involved.
Many organisations in the United States, and recently in the UK, have been chosen to
outsource the pre-employment checking process to reference-checking agencies. The
study conducted by Korn/Ferry indicated that the most common three areas are
education verification (83%), employment verification (77%), and criminal/arrest
history (35%) (Executives Recruiter Index, May 2004). To be effective, it is important
for all concerned to avoid questions that may lead to claims of discrimination or have
no direct relation to the position (NZB, 2005).

To be explicit, following the discussion of generic issues of recruitment and selection,

several research considerations are raised. This will be further investigated through a
qualitative study:

What is the role of HR in your company? Can you illustrate the role in Recruitment
and selection?

*Does your company usually make a detailed job analysis to determine the job
description and person specification in advance? If yes, who does the analysis?

27

*Does your organisation fit the person to the job or fit the job to the person?

Who is responsible for HR (line manager, HR manager, board of recruitment and

selection, or together)? Who makes the final decision regarding who to hire?

*Does your company tend to follow the cost minimisation or high commitment
strategy approach towards recruitment and selection?

2.2 Recruitment and Selection Practices in China

2.2.1 Recruitment Methods

In China, recruitment practices have been changed and improved over the past three
decades. Before the open policy was introduced, HRM policies were a political issue
and HR planning and policies were strictly controlled by the central government and
its labour bureau (Lewis, 2003). At that time, Chinese enterprises had no formal
personal department because workers were assigned to the enterprises by the
government. Chinas economic reforms have rendered the old system obsolete. New
labour laws were introduced in mid 1990s. Since that time, employers are able to
recruit both graduates and people with experience from other companies (Goodall and
Warner, 1997; Chatterjee and Nankervis, 2003). The following section will discuss the
major recruitment practices in China. This includes posting advertisement in
newspapers, attending job fairs, recruiting through universities, using internal online
recruiting or external headhunting services and using personal connections when
recruiting overseas Chinese.

As a recruitment channel, newspaper advertising is still quite popular. Organisations

use newspapers to recruit both non-professional workers and professional workers.
Local newspapers are often used when recruiting entry-level positions. Managerial
28

positions are usually posted through specialised publications. Although advertising in

local newspapers may be relatively inexpensive, a large backlog of advertisement still
exists, which results in a lag time, sometimes up to 4 weeks before the advertisement
appears in print (Gross and Mancini, 1996). It is also said that recruitment
advertisements are not permitted in the news media without the prior approval of the
local labour and social security department (Loong, 2004, p. 167). This may be
restricted to some press agencies in certain cities. By posting advertisements on a
wide scale, companies will inevitability meet unqualified applicants, and the problem
of confirming qualifications and checking references of potential candidates.
Recruiting through job fairs poses similar problems. Job fairs tend to attract a number
of job seekers with various types of skills. It is difficult and time consuming to sort
through the applications received, especially for verifying applicants credentials
(Gross and Mancini, 1996). Furthermore, these two methods are known as potluck
approach. In other words, there is no guarantee that firms cannot search for
employees they want despite spending a large amount of money on advertising in
newspaper and attending job fairs. Many companies pursue other strategies, rather
than relying on either of these two methods, to enlarge its talent pool and target
prospective employees.

Campus recruitment is another source of recruitment. Many well-known companies

recruit to fill entry level vacancy through prestigious university fairs during the
campus recruitment season, which normally runs from October to December.
Competitions among campus recruitments are fierce. Firms have been striving for
young talents across the country, as mentioned earlier (Zhang, 2001). There is
evidence to show the best students from first tier schools like Peking University or
Tsinghua University receive an average of three to four offers. To attract talent from
top universities, many distinguished foreign-invested organisations have begun to
build relationships with educational institutions by providing grants and scholarships,
technology and equipment. A good structured internship programme is a good way to
29

introduce the company to potential students. In fact, Motorola and many other
companies lure prospective students by offering internships programme. However,
some companies use internships to find cheap labour to do work like photocopying or
data entry (Heytensh, 2001). Recruiting through universities can take advantages at
verifying references and educational backgrounds, however, those graduates lack
experiences to assume management roles. Companies need to invest in people,
encourage and promote those high-caliber career starters who desire to become the
future leaders, and who share the same goal as the company. In recruiting potential
future managers, global companies such as Unilever, HSBC, and Maersk offer
professional graduate development programmes (some called Management Trainee)
to attract and foster high-caliber talents with no work experience. However, this is
expensive and there is the problem of retaining qualified employees (Hailey, 1996).

As the economy grows and foreign companies expand into China, the headhunting
business is growing rapidly and shifting much of its focus to the online recruitment
(Dexter, 2006). In the past, headhunting and online recruitment services were not
utilised, but employers attitudes toward these kinds of services have changed recently.
Firms tend to provide the requirements and ask headhunters to locate and hire
experienced local managers, overseas Chinese or Chinese returnees from the other
foreign-invested companies. According to Liu Hao, the CEO of Zhaopin.com, a lot of
companies are starting to realise that online recruitment is one of the best ways to find
the kind of desired employees, if used properly. Liu also pointed out that a large
number of companies are spending more online, while decreasing their print
advertisements (Dexter, 2006). Headhunting companies have been expanding into
second-tier cities, although it faces a more severe talent shortage and Chinese
professional workers are reluctant to relocate to the interior of China. More and more
companies pose vacancies through their official company website.

Alternately, organisations use Internet job sites like 51job.com, a Nasdaq-listed

30

recruiting company; Zhaopin.com, one of Chinas leading online recruitment firm, its
clients include many multinationals such as Microsoft, Shell, Motorola; ChinaHR.com.
Another option is using the government run Foreign Enterprise Service Company
(FESCO) to recruit and fill middle-level positions by their in-house human resource
departments. Hiring through recruiting or headhunting firms expedite the recruitment
process from spending time searching through preliminary resumes and checking
references. However, this always involves high administration fees. Companies like
FESCO typically charge its clients two to three times what it actually pays the
employees. Besides this, FESCO often controls the amount a particular employee
earns. Some companies are not willing to pursue this option when seeking prospective
employees, not only the expenditure issue, but also the loss of autonomy and control
over wage incentives on their employees. Additionally, some companies believe that
such headhunting firms may not be as meticulous as an employer would like them to
be when matching candidates with placement requests (Gross and Mancini, 1996).
The quality and reliability of some private recruiting or headhunting services have
been questioned. Nonetheless, such firms still charge an international rate for their
services.

These are the generic recruitment and selection issues, many of which may be
relevant globally. However, the international context, in particular the Chinese context
with its distinctive culture and distance from the Western world brings particular
challenges. The practice of HRM is greatly affected by guanxi the traditional Chinese
cultural values (Goodall and Warner, 1997). The Chinese are more likely to make
guanxi as an explicit condition of employment. In the old days, majority of employees
were recruited through personal or family relationship. However, recruiting through
ganxi is often perceived to be irrational, and negatively labelled by Westerners as
nepotism or favouritism, this is still prevalent in some enterprises across China. Lewis
(2003) also pointed out that the development of HRM in China is still at an embryonic
stage due to the socialist regime. Alongside the issues that have been highlighted in
31

generic recruitment and selection in the Western practices, there are further issues
specific to the Chinese context that this study is going to investigate. These are
important to guanxi, selection preferences and selection fairness in China.

2. 2.2 the Important of Guanxi

Hiring through guanxi was a popular informal recruitment channel in Chinese

recruitment practices. Guanxi is a Chinese term literately meaning relationship. In the
Chinese context interpersonal connections can be regarded as customarily dealing
with mutual favours and string pulling between organisations and authorities (Xin and
Pearce, 1996). It has been recognised that the recruitment practices are partly driven
by the national cultures and Confucian traditions. Having a good relationship with
employees is particularly important in China. Employers especially those in privately
owned corporations are likely to think that a good personal relationship can promote
more open and frank communication between managers and subordinates. A close
guanxi can facilitate the management development process in the organisation and can
create ties and loyalty between employers and employees (Bjorkman and Lu, 1999).
Hence, when recruiting, priority is given to children and relatives of existing
employees (Verma and Zhiming, 1995). The use of guanxi through recruitment was
prevalent in 1990s. A study indicated that about 80% of respondents had found their
jobs through references from friends and relatives (Ip, 1995); the figure was found to
be similarly high in a study conducted by Ding et al. (1997).

Despite the fact that the recruitment processes is less dependent on personal
relationships in foreign direct investments or joint ventures, recruiting nepotism has
been a serious problem (Bjorkman and Lu, 1997:162). Local staff may be under
pressure to recruit friends and relatives. Hiring through personal connections is likely
to bring unqualified workers. Joint ventures may also run the risks if the partner is
unable to provide personnel with the desired skills and qualifications. It may be
32

difficult to manage such employment relationships, since relatives of the employer

may prevent competent employees from elevating to top positions on the corporate
ladder and reduce the chances of promotion. Recruiting local managers with many
contacts can lock a firm into relations with mediocre suppliers (Kaiser, 1997). This
implies that corporations cannot rely on recruitment through guanxi. As Tsang (1998)
has pointed out that there is always the possibility that recruitment through guanxi
may become worthless or even turn into a liability. To avoid this, companies must
carefully develop standard, thorough, and speedy recruitment strategies to screen
applicants, avoid seeking suitable candidates just from the pool of job seekers through
guanxi, and then evaluate the recommended personal or direct applicants stringently.
Some of the risks can be neutralised if foreign managers take responsibility for the
recruitment and selection process.

In recruitment, the use of guanxi is mainly influenced by the Chinese culture. Todays
medium and large sized corporations were mainly developed from stated owned or
privately Township and Village Enterprises across the country. These typical Chinese
owned firms were set up like family and community businesses and had no
recruitment, selection strategies and processes per se when they first started.
Employers used to believe that relatives and friends are more likely to stay in the
company over a long term. Employers also believe that those employees are likely to
commit to the company, hence referrals from family connections, relatives, or existing
employees are highly considered. Some employers also favour recruitment through
guanxi as a good strategy for learning about potentially trustworthy and qualified
candidates (Ang and Bian, 1997). Consequently, those who were closely related the
employers or had personal contact with senior managers in the company were much
likely to be considered. Beside this, hiring through personal connection reduces time
and costs (include advertising and screening) significantly (Ang and Bian, 1997). As a
result, most of the new workers were based on family, relatives or employee referrals.

As family owned business grows bigger, many companies use a variety of formal
33

recruitment

channels

e.g.,

newspaper

advertisements,

employment

centres,

headhunting firms, or job affairs when they need to hire. Many distinguished
organisations like Haier and Huawei have realised the disadvantages of recruiting
through guanxi and established recruitment policies against guanxi biases. Employers
have also learned that careful recruitment of technical personnel can ensure qualified
and highly competent senior staff. Therefore, employees are now mostly selected
rather than referred to by existing employees or guanxi as they were previously.
Candidates are much more likely to be considered on their merits, rather than on the
strength of their family, personal, or business guanxi with those inside the firm.
However, in China personal contacts and referrals from employees still seem to play a
role in recruitment and selection. A survey revealed that 10 percentage of graduates
search jobs through family networks, friends (51job.com, 2006). This percentage
varies from province to province across the country. Some corporations still actively
encourage employees to recommend friends and relatives (Braun and Warner, 2002).

To recruit right candidates at right positions, HR managers need to work together with
the management to tailor the best suitable strategies and keep ahead of the recruitment
game. Firms should seek talented people actively by using widely media channel (e.g.,
put vacancy via career internet referral, newspaper advertising) and recruitment
source (e.g., attend job fairs, campus recruitment), rigorous recruitment and selection
process, along with thoroughly checked references. For foreign firms that cannot find
experienced managers from the local labour pool, should look elsewhere in Asia such
as Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore to fill the senior positions. Organisations can
also attract overseas graduates or expatriate Chinese by attending recruitment fairs
such as Career in Asia UK summit. Alternatively, firms can establish links with career
centres of American or European Universities.

2. 2.3 Selection Practices

In Chinese selection practices, many well known domestic enterprises or foreign

34

corporations go through a combination of assessment techniques prior to an offer

being made. This is aimed to ensure competent applicants are hired. In recruiting
entry level employees, companies typically screened applicants CV. In the screening
process, some companies use online scanning software to screen and score applicants.
This is also coupled with a reference check. Multinationals or distinguished domestic
firms see the recruitment of talented, highly motivated graduates as being absolutely
vital to their future success. Companies such as Unilever, HSBC, and Maersk have
developed their graduate training scheme as part of their long term talent management
strategy to attract and foster high-calibre talents who lack work experience. Those
intakes for graduate development programme or graduate training scheme are selected
rigorously based on the designed candidate profile. Proficiency in English and
Chinese are required. Some programmes are only available for internal staff with a six
months minimum work experience at the company. For the selection of such graduate
development programmes, selected applicants from the initial screening will be
invited for the completion of an aptitude test or personality test. Ability assessment
can be deployed online. Next the short-listed candidates are invited to attend the first
interview, followed by assessment centres and second interview. Such recruitment
programmes are very popular for graduates, but sometimes the selection process may
take up to three months and only a small number of the highest calibre candidates (10
to 20) will receive extended offers each year.

2.2.3.1 Selection Attributes

In China, the job selection criteria seem quite different from the West. As mentioned
earlier, Chinese employees are likely to make guanxi an explicit condition of
employment. Nonetheless, this is often viewed negatively. In a cross cultural selection
analysis, Huo and Glinow (1995) indicated that the Chinese place more importance on
job attributes that could directly benefit the organisation, in which, the top five
attributes for the Chinese are motivation, initiative, company knowledge, leadership,
and loyalty (See Table 2.2.3.1). A study conducted by Easterby-Smith (1995) found
35

that good moral practice; adequate competence; hard working and excellent
performance records; political loyalty and harmonious relationships with others were
considered as selection criteria for managerial appointments in their case study
organisations. Age is known as another considerate factor when recruiting senior
management. This is because the Chinese culture values include veneration of elders
and a respect for experience that comes with age (Jin et al, 1999). Newly employed
managers who are younger than their subordinates will probably find it difficult to
handle their employees.

Table 2.2.3.1 Chinese and US selection criteria analysis

SOURCE: Jin et al, 1997: p. 11

Recruiters also tend to favour candidates with similar social or educational

backgrounds. For entry level jobs, the credentials of a job applicant, for example, the
36

school from which the job applicant received the highest degree often carry weight
(Huo and Glinow, 1995). A study of graduate employment 2006 revealed that primary
considerations for initial screening included relative majors, related work placement
experience, university reputation (www.51job.com). Although other factors might be
considered, those candidates who graduated from highly prestigious school are likely
to be favoured. This may be due to the Chinese cultural norm of honouring.
Employers see educational background as a very good predictor of success for
applicants. Beside this, specific favour could be obtained on the basis of commonality
along the following dimensions. This includes the school that a person went to, the
clan a person belonged to, and the city or province a person originally came from
(Huo and Glinow, 1995).

2.2.3.2 Interviews

Interviewing is a common and dominant method used in Chinese selection practices.

The initial interview, particularly for entry level jobs is usually undertaken to examine
whether the candidate has the necessary skills/experience/personal qualities to do the
job, to verify whether the information written on the CV is true or not and to judge
whether the candidate will fit into the organisations (The study of graduate
employment 2006). Punctuality and first impressions are important. A research
showed that Chinese candidates are generally unaware of the dangers of resume fraud,
and therefore candidates often exaggerate their competencies (Anonymous, 2006).
There is a big gap between Chinese and Western culture in terms of values and beliefs
and the education systems. Cultural differences can make or break a working
relationship. To overcome this, Overman (2001) suggested that firms should not hire
people primarily because of language proficiency as in the olden days. In fact
recruiters need to probe into values and experience instead. Given that Chinese
culture tends to be less direct than Western cultures, firms can make use of multiple
interviews in China to better assess a candidates ability. Firms can also ask two
interviewers, one Chinese and someone from the West to balance both Western and
37

Chinese views of the candidate.

There are practical issues surrounding job interviews in terms of bias and equal
opportunities, data protection and confidentiality, as well as discrimination (Liu,
2005). Candidates are not fairly assessed, given that some interviewers do not prepare
for the interview assessment. Some interviewers often ask questions of their interest
and ignore the context or environment in which the candidate is being assessed. As a
result, applicants are not asked the same set of questions and not in the same order.
Some recruiters still prefer to use unstructured interviews. However, this is known as
an inefficient selection method because it is apt to create a negative impression of the
organisation with candidates who then share their experience with others. Another
obvious interviewing bias is interviewers are often probed into questions related to
privacy information. A random research of graduate employment in Guangzhou 2004
showed that 8 out of 15 students were asked whether they have a boyfriend/girlfriend
during their job interview (Liu, 2005). Such questions should not be asked. Besides
this, Braun and Warner (2003) found that some interviewers are unskilled and do not
receive any interviewer training in the study of strategic human resource management
in western multinationals. To have an unbiased selection process, companies can ask
external consultancy companies to assess candidates.

2.2.3.3 Aptitude tests and Assessment Centres

In order to recruit the most suitable employees for organisations, psychometric tests,
assessment centres and other measures of assessment widely used in Western
companies have been relatively applied in Chinese selection practices over the past
seven years (People Daily, 2005). Assessment centres are often used to evaluate,
elevate internal staff positions, in which interactive role play, simulation exercises,
leaderless group discussion are increasingly used in the task of selecting the most
appropriate employees (Dickie and Dickie, 2005). Domestic companies like Huawei,
Haier, Lenovo and Vankee have adopted such assessment methods to help enterprises
38

acquire outstanding talent from the labour market and enhance their global
competitiveness. The Bank of China also trains its 400 mid-level management and
then some are selected to fill advanced positions through these modern assessment
techniques. In some companies, assessment centres are only run for its internal
leadership development (Braun and Warner, 2002). Nonetheless, China suffers a
serious shortage of skilled recruitment assessors, as only 600 hold such qualifications,
and less than 700 HR people obtained such training (Peoples Daily, 2005).

Many western firms faced difficulties when implementing their selection process in
China. For example, a large US consumer goods company experienced problems
using their global tests and interview questions in China. The company found that the
analytical problem-solving test used in Western countries do not work effectively in
China (Bjorkman and Lu, 1999). Many similar examples can be found in other MNCs
or domestic firms that have adopted the western selection approach. This has largely
resulted from a totally different means, culture, and systems of education in China
compared with the Western system. It is also known that many translated software
cannot precisely assess Chinese candidates and also some questions cannot
objectively reflect the reality. Braun and Warner (2002) explained the limited use of
psychometric testing and assessment centres. First, this is because such assessment
techniques cross cultural validity is still questionable. A manager in Braun and
Warners study emphasised that the assessment centres and psychometric tests
originally comes from the West, and firms in China need some time to learn and adopt
new methods. Another reason lies in their associated costs, because it is costly, not
every company can afford it, especially for those small or medium sized companies.

Although corporations can get more in-depth understanding of candidates through

assessment software, HR people have identified several difficulties for the newly used
assessment tools across the country. Compared with advanced developed countries,
the extent to which assessment software is properly applied in the developing
countries is very limited. This may in part be due to the fact that such assessment
39

software is still under development. Not every company can afford to purchase
assessment tools from world leader assessment experts like SHL to support
organisations with people performance management. The available software may
perhaps either be too general or lack cultural awareness. As a result, companies have
found that these software systems cannot satisfy their needs due to limited functions.
In addition, there is also capacity limitation for editing new questions into the
database. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the context of the assessment tests
cannot meet their assessment purposes (www.hrtest.com). To avoid such pitfalls,
companies should select assessment software or tools wisely.

Following the discussion of recruitment and selection in China, further research

questions are identified (See Appendix 5):

SECTION ONE: RECRUITMENT PRACTICES

Can you please tell me about the recruitment process in your company?

Which recruitment channels are usually used in your company?

E.g. Online recruitment
Newspaper Advertising
Campus recruitment
Internet job sites
Head-hunter (to what kind of position)

What is the ratio of campus recruitment to external recruitment?

*How do you view hiring through guanxi-family or personal contact?

Does your company encourage employees to recommend friends and

relatives when there is a vacancy?
40

 If yes, does your company provide any reward to those who succeed in any
recommendation?

Has your company taken any action to prevent the negative impact of
recruiting through guanxi?

SECTION TWO: SELECTION PRACTICE

How does your company select job applicants? Which selection methods are usually
used in your company?

*Do you think personality matters?

*In recruitment, does your organisation fit the person to the job or the job to the
person?

Does your company use selection tests to screen applicants?

If yes, what kind of tests does your company usually use?

How does your company conduct these tests during the selection process?

E.g. Screening CVs

Aptitude Test
Personality Test
Interview (Structured/Unstructured) (One to One/Panel) (How many interviews)
Assessment Centres (Case study)
Reference Check
Physical Check

* When selecting, does your company ask the same questions and allocate the same
41

length of interview timing?

Interviewers are known as the major source of error. Has your company taken any
action to improve the interviewers skills?

*Does your company provide any training to interviewers?

*Has your company set any implicit or explicit selection criteria in terms of
recruitment and selection? (e.g., extra credit is given to graduates from prestigious
university)

Which selection criteria are likely to weigh heavily?

*When recruiting, does your company have any restriction on academic background,
age, sex, residential right, and language proficiency?

42

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

The preceding chapter linked the general Western recruitment and selection practices
to the practices of recruitment and selection in China and highlighted the research gap
between the international and Chinese human resource management. To examine the
HR

strategic

recruitment

and

selection

approaches

in

China,

qualitative

methodologies involving qualitative case studies and interviews with respondents

from companies in China are employed. It is necessary to indicate that the selected
organisations are not only exclusive to Chinese firms (must be medium to large sized),
but also foreign direct investment firms in China. This chapter includes six
subsections. It starts with the research method which has been designed to conduct the
case studies. Next, the research rationales are provided. This chapter then follows the
foundation of Eisenhardts (1989) case study framework and some of Hartleys (2004)
practical steps such as colleting the data and analysing the data. This chapter will also
encompass Hartley (2004) and Yins (2003) case study protocol on how to conduct,
and interpret findings based on case studies. Finally, the reflexivity section is outlined
and the research limitations are addressed.

3.1 Research Method

This study adopts an inductive qualitative case study which is based on interviews as
this research aims to generate an in-depth understanding of strategic recruitment and
selection approaches in China. This is an inductive case study because the purpose of
the research is theory building not theory testing. This case study is designed to be
exploratory, rather than descriptive or explanatory. The reasons why case study
research has been employed can be explained by the following perspectives. First,
case study research consists of a detailed investigation, often with data collected over
a period of time, of phenomena, within their context (Hartley, 2004:p.323). Second,
43

the aim of case studies is to supply an analysis of the context and processes of the
subject which give light to the theoretical issues being researched (Hartley, 2004).
Last but not least, case studies are especially suitable to research questions which
require detailed understanding of social or organisational processes because of the
rich data collected in context (Hartley, 2004:p.323).

Hartley (2004) suggests that case studies generally include various methods such as
participant observation, ethnography, focus groups, semi-structured to unstructured
interviews and even documentary analysis. The latter three methods are used in this
dissertation as part of the case study. The supplementary secondary data, such as
exclusive interviews were conducted by journalists with HR managers from several
well known multinationals. This was mainly collected from the Chinese national press
like Xinhuanet.com or online recruitment firms like Chinahr.com. The rationales for
using qualitative research will be explained in section 3.2. The researcher conducted
16 interviews in total (See Chart 3.1.1). The majority of interviews were based on a
semi-structured questionnaire format (which included short open questions, probing
questions, specific and closed questions) and conducted either via face to face or over
telephone.

Chart 3.1.1 Research Method

Research Method

Face to face interviews

(4)

Telephone Interviews (11)

UK (2)

China (9)

44

MSN
(1)

3.2 Research Rational

These are several reasons to use the qualitative research approach, rather than the
quantitative research. First, it is not always possible, or desirable to use quantitative
research to obtain information from respondents. In this dissertation, for example,
quantitative methods were not used as it would have been impossible to draw solid
conclusions from the survey computed. Hartley (2004) also mentions that case studies
with interviews also accomplish the aims of the researcher as questions can be
tailored towards each interviewee. Flexibility can be achieved in the degrees of
structure discussion, which has the ability to draw out more information than the
restrictive format of a yes/no tick box type of questionnaire (Carter, 2004).

Second, qualitative approach is useful for examining experiences, meanings and

representations. It can also be used to explore, interpret, or obtain a deeper
understanding of the objectives studied (Malhotra, 2004). In other words, qualitative
research can be used to explore, explain or describe the phenomenon of interest
(Marshall and Rossman, 1999). Furthermore, qualitative research enables the
researcher to provide a framework which allows respondents to represent their points
of views of the subject or the topic they are talking about and thoroughly. The
researcher then uses the collected data to explain phenomenon in details.

Attempting to collect qualitative data via face to face interviews may focus directly on
case study topics and provides perceived causal inferences, as Yin (1994) has pointed
out. Other strengths of interviewing are listed below (See Table 3.2.1). However, there
are possibilities that interviewees say what interviewers want to hear. This is
particularly true when the interviewer asks respondents opinions about negative
impacts on a particular matter. In the same way, attempting to collect qualitative data
by telephone may lead to advantages associated with access, speed and lower cost
(Saunders, et al, 2003). By using this method, long distance was not a problematic
issue. Although telephone interviews provide advantages in certain circumstances, it
45

may prove difficult to develop a rapport over the telephone. The use of telephone
interviews may also pose particular problems and this will be discussed in section 3.6.

Table 3.2.1 Strengths of Interviewing:

Face-to face encounter with informants

Obtains large amounts of expansive and contextual data quickly
Facilitates cooperation from research subject
Facilitates access for immediate follow-up data for clarification and omissions
Useful for discovering complex interconnections in social relationships
Data are collected in natural setting
Good for obtaining data on non-verbal behaviour and communication

SOURCE: Hughes, M., 1996:p.169

3.3 Research Framework

To build a structure to the research, key research questions were drawn and five the
main themes associated with recruitment and selection were defined. These questions
are:

1. What is the HR function in recruitment and selection in China?

2. What are the recruitment methods applied by firms in China?
3. What are the selection methods applied by firms in China?
3. How the problems of hiring through guanxi can be tackled?
4. What are the selection criteria?

It is important to have a research focus and avoid being overwhelmed by the volume
of data collected (Eisenhardt, 1989). The broad questions above outline the aims of
this dissertation. There is also some room for flexibility. This flexibility would enable
46

the researcher to control the focus of the research in the event should any major
difficulties occur when conducting this study; for example problems in maintaining
effective two-way communication with the interviewees. Regarding this, Eisenhardt
(1989: p.536) suggests that research is begun as close as possible to the ideal of no
theory under consideration and no hypotheses to test. Thus, a broad research area is
established which can be worked upon and developed more specifically as the study
progresses.

3.3.1 The Case Study Protocol

The protocol is a major way to increase the reliability of case study research (Yin,
2003). The purpose of the case study protocol is to guide the researcher in carrying
out the data collection. The main crafting instruments in this case study are face to
face interviews and telephone interviews. Other than interviews, case studies in this
dissertation are supported by company websites and the Chinese national press in
order to provide more evidence and information.

Data collection procedures: 1) Contacted friends and companies (MNCs, state and
private owned) in China for help, an electronic covering letter with basic details of the
study aim was provided with the interviewees requirement; 2) obtained the respondent
details, and this was followed by a phone call in which the researcher explained her
aims in more depth and answer any queries; 3) a thank you latter was send to suitable
respondents and then a time and date for the interview was confirmed; 4) prepared for
interviews and started from searching the company website, and conducted interviews
with the listed respondents; 5) contacted respondents for further enquiries if necessary;
6) sent another thank you letter to all participants.

The outline of case study report: general recruitment and selection strategy, methods
of recruitment, methods of selection, errors and bias in the interviewers decision
making process, hiring through guanxi practices; attachments: case study questions
47

and interview schedule.

The researcher utilised both personal networking and friendship circles when seeking
participants who are either working at HR departments or those who have recruiting
experience in China. Meanwhile, the researcher also contacted companies directly in
China through international phone calls from the UK to China. The researcher spoke
to representatives of the HR department to see whether they interested and would like
to participant in this project. Along with the contact details provided by friends, the
researcher emailed respondents and sent prospective respondents an electronic request
for conducting an interview. Face to face interviews would have allowed direct
contact and relationships to be built with interviewees. However, this could only be
feasible to feasible for the MBA students, but not for the respondents in China. This is
mainly due to the distance, time and financial constraint, given that the respondents of
this case study are geographically spread out across China. However, email interviews
are not feasible due to its reliability and validity is considered lower in comparison to
both face to face and telephone interviews. Also respondents may not reply on time.

This study is based on 15 well-known firms, of which 11 are multinationals and 4 are
distinguished medium to large sized domestic firms. These firms were selected from
sectors such as banking; insurance; automobile; professional service firms, real estate,
logistics, home appliance and manufacturing. The research sample includes four HR
managers, three HR representatives, five MBA students, two IT managers, one senior
auditor, and one management trainee. To maintain anonymity, personal details of the
interviewees and the company names have not been mentioned. A list of respondents
that participated in this research is provided.

48

Table 3.3.1: A list of chosen respondents:

Serial

Department

Position

Sector

Country

Finance

MBA

Banking

China

HR

MBA

Manufacturing

Taiwan

Sales

MBA

Banking

UK

HR

Senior Officer

Insurance

America

IT

Mid-level

Business

Germany

Manager

Service

Senior Officer

Professional

Number

Auditing

America

service
7

IT

Mid-level

Automobile

America

Home

Japan

Manager
8

Marketing

MBA

appliance
9

HR

Senior Officer

Professional

America

service
10

Development

MBA

Government

UK

11

HR

Manager

Real Estate

China

12

Customer

MT

Logistic

Denmark

Manager

Refined

UK

Service
13

HR

Petroleum Gas
14

HR

Manager

Manufacturing

Taiwan

15

HR

Senior Officer

Advertising

Switzerland

49

16

HR

Supervisor

Kitchen

China

Appliance

Generally, the interviews lasted between 40 to 60 minutes (See appendix 6).

Explanations on recording the interview are provided. When acceptable, the
interviews were recorded. The interview guideline was separated into three sections.
In the first section, the interviewer asked participants about the presence of
recruitment practice channels, particularly hiring through guanxi-family or personal
contact in their organisations. Next, each interviewee was asked how the company he
or she currently or previously worked for selects suitable employees and the type of
selection methods and selection criteria. In the final section, the interviewer asked
interviewees the role of HR function, and whether their organisations tend to follow
the cost minimisation or high commitment strategy approach towards recruitment and
selection. If the interviewee mentioned that it stuck in the middle or it varied between
levels of position, the interviewee was then asked to illustrate and give examples.
Each of the respondents was asked more or less the same standard questions.
Interviewees were asked additional questions and were asked to explore responses
which were relevant to the research topic. However, sometimes this varied from
interviewees to interviewees.

3.4 Collecting and Managing the Data

The research data was collected in three ways. First, the data was socially constructed
with the interviewer as participant. This method allow interviews to be conducted in
different formats. The use of probes to follow up points of interest and the
interviewers distinct characteristics will influence the research process (King, 2004).
As this kind of interview is a two way communication process, the context of the
interview is seen as an interaction constructed. The interviewer plays an important
role in collecting the evidence. In addition, the case study evidence that was obtained
50

from the interviews was recorded and named chronologically with a serial number.
This allows the interviewer to concentrate on questioning and listening; allowing
direct quotes to be used. It can also trace the recorded interview later. However, there
are disadvantages of doing so and sometimes it may outweigh the advantages. This
may inhibit some interviewee responses and reduce reliability and affect the
relationship between interviewee and interviewer (Saunders, et al, 2003).

3.5 Analysis the Data

The case study data was organised around key themes and central questions. Although
transcription conventions were designed to minimise interpretation, the researcher
decided not to convert and translate each interview into transcription due to the time
restrictions. This does not necessarily mean that analysing the research evidence is not
as good as analysing transcripts. Instead, the researcher spent a large amount of time
to listen and analyze the recorded interview and then summarise each interview. Next,
the researcher examined the case study evidence to see how far they fit or failed to fit
the expected categories. This was done by putting the evidence into groups, codes and
then searching for patterns of similarity to assist in examining the evidence. Key
themes were HR strategy in recruitment and selection, methods of recruitment,
methods of selection and the use of guanxi in recruitment and selection. The
researcher further examined and interpreted any unexpected data. The categories may
need to be refined if it leads to further interesting results. Furthermore, the third part
of the data was collected through the supplementary excusive interviews as mentioned
earlier.

To enhance the validity, multiple sources of evidence could have been used when
collecting the data. For example direct observations and participant observations. The
use of a combination research team, who can provide critical questioning to support
the analysis of the interviews, can also help to increase the validity. The analysis and
findings of this dissertation could have been more accurate than it is now as this study
51

was subject to a number of limitations. For example, a larger sample of companies

would have to be engaged in this study and face-to-face interviews and participant
observations should be carried out to allow a deeper level of observation and
interaction of the respective cross functional and hierarchical hiring teams (HR
managers, line managers and general managers). Further researchers can develop a
case study database to enhance the reliability.

3.6 Reflexivity

Reflexivity is one of the key elements that must be included in this qualitative case
study. The term reflexivity refers to the recognition that the involvement of the
researcher as an active participant in the research process shapes the nature of the
process and the knowledge produced through it (King, 2004: 20). The researcher is a
24 year old, Chinese MA management student. The initial contact with respondents
went very smooth. The researcher prepared most of the interviews by searching the
company website and their recruitment and selection information online. Generally,
the researcher found her interviewing performance influenced by the level of
preparation. For example, the researcher found that she performed better if she
prepared well and the performance was slightly worse if she did not prepare well prior
to the interview. As a young female interviewer, the researcher found it quite easy to
build rapport and gain trust with the interviewees. The downside was that because of
the interviewers age and lack of experience, the researcher felt intimidated when
interviewing senior employees. The researcher felt a bit nervous when she was
starting the interview with an MBA student who used to work for a global banking
organisation. The researcher became confident after the rapport and trust had been
established. The researcher also felt uncomfortable when she first met a male
interviewee whose age is around late 40 to early 50. Again, the researcher overcame
her concerns and performed very well throughout the entire interview. The researcher
had difficulties when she was trying to adjust the time difference between Greenwich
Time and Beijing Time. I was exhausted one early morning, therefore, I delayed the
52

interview with an HR manager. But I felt extremely sorry as that manager squeezed
her lunch time for the interview. Also, being a Chinese was a great advantage, as it
allowed the researcher to access the great Chinese literature.

3.7 Research Limitation

There are inevitable limitations of undertaking any research. The weakness of

interviewing is listed below (See Table 3.7.1). Regarding conducting interviews via
telephone, Braun and Warner (2002) have pointed out the difficulty of telephone
interviews, for example, a large range of additional information, which a company
visits and face to face interviews (e.g. the non-verbal behaviour of participants)
provides, is potentially lost. As a result, it may adversely affect interviewers
interpretation of how far to pursue a particular line of questioning. At the same time,
interviewers may encounter difficulties in asking complex or sensitive questions. For
these reasons, attempting to conduct qualitative interviews by telephone may lead to
issues of reduced reliability. It may be difficult to establish trust between the
interviewer and the interviewee. If the position of trust is not established, participants
are less willing to engage in an exploratory discussion (Saunders et al, 2003).
Interview participants may be less willing to devote as much time to talk to the
interviewer in comparison with a face to face interview. Nonetheless, the researcher
believed that interviewing by telephone is the most appropriate and feasible method in
comparison with other qualitative techniques. This is particularly true when
interviewing manager level respondents out of their office hours. It may be
inconvenient for visiting the companies or interviewees when they are at work.

Table 3.7.1 Weakness of Interviewing

Data depends on the cooperation of a small group of key informants

Difficult to replicate
Procedures are not always explicit or depend on researchers opportunity or
53

characteristics
Data often subject to observer effects; obtrusive and reactive
Dependent on the honesty of those providing the data, sometimes interviewees
dont not tell all
Interviewees do not know all
Dependent on the ability of the researchers to be resourceful, systematic, and
honest; to control bias.

SOURCE: Hughes, M., 1996:p.170

A further research limitation is the potential for the interviewer bias due to lack of
interviewing experience. To minimise this, the researcher tried to establish rapport
before the digital recorder was switched on. The researcher avoided hogging the
conversation or attacking interviewees statements etc. To increase the validity, the
researcher reflected back on what has been said for clarification. The researcher also
tried to minimise the shortcomings of telephone interviews by employing various
other communication channels. As mentioned earlier, a covering letter which included
the purpose of the research and general notes (e.g. interview time and confidential
issues) were sent to all respondents in advance through email. This was followed by
either a phone call or another email to arrange the interview schedule with the
interviewees.

Due to the sample size, the qualitative case methodology is unlikely to generalise the
results over populations, due to the sample size. Nonetheless, having few samples
may not be an obstacle after all as Hartley (1989) suggests that the detailed
knowledge of the organisation and especially the knowledge about the processes
underlying the behaviour and its context can help to specify the conditions under
which the behaviour can be expected to occur. In other words, the generalization is
about theoretical proposition not about population Qualitative case methodology, in
fact, is a very useful approach in order to contribute to theory building (Yin, 1994).
54

Thus, having company specific knowledge can assist in building generalisations about
the strategic recruitment and selection approaches in China.

55

CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 General Recruitment and Selection Strategy

Most multinationals have exercised horizontal and vertical HRM. The head office is
generally responsible for the vertical HRM (e.g. purchase assessment tests, software,
and established policies). The division head is in charge of the horizontal HRM within
the organisation. Some head office worked closely with their divisions. The same
authority is given to each HR department across the country, except for the SN2 TW
Manufacturing. In addition, the head office based in Taiwan was not responsible for
the manufacturing factory in China. In most of the companies, except for SN12 UK
LGP, the role of the HR was supportive and administrative, but not strategic. There
are two HR teams in the SN12 UK RPG organisation. One for HR administration,
another is for developing the HR strategies and policies. The latter HR team is called
Core of Executive. It launched the Evidence Based Interview to assess applicants in
2005. The Core of Executive HR Team also arranged workshops to train HR officers
and line managers.

Recruitment and selection has become part of the organisation plan. The HR function
supported the organisation to meet corporate strategies (e.g., launching of
new/additional product lines, supporting the new investments). Organisations like
SN11 Denmark Logistic and SN15 China KA, have a range of measurements to
predict the demand of annual and semi-annual staff. However, some companies (SN2)
did not predict the staff demand in advance. Majority of interviewees reported that
their company usually made the job analysis to determine the job description and
person specification in advance. This was usually done by supervisors or managers in
the functional departments. The HR manager from the SN13TW Manufacturing
reported that they had just finalised the standard operating procedures for recruitment
and selection. From my secondary research findings, the organisational design/ work
design/ job design and employee specification, in large blue-chip companies like IBM,
56

were planned by the specialist team by trials (www.chinaHR.com).

The HR department, functional department and top management team were involved
and responsible for the recruitment activities. None of the interviewees reported a
board of recruitment and selection to review new staff employment. The majority of
the interviewees mentioned their organisation conducted a minimum of three
interviews before the candidate was hired. According to the research findings, the
senior management such as department head or general manager usually made the
final decision regarding who to hire. In selection, some company have started using
the hiring for person-organisation fit to recruit suitable staff that match well into the
corporation. This kind of recruitment approach has changed the traditional selection
practice in China. It can help organisations to build and strengthen the organisational
culture. It can also assist corporations to retain valued staff. Nonetheless, the
researcher recognised that not every employee has the same identify and shares the
same beliefs of the organisation. Furthermore, the research also found that some
companies fail to identify their corporate culture or core values. In most of the cases,
except for SN6 American PS, organisations fit the job to the person, but do not fit the
person to the job. The HR officers explanation of this issue was: the corporation did
not set a specific job design, as employees work for different projects. Beside this,
one organisation stated it fit the job to the person temporarily for their career
development. To retain staff, a small number of companies fit the job to the person to
retain prized employees. Recruiters, especially line managers in manufacturing
factories would employ someone who was loyal to them but not to the organisation.

In terms of different approaches to HR strategy, the research could observe very little
difference between the participating companies. Analysis of certain groups of workers
revealed that majority of corporations tend to follow the high commitment approach
towards recruiting knowledge workers (e.g., professionals/experienced employees or
senior management). Multinationals in particular followed the high commitment
approach due to the acute shortage of skilled workers such as specialised engineers in
57

industries like autos. In contrast, most interviewees reported that their organisation
considered the costs when recruiting entry level staff and normal employees. This was
because companies could replace unskilled workers easily as a result of the
availability of a large potential labour pool. Furthermore, Chinese businesses focus on
production, rather than on value added innovation. Therefore, the low cost model was
prevalent in China.

There are variations regarding the HR strategy approaches now. The low cost model is
still prevalent in manufacturing factories, as it involves a large number of low skilled
workers. However, labour costs and raw material have been increasing for the past six
years. Companies in China are restructuring at the moment. A lot of enterprises are
moving aggressively to establish their own brands. Multinational corporations are
actually investing more on knowledge added. Therefore, we might see a shift from the
low cost model to a high commitment model in the future. The recruitment and
selection strategies have been aligned with such HR strategy approaches. Many
organisations only conducted one interview and relied on one interviewer. According
to one interviewee, the recruitment and selection process she went through was very
simple ten years ago. Employees were recruited because their parents knew the boss
of the corporation. Nowadays, job seekers need to go through assessment centres and
multiple interviews. The reason for such a sophisticated recruitment process is that
more organisations follow the high commitment model.

58

Table 4.2 Methods of Recruitment

Serial Number

Newspaper Ad.

1 China Bank
2 TW Manufacturing
3 UK Bank
4 American Insurance
5 Germany BS
6 American PS
7 American Auto
8 Japan HA
9 UK Gov.
10 China RE
11 Denmark Logistic
12 UK RPG
13TW Manufacturing
14 Switzerland Ad.
15 China KA

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

State Owned Enterprise

Private Owned Enterprise (TW)
Private Owned Enterprise (China)
V=Varies
*=Mainly

Online (company
website)
Y
N
Y
Y*
Y
Y
Y
Y*
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
Y

Campus recruitment

Internet job sites

Headhunter

Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y (V)
Y
N
Y
Y
Y (V)
N
Y
Y

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y*
Y
Y

Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y*
Y
Y (V)
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y

4.2.1 Personal recommendation from existing staff

SN/State
1 China Bank
2 TW Manufacturing
3 UK Bank
4 American Insurance
5 Germany BS
6 American PS
7 American Auto
8 Japan HA
9 UK Gov.
10 China RE
11 Denmark Logistic
12 UK RPG
13TW Manufacturing
14 Switzerland Ad.
15 China KA
State Owned Enterprise
Private Owned Enterprise (TW)
Private Owned Enterprise (China)
R=Reward

Encourage
Y
Y(R)
Y
Y
Y (R)
Y

Y (R)
Y
Y
Y(R)
Y

Discourage
-

Neither
Y

Y
Y
Y

4.2 Methods of Recruitment

As can be seen from the Table 4.2, Web-based recruiting via professional recruitment
agencies such as 51job (www.51job.com) and Zhaopin (www.zhaopin.com) was the
most prevalent recruitment method among the main findings of recruitment channels.
All interviewees reported that their companies post job advertisings (experienced staff
only) through Internet job sites. Reasons for these results might include those
suggested by Zhaopin CEO Liu Hao (2006) - that a lot of employers are starting to
realise that going online is the best way to find the kind of employees they want.
Certain employers use the Internet as a way to screen employeesanyone the
company would consider hiring should be proficient online. And a lot of
multinationals are spending more online, while decreasing their print advertisements.
According to the HR manager from the SN13TW Manufacturing organisation, the
company cooperated with online recruitment agencies such as ChinaHR.com,
Jobcn.com to recruit experienced talent such as Sales Representatives, and Quality
Check team leaders. The anonymous Kitchen Appliance firm named SN15 China KA,
a private owned companies signed membership with five different Web-based
recruitment sites (www.51job.com, www.zhaopin.com, Southern Talent Website
www.job168.com,

local

online

recruitment

firm

www.job-sky.com,

and

www.hr3721.com) in March 2006. The reasons for these actions were explained by
the HR representative:
SN15 China KA still has approximately 256 job vacancies. Our company does not
have the competitive advantages such as attractive geography and benefit /
remuneration to attract talent. Developing new recruitment channels is important
to our business. Each recruitment channel has its benefits and drawbacks. This
can be alleviated supplementary by using a combination of recruitment methods
[13TW Manufacturing].

The following paragraph will discuss the online recruitment via the company official
website. Three out of fifteen responding companies [SN2 TW Manufacturing,
61

SN13TW Manufacturing, and SN14 Switzerland Ad.] do not resort to or utilize the
companys official website. Interestingly, online recruitment via the companys
official website, however, appears to be influenced by its corporate strategies and
utilised most if the company leader approve such investment and technology. The
following quotations give some idea of the responses to this issue.
We want to use online recruitment via the company website. However, the
attitudes of the entrepreneur, who is the director, also the biggest shareholder, is
quite conservative [SN2 TW Manufacturing]; unlike those well known global 500
companies such as P& G, not many people know about our company, especially
those in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, this may not be practical as job seekers would
not click into our website [SN 13TW Manufacturing]; This may relate to our
company strategies, we have our products websites but not the company website,
our company wants to market our product first than the company brand.
Meanwhile, in China job seekers are more likely to submit their CV via Internet
job sites, which have been acted as a platform and also a media for employers
and job seekers. Job seekers may not know our company name, but they must
know online recruitment agency like 51job www.51job.com [SN14 Switzerland
Ad.].

All multinational companies used a fairly similar combination of recruitment channels.

For entry level jobs, non experienced workers were employed through campus
recruitment. Campus recruitment has been centered in first-tier cities like Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou. Campus recruitment is regarded as the most important
source of new employees, especially for entry level positions. Companies like SN6
American PS and SN11 Denmark Logistic welcome graduates of any academic
discipline. According to the HR officer from SN6 American PS, having a strong
relevant academic background is clearly an asset. The interviewee from SN11
Denmark Logistic emphasised that they recruit graduates from any university.
Everybody stood a chance as long as they fulfilled the minimum requirements and
passed tests/interviews. Nonetheless, a handful of positions need workers to have
62

studied in particular disciplines. For example, although the SN4 American insurance
company offers jobs to high school graduates, for some jobs graduates from specific
disciplines are required (e.g. insurance and medical). Similarly, the participating
companies like SN5 Germany BS, SN7 American Auto, SN10 China RE, and SN14
Switzerland Advertising requires skilled workers such as IT system analyst,
architect/landscape designer, interior designer with work experience and university
graduates who have majored in electronic engineering /computer/ IT, real estate,
architects or related profession.

Candidates are recruited because of their competency and not merely academic
background. But some companies still have a preference university. As a result,
candidates who graduated from highly prestigious universities are likely to be
favoured. Companies like SN6 American PS and SN15 China KA have built a good
partnership with a number of prestigious universities. The organisation SN6 American
PS claims it runs the campus recruitment across the country and employs fresh
graduates for different offices in China. Recruiting through campus recruitment takes
advantages of verifying references and educational backgrounds. The HR officer
further addressed that there is assurance on the quality of graduates. Apart from this,
students are considered to be better if they graduate from those preference universities.
This also minimises the workload of the HR officers when screening applicants, as it
has eliminated unsuitable applicants from less reputed universities.The HR officer
from SN10 China RE said that their company prefers to recruit postgraduates.
Although employing postgraduates cost more, they will provide more in return to the
company. In contrast, companies like SN6 American PS and SN 11 Denmark Logistic
possess the same attitude when recruiting undergraduates and postgraduates. These
two companies treat undergraduates the same as postgraduates. The number of
graduate staff is varies from companies to companies. The HR officer also emphasises:
The number of graduate demand depends on the level of investment and the
number of developing projects we have. This varies from cities to cities, for

63

example, if we purchase more land and plan to have three projects in one
particular city, we are likely to recruit more graduates [SN10 China RE].

Upper level managerial staff are commonly recruited via head-hunters. Thirteen out of
fifteen interviewees reported that it was difficult for them to fill the management
positions. This shows that general managerial staff is still in great demand. This may
be due to the shortage of senior managerial staff in China. Therefore head-hunters are
frequently used to attract this particular employee group. Reasons for this might
include job-hopping culture. As Braun and Warner (2002) suggested that changing
jobs is common among these employees, coupled with a salary explosion and
poaching by competitors. According to Zhaopin CEO Liu Hao (2006), the
headhunting business is growing quickly and moving online. The IT manager from
the German business service sector [SN 5 Germany BS] also pointed out that headhunters in China are getting more and more specialized. However, both Taiwanese
manufacturing companies did not use head-hunters when hiring upper level
professionals. Instead, senior management in [SN13 Manufacturing] were either
promoted or hired through the general managers personal networking.

Personal recommendation from existing staff seems to play an important role in the
recruitment practices recruitment practices in China. Successful candidates are
selected by demonstrable evidence of effective job performance or competency rather
than recommendation. In my case studies, eleven companies said that they
encouraged employees to recommend friends who have related work experience and
are competent to fill the vacant positions (See Table 4.2.1). However, there is no
guarantee that those recommended by the existing staff will be hired. Those
recommended by the existing staff still have to go through the same recruitment and
selection processes. In fact, two interviewees experienced this and reported that they
have not received any advantages of being recommended by the exiting staff. Four out
of these eleven organisations provided reward to those existing staff if they succeeded
in the recommendation within a certain period, for example six months. Similarly,
64

from my secondary research findings, well known companies like IBM, GE, Motorola,
and Ritz-Carlton encourage existing staff to recommend competent friends to work
for their organisation. At Ritz-Carlton PRC, for example, the organisation view
referral from existing staff as an efficient way of recruiting. According to Ralph
Grippo, the general manager of Shanghai area, his staff know who would be the most
appropriate for PRC, and they reward those who succeed in any recommendation with
500 Yuan (US$62), [China Daily, 2006]. Therefore, hiring through recommendation
from its own staff composed the major source, accounting for 50 per cent of its total
workforce. Besides, this may also be due to the characteristic of the hotel industry. As
some people do not think highly of hospitality they believe they need to work longer
and harder in hotels than in other jobs. Furthermore, recruiting suitable employees in
the smaller cities is not as easy as it is in Beijing and Shanghai [China Daily,2006].

Evidence shows that most companies recommend their employees to seek the suitable
talent and see this as an effective recruitment channel. Evidence also shows that
employees attitude toward this are generally mixed. Some like to recommend their
friends and some do not. Some interviewees agreed this was a good way to absorb
talent and seek competent job candidates for their companies. This can provide
security to the employers. It also enhances the job seekers opportunity through such
networking. One interviewee emphasised that employees may not introduce friends
randomly to the organisation. Instead, good job referees are likely to screen the
applicant first. Other interviewees commented that:
As an internal staff, I encourage and will recommend friends who are competent
and desirable, not only because of the reward but because working with friends
may improve their performance [SN5 Germany BS]. As an internal staff, this
encouragement is good as we can choose the person who we like to work with
[SN3 UK Bank]. It is also good for the company, because the employee knows the
applicant well and can suggest who is most appropriate for the company.
However, there is personal bias and employees may exaggerate their friends
abilities when introducing friends to the organisation [SN8 Japan HA].
65

Personal recommendation from existing staff is likely to be encouraged when the

organisation is especially short of staff. However, not every employee welcomes such
encouragement. Two interviewees commented that they preferred not to recommend
friends to work for their organisation.
Personally, I do not want to introduce friends to the organisation. This brings
inconvenience and our friendship may be strained due to problems at work.
Therefore, I prefer not to and have never recommend friends at work [SN9 UK
Gov.].

An analysis shows that manufacturing sector companies were more likely to use the
job fairs in recruitment. An analysis of the size of companies in the manufacturing
sector, job fairs were still quite popular in comparative small and non value added
companies in this case studies. Besides hiring mid-level and senior management from
headquarters in Taiwan, the Taiwanese manufacturing corporation [SN2 TW
Manufacturing] mainly used the labour department or the local employment service in
recruitment as the channel of indirect labour recruitment.

Traditional recruitment through newspaper advertisement and labour department has

become less attractive in China. For example, regarding campus recruitment,
conglomerates do not only rely on the university career centres, university BBS, but
also professional online recruitment agencies to publicise and attract high-calibre
graduates. From my secondary research data, some well-know companies like P& G,
Philips, and Maersk tend to run Online Career Talk or Online Propagandize with
ChinaHR.com prior to their Campus Career Talk. These companies expect such
Online Career Talk to be a good preparatory step for, as well as an innovative
supplement to, their Campus Career Talk. Many companies also resort to public
media like TV broadcasts, for example, Zhaopin.com is a sole HR supporting
organisation to the CCTV-2s HR program <Absolute Challenge> since 2003. This is
prevailing and similar to the series of BBC-2s <The Apprentice> in the UK.
66

Moreover, SN15 China KA also joined a talent arena competition with the recruitment
agency hr3721.com in Guangzhou to employ a sales director in 2005. This is known
as a reflection of a newly emerging external labour market and developing
recruitment channels.

67

Table 4.3 Methods of Selection

Serial Number

Screen CV

1 China Bank
2 TW Manufacturing
3 UK Bank
4 American Insurance
5 Germany BS
6 American PS
7 American Auto
8 Japan HA
9 UK Gov.
10 China RE
11 Denmark Logistic
12 UK RPG
13TW Manufacturing
14 Switzerland Ad.
15 China KA

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

State Owned Enterprise

Private Owned Enterprise (TW)
Private Owned Enterprise (China)
WTs=written tests
TI=Telephone interview

Psychometric /
Written Tests
WTs
N
Y (not all)
Y (not all)
Y (not all)
Varies (BJ/GZ)
WTs varies (S)
WTs varies
N
WTs
WTs
WTs varies
N
N
WTs

Interview
(number of)
Y (3)
Y (3)
Y (3)
Y (3)
Y (3)
Y (3)
Y (3) TI
Y (3)
Y (2)
Y (3-4)
Y (3-4) TI
Y (3)
Y (3-4) TI
Y (3)
Y (3)

Assessment
centre
N
N
Y (not all)
N
Y (not all)
Y
Y (not all)
Y (not all)
N
Y (not all)
N
Y (not all)
N
N
N

Personality
Test
Y
N
Y
Y
Y (not all)
N
Y (not all)
N
N
Y (not all)
Y
Y (not all)
N
N
Y (not all)

Reference
Check
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y (after)
Y
Y

Physical
Check
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y (after)
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

Table 4.3.1 Selection Criteria

Serial Number
Selection Criteria
1 China Bank
Academic background, work experience, comprehensive skills (problem solving), personality, teamwork, leadership
2 TW Manufacturing External: loyalty, experience Internal: performance, attendance
3 UK Bank
English skills, university reputation, company culture, interpersonal skills, experience, work under pressure, job hopping
history
4 America Insurance Fit the organisation culture, teamwork, job hopping history
5 Germany BS
English skills, academic background, personality, fit the company culture/management style, experience, potential, teamwork
6 America PS
Passion, learning/problem solving skills, social/current affairs awareness, time management, communication, teamwork,
co-operate
7 America Auto
Passion, technical skills, experience, teamwork, work experience, stable, job hopping history, interpersonal skills
8 Japan HA
Personality, qualification, interpersonal skills, suitable amenity, experience
9 UK Gov.
Fluent in English (speaking and writing)
10 China RE
Fit the organisation culture (integrity), school reputation/discipline
11 Denmark Logistic English skills, match the organisation culture, personal competency, problem solving/communication skills, result oriented
12 UK RPG
A competent (skills) model (core competency, value, organisation culture, performance, teamwork, creative), work experience
13TW Manufacturing A competent (skills) check list based on the job requirement
14 Switzerland Ad.
Competent, experience, teamwork, organise, personality, fit the job requirement and organisation culture
15 China KA
Match the organisation, management style, personality, fit the job, experience, team spirit
State Owned Enterprise
Private Owned Enterprise (TW)
Private Owned Enterprise (China)

4.3 Methods of Selection

In terms of selection, all interviewees from the responding companies used a similar
combination of selection methods. The dominant selection methods in my sample
were interviews, typically coupled with a resume analysis, reference checks and
physical checks (See Table 4.3). However, the Switzerland Advertising firm serial
number named SN14 Switzerland Ad. and the Taiwanese firm named SN 13
Manufacturing conducted the reference check after the enrolment. The majority of the
interviewees reported that both human resource and line departments are involved. All
interviewees except the one from the SN9 UK Gov. reported that job applicants need
to go through a minimum of three interviews. Of course, the number of interviews
vary by the level of positions. The first interview was usually conducted by the HR
officer and the purpose was to verify the details stated in the CVs. Two organisations
[SN11 Denmark Logistic] and [SN13TW Manufacturing] used telephone interviews
to screen candidates. Part of the reason was the consideration of the unfamiliar
location and long journey for the cross-citizen applicants. The SN15 China KA even
offered online interview through MSN Messenger to job applicants who live far from
the organisation head office. Unsuitable applicants were rejected. The second
interview was usually conducted by the department supervisors or line managers,
using appropriate degrees of structured interviews. When conducting the final
interview, the department head or general managers were likely to use an unstructured
format. Although the interview was supposed to be completed within a certain time, it
varied from interviewee to interviewee.
We do not have specific interview structures and formats. This is because we
recruit 1000 staff each year. If we ask the same questions, people will be wellprepared and it is hard to see their real abilities [SN6 American PS].

Organisations are likely to emphasize more on the psychological testing which is

prevalent in the West. Psychometric and aptitude tests are applied but this is known as
written tests or assessment in general. For some roles, applicants were asked to
70

undertake tests measuring their numerical and reasoning abilities. For example, the
American insurance firm asked specialist applicants to complete the tests known as
DICS. Each organisation has its own assessment purposes, but some organisation may
not specify what the assessment involves. For example, the assessment in the
Denmark logistic companies named SN 11 includes personality analysis and logical
test. However, the company did not specify what the assessment involves. The
assessment tests were either conducted in Chinese or English. This is because English
is not the first language in China. To assess candidates English skills, applicants are
usually asked to write an essay in English, translate paragraphs from English to
Chinese or vice versa. Candidates may be asked to speak in English during the
interview. In some companies, new employees are requested to undertake a particular
English test (e.g. BULATS) to prove their English proficiency during the probation.
This is particularly true in multinationals where English is the official language.
Applicants may also call in and be asked to retake the timed assessment tests in
different series of assessment test.

The use of psychometric tests and assessment centre is becoming popular in many
organisations. This is usually and rigorously applied when hiring talent for Graduate
Leadership Programme. The competition is extremely strong:
For the Group of 2005, commencing the M.I.S.E Programme on August 2005, we
employed 64 trainees for Mainland China. The 64 trainees were selected among
more than 11,468 applicants [Maersk, 2006].

From the research findings, only seven organisations conducted the ACs. One HR
officer described that the ACs normally last three to four hours and the HR staff will
provide briefings to the assessors before it commences:
Those applicants who are best matched to our requirements will be invited for a
further interview and ACs, where the applicants professional and personal
qualifications. Applicants will also be asked to perform group exercises or a
presentation show how they work as part of a team. Managers are trained and act
71

as assessors in the Assessment centre [SN6 American PS].

For general staff instead, the responding organisations used structured interviewing
techniques such as Patterned Behaviour Description Interviews and Situational
Interviews (candidates are asked what they would do in the given situation), Stress
Interviews, or Panel Interviews to assess whether the candidates are suitable for the
organisation. One HR officer reported that they use role play at the final recruitment
process [SN14 Switzerland Ad.]. Four out of the fifteen companies in the research
sample did not conduct psychometric and aptitude tests. Instead those companies
relied on multiple cross-function selection interviews only (HR, manager, then Dept
head or Director). Nine out of fifteen participating organisations used personality tests.
The associated costs may be part of the reasons for the limited use of Assessment
Centres. Another explanation for the limited use of ACs lied in their lack of
experience of using such objects and advanced selection method. Some HR officers
and HR managers have little experience of such tests and even do not know what an
assessment centre is. Although Psychometric and Aptitude tests can contribute
substantially to the accuracy and fairness of the selection process, organisations need
time to learn and familiarize themselves to effectively apply it.

Academic credentials, work experience and English skills are the basic requirements
or selection criteria on multinationals recruitment lists. Eligible candidates should be
fluent in spoken and write English. Organisations also need other qualities, such as
leadership, analytical thinking, a love of working in teams and so forth (See Table
4.3.1). To help organisations find suitable staff, most responding companies have
developed a quality selection process to test whether candidates fit its culture. For
some companies, there are two things even more important personality and potential.
Most organisations recruit people for their attitudes. Passion is the key. Although
companies use similar selection methods, professionalism with which these methods
are applied seems to vary. Companies such as SN12 UK RPG have linked their
interviewing with an underlying competency model and with a behavioural
72

competency check-list. Most of the interviewers do receive interviewer training.

However, two interviews SN7 American Auto and SN13TW Manufacturing reported
that they do not receive any interviewer training.

Multinationals apply the equal opportunities and the principle of the best person for
the job in China. This means that age, gender, residential status known as hukou do
not determine who gets the job. Regarding such restrictions, most interviewees
reported there are not many limits such as discipline, sex, age and hukou on applicants
as mentioned earlier. The Denmark Logistic firm named SN11 Denmark Logistic have
age restriction on their Management Trainee Programme though. The programme is
only eligible for applicants under age 24. One of its MT explained that there is no
discrimination:
This is due to the programmes intentions. I firmly believe that it is hard for people
who have are 24 to go through such combing theoretic and practical education. I
am 24 and I find it very difficult indeed. Our company considers that people who
are 24 and above may have family and may find it difficult to completely focus on
their work and assignments related to the programme. It will be demanding and
stressful for them. Therefore, there is age restriction for the MT programme
[SN11 Denmark Logistic].

Although most organisations reported that they do not have hukou restriction, the
online advertisement from the German firm named SN5 Germany BS, which is listed
in the Global 500 still prefers Guangdong residents for the Lab Technician vacancy
post. Two interviewees mentioned the hukou restriction is mainly due to the
residential policy control by the government. Nonetheless, some organisations only
employ applicants who have the residential right in that city and believe they can take
personal networking advantage to target or enlarge their potential customer. Last but
not least, in the application form, most of the responding organisations asked
applicants to indicate which city their hukou is valid for. A rarely stated finding,
however, is that, there is requirement of the job referral in the SN8 Japan HA branch
73

office. According to the interviewee, the branch office required new staff to have a
known local credential guarantor. But the company does not request this when hiring
fresh graduates in Guangzhou or general staff in the head office [SN8 Japan HA].
Interestingly, non-multinational responding companies (SN1 China Bank, SN2 TW
Manufacturing, SN10 China RE and SN15 China KA) claimed that they do not have
such restrictions.

4.4 Errors and bias in the interviewers decision making process

The research has tried to examine sources and bias in the interviewers decision
making process. According to the research findings, some interviewees reported that it
is hard to avoid subjective judgements, although the selection process desired
assessing candidates as objectively as possible. This research has not found common
errors or bias such as halo/horns effect. However, one interviewee mentioned their
organisation is unwilling to employ oversee graduates from less reputed universities
[SN6 American PS]. Interviewer bias against applicants was made on the appearance.
Further, two interviewees suggested they would not employ beautiful female
applicants [SN2 TW Manufacturing; SN7 American Auto]. This is because they
believed those attractive female applicants receive more opportunities. They are likely
to change jobs than those who are less attractive. Furthermore, one interviewee
explained that good looking female staff possibly will distract employee attention.

Some interviewees stated they are determined to recruit talent for the organisation.
The interviewer would provide a comfortable interviewing environment to let
applicants exert their real performance. Interviewers would refer overqualified
candidates to higher positions if there is an equivalent vacancy. From my secondary
research data, Zhang Rong, the HR manager of IBM stated that for excellent talent,
IBM would not miss the opportunity, even though there is currently no suitable
position for the applicant (www.chinaHR.com). However, some recruiters may reject
and not recommend overqualified candidates to relative positions/departments. It is
74

found that the interviewer would shorten the interview timing if they draw
conclusions about the candidates behaviour based on the first impression. Interviewer
errors were found where line managers did not pay too much attention when assessing
the candidates. For example, one interviewee revealed that:
I remembered once a candidate came in rush, and I was busy. The candidate did
not perform well. After the applicant left, I realised I did not devote too much for
the interview [SN7 American Auto].
The research also found out that interviewees would employ someone who looks like
themselves, respond in a similar way, or appear to have equivalent experiences. This
may merge similar to me effect and occur where interviewers are not actually
assessing the candidate. Instead, interviewers are validating themselves and their own
decision making. As a result, the interviewer may fail to analyse the applicants
behaviour against the agreed criteria.

4.5 Hiring through guanxi

According to the interviewees, hiring through guanxi was not prevalent in MNCs and
modern domestic firms. The majority of interviewees reported that the organisations
they were working for hardly recruited through guanxi. Most interviewees also
reported that active job seekers and those recommended by existing staff have to go
through the same selection procedures.
Although we encourage existing staff to introduce friends who are competent and
experienced to work for our company, it does not mean that those recommended
by existing employees are exempted from any part of the formal selection
procedures [SN9 (PS)].

Distinguished domestic companies have become realistic when managing the impact
of hiring through guanxi. The following composite quotation explains this issue:
Hiring through guanxi does not appear. Hiring through guanxi is not only bad for
the job seeker, but also bad for the company. If the job seeker is not competent to
75

the position, he or she will find it very difficult to do the job properly. It also will
break the company reputation [SN11 (CS)]. The company I used to work for
weighs outstanding performance and achievement. In the sales department, we
need to meet sales target annually, if the organisation employs an unqualified
sales person, it just hampers the sales target [SN3 (BG)].

The recruitment and selection process is more bureaucratized and less dependent on
personal relationships. Candidates are considered on their merits, rather than on the
strength of their guanxi with those inside the firm. However, from the case study
findings, the state owned property limited and the Taiwanese manufacturing
companies stated that hiring through guanxi may exist in the low-end level positions
such as cleaner, security guard in the property management and worker in the
manufacturing sectors. Some interviewees suggested that those hiring through guanxi
are unlikely to fill the key positions but are located in the back offices such as HR
department. Although the organisations do not encourage hiring through guanxi, it is
hard to say in practice.
In China guanxi is important. We might hire a person because of guanxi. Of
course we would not recruit an unqualified worker. They have to meet the job
requirement. However, he or she may be less competent than other applicants
without guanxi. It appears to happen more frequently in unimportant
positionsthis is not a bad thing if the recommender can provide help in the
future. The organisation needs to balance its advantages and disadvantages [15
China KA].

Some companies have established rules to minimise the affect of hiring through
guanxi. From my primary research data, the state owned real estate developer does
not allow relatives (e.g. wife and husband, sister and brother) to work in the same
organisation. Sisters and brothers are allowed to work in different branches though,
for example, one works in Shanghai, another one works in Beijing. Multinationals do
not have such restrictions. Companies like SN12 UK RPG, allowed direct relatives to
76

work at the same company but not working directly as boss and subordinate in the
same department. Referees need to state and clarify their relationship with the
applicant. The company would punish the recommender seriously if they did not
report their relationship to the HR department. From my secondary data, in governing
the guanxi problems, companies like IBM also have established the same policies as
the UK firm named SN12 UK RPG.

Private owned businesses also set rules against hiring through guanxi. The Taiwanese
firm SN2 TW Manufacturing is a good example. At first, managers believed that those
employ through guanxi were usually friend and previous colleagues of team leaders.
Or workers originally came from the same township as the team leaders. The
company was in opposition to such a recruitment channel. The HR manager then
provided an open and fair recruitment proposal to deal with personal recommendation
from existing staff. It gained approval from the senior management. There are several
requirements for employing through guanxi. For example, the referee must work for
the company for a minimum of two years. Every recommender can propose only one
person per year. The HR department would go through and check the referral
application. Eligible referees can recommend the person to the organisation and the
recruiter will assess the applicant as the same as unsolicited applicants. The HR
department will also review the recommenders lists to check whether the existing
staff are eligible to recommend their friend in the following year.

Management style plays an important role in moving away from hiring through
guanxi. A number of Chinese leaders have put a lot of effort when dealing with the
deeply rooted Chinese culture guanxi. For example, Wang Shi, the previous general
manager of Vanke, the well-known state owned property development firm,
emphasises:
In Vanke, none of my employees is one of my relatives, comrade in arms, or
schoolmate. In 1989, my mum arranged for my cousin to work at Vanke when I
left the firm for some reason. When I returned, the first job I did was to dismiss
77

my cousin. My mum was dissatisfied, but I convinced my mum that my cousin

graduated from a reputed university so would easily get a job. Talent(s) will not
be able not to find jobs in Shenzhen as long as they are talented [Nanfang Daily,
2003].

In China, the use of guanxi in recruitment and selection is likely to be associated with
the development of regional economics. Guanxi recruitment is influenced by the
organisations culture and values, the local labour market, geographical characteristics,
and the management style of the organisation. At present, there is a great contrast in
relationship recruitment in terms of whether the operation is provincial, with a less
educated and skilled labour market, or in the more developed areas. The guanxi
recruitment in China can be divided into four territories. In Southern China, there are
many small and medium sized manufacturing factories, especially in Guangdong
province. The majority of GDP in Guangdong province is contributed by family
businesses. The dependency on guanxi in recruitment has emerged as the sub-culture.
In contrast, hiring through guanxi seems less prevalent in developed cities like
Shanghai. Most of the state owned enterprises have moved out and many
multinationals have settled down. The use of guanxi in organisations is based on
political regions such as Beijing, Nanjing is still important. This is due to the state of
the host country and political party in China. Finally, because of the organisations
vague objectives, immature local labour market and lack of scientific management in
undeveloped areas, these organisations rely on guanxi recruitment. In other words, the
recruitment and selection process are less bureaucratic and more dependent on
personal relationships in undeveloped townships or village enterprises. Nonetheless,
many of these companies aim to restructure their organisation from manufacturing to
service focused business. Management are upgrading their mind-set and becoming
more scientific in managing their organisation. Company leaders also are on their way
to becoming professional.

In the Taiwanese manufacturing factory [SN13 TW Manufacturing], senior

78

management used their authority to exercise relationship recruitment. One interviewee

reported that she found it difficult to accept when the general manager recruited an
employee because of guanxi. The general manager had made his decision before
giving notice to the HR department. Furthermore, the interviewee revealed that hiring
through guanxi was not the serious problem in their organisation. In fact, there are
problems with the internal promoted managers.
They have worked for the organisation since they graduated from universities.
They only know about the company they are working for, but not other businesses.
Those managers possess a closed mindset. They are skilled workers, but lack
leadership skills [SN13 TW Manufacturing].
This indicates that organisations need to be careful when promoting internal staff in
the future.

79

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

As the economy grows and moves into higher value-added work, strategic recruitment
and selection are vital to a companys success in China (Covey, 2000). This
dissertation has shown the role of HR as being supportive and administrative but not
strategic. Companies should do more strategic, proactive recruitment and selection.
This is because a successful recruitment strategy will help to promote a more positive
company image in the market place. Well-planned recruitment strategies will enable a
conglomerates Chinese business to function smoothly. It will also facilitate managers
to employ talent who fit the characteristics of an organisation and the management
style. To recruit in a more strategic manner and make wise selection decisions, the top
management team needs to create short-and long-term strategic plans (demands of
staff) for the organisations. Without this, recruiters can easily hire incompetent people
into key positions especially when they are busy with urgent matters (e.g. shortage of
staff during the peak season). Organisations also need to have strategic criteria for
each job and align that criteria with the strategic plan for the organisations. Assessors
should take an in-depth look at the person from several perspectives. It may be
necessary to undertake an in-depth check of applicants background. Managers can
have an open discussion with the prospective employees. To ensure this employment
is suitable for the company, the line managers need to assess the employees according
to the position over the trial period. Organisations should provide a clear career path
and related professional training to new employees. Corporations should terminate the
trial employment if the staff do not fit well into the organisation culture.

This research also shows the need to improve the HR recruitment and selection
practices in China. Although organisations recognised the importance of recruiting
people who fit well into the organisation as well as the job, they lack initiative to set a
progressive programme of change. Some businesses are struggling to reach
agreements on what made one employee better than another. This makes decisionmaking for recruitment selection a long and difficult process. The result is differing
80

recruitment criteria in different departments. To overcome this, the first and foremost
task for businesses in China is to agree on what constitutes the characteristics of a best
employee. To undertake a progressive program of change, it is likely to require
partnerships between external consultant, the HR team and the companys senior
leaders to work together. The initial task is to assess the overall work environment (in
terms of the characteristics of the organisation) that make up the best talent. An indeep analysis of the organisation and job analysis across each role are essential in
helping corporations to achieve their business goals. This identifies the behaviours
and responsibilities that lead to effective organisations and implies the personal
characteristics that are most likely to be associated with such behaviour and
responsibilities. Organisational analysis is important because the organisations overall
philosophy and values are likely to be more stable and more important for the
business success. The next step is to identify the type of individuals required to
exhibit their competency in the organisation. This should involve technical knowledge,
skills, abilities, social skills, personal needs, values, and interests and personality traits.
Organisations need to clarify which type of the person is more important to them.

Organisations should then effectively use multiple techniques such as psychometric

tests, interviews by potential co-works, realistic job previews or design specific
recruitment assessment centers for each of the different business functions. For each
center, organisations should decide on a number of tasks which simulate the most
complex scenarios that their employees might find themselves in. Examples can be
included in a one to one meeting with the senior managers, a project planning task and
a strategy development session. A specific cultural fit questionnaire can be designed
to determine how well-suited individuals are working at the organisation. Such
assessment centers can be resourced with senior executives/managers from the
organisations alongside an equal number of external assessors to determine which
candidates to accept into the organisation. Alternatively, the organisations can
introduce a board of recruitment and selection to review the selection of employment.
These kinds of assessment centres can also be used for the internal leadership
81

development. Last but not least, multinationals or the Chinese conglomerates need to
ensure that their branch offices utilise the combination of sophisticated assessment
techniques (e.g. realistic job previews, work samples and AC) alongside the use of
multiple interviews.

Technology is changing the way HR works globally. There are now a number of
channels for people to apply for jobs. There are also a variety sources for companies
to advertise job vacancy. Organisations in China (whether in the public or private
sector, a large multinational with dedicated recruiters, or a small enterprise with
limited resources) are far more reliant on external online recruitment agencies. Using
Web-based recruiting via Internet job sites is expensive. There are restrictions for
posting online recruitment advertisement. For example, some annual service plans
only allow individual clients to have 100 job posts and additional service charges will
be made for extra job posts. It is hard to attract job seekers attention as well. This is
because job seekers have too much information and they hardly read through all job
posts. Instead, job seekers will send their CV selectively to some of the listed
companies only. Therefore, online recruitment through recruitment firms is not an
effective recruitment strategy in the long term. Online recruitment is not effective for
well-known companies only. Local companies should use their official website for
online recruitment. To reduce costs and improve the overall recruitment process,
online recruitment via the company website is a good option. It is time for companies
in China to utilise their official website. A database is needed to support the online
recruitment system to store and retrieve data. MNCs and domestic firms can work
with HR process experts to implement an online recruitment solution. Nikes
successful e-recruitment is a good example. The Nikes ActiveRecruiter system not
only makes the first match, but also retains a pool of applicants on file, which ensures
there is a readily available supply of CVs for open position. Each registered applicant
is automatically asked to update his or her details every six months to remain active
on the system (Strategic HR review, 2004). The Companies should be aware of
counterfeit recruitment or company websites since many cases have been found in
82

China. Companies meanwhile should invest for their internal Electronic Job Posting
system. This allows employees to directly apply for job posted on its internal site.

Meanwhile, it is necessary to develop effective strategies that can mitigate risk factor
for recruiting unfit employees. In order to do so, MNCs must avoid seeking suitable
candidates just from the pool of active job seekers. Instead MNCs should seek
talented people available from the labour market. The search for the most suitable
person often needs to be conducted on a wide scale in order to be timely successful
and effective. An international company recruiting for the China operation must
consider the availability of talent needed to fill the position and adjust its recruitment
strategy and goals accordingly. A standard, thorough, and speedy recruitment process
needs to be established and applied when employing new workers. Organisations
should be flexible about the recruitment and selection processes in urgent need of
important replacement. Recruiters or managers should be realistic when describing
the working conditions. Managers need to screen candidates whose personal goals and
value align with the company. Assessors should not recruit candidates either driven by
money or those who see the company as a stepping stone in their career. To reduce the
risk with lies on CVs, recruiters need to check references thoroughly, especially for
high-level positions. MNCs can therefore consider hiring a third party to perform the
background check (China Business Review, 2006, See Appendix 7).

To select the right candidate at right positions, organisations should weigh the
feasibility, credibility, reliability, and effectiveness of the available selection
techniques. Western firms ought to be more careful in implementing their standard
personnel selection procedures. For Western companies who plan to invest in China,
the appointed regional and senior managers need to familiarize themselves with the
Chinese culture. An important lesson for managers and recruiters to bear in mind is
that sharing the same language does not mean sharing the same culture. The Chinese
firms especially those in the private sectors should not emphasize much on the
academic record of the applicants. As mentioned earlier, the subject of the degree is
83

less important than applicants wiliness to contribute and eagerness to learn. Therefore,
academic records should be used as part of but not the sole basis for hiring. In the
same way, companies should not reject candidates because of their residential right or
physical appearance. Furthermore, not every applicant can identify their interest
properly. As a result, it is often found that candidates are not suited to working for the
particular role they had applied for. Candidates should be considered for a more
suitable role if they well-match the characteristics of the organisations. Besides,
domestic firms should learn the selection lessons from the participating companies.
Factors such as attitude, passion, personality and potential of the applicant should be
assessed independently throughout the entire selection process. Selection of future
leaders cannot be based largely on psychometric test results. Personality can
complement other selection methods. It is important for organisations to work out
whether the candidate is a good team player in the organisation before an offer is
being made.

Effective recruitment and selection depends on the origin, size, structure and sector of
the organisation. The effectiveness also depends on the economic development of the
region, the local labour market, geographical characteristic, the culture and the
management style of the organisation. Therefore, there is no one size fits all
approach to recruitment and selection. MNCs and domestic conglomerates should
guard against over generalisation in establishing successful strategies to attract and
recruit professional workers. As organisations in China move into higher value-added
work, there will be a progressive HR strategic change. Attracting and retaining the
best people will play a major part of their transformation, especially from production
to customer focused business. A systematic and consistent method for assessing
individuals is greatly needed as it helps organisations to differentiate from the
competition. Recruiters need to minimise the average time and cost to fill vacancies.
Recruiters should work in conjunction with talent management consultancy and the
leaders in each function to determine the approach that best suits them. Executives
and regional managers need to build strong organisational culture with values that
84

encourage employees to apply their individual potential to the conduct of their work.
The paper concludes with the following recommendation for further research.

5.1 Recommendations for further research

There are limitations of this dissertation in terms of sample size and methodology
applied. The researcher has no intention to represent the recruitment and selection
approaches over organisations in China, but to assist in building generalisations about
the strategic recruitment and selection approaches in China. The researcher only
conducted 16 in depth interviews due to the time constraint. To build a strong
theoretical model underlying the strategic recruitment and selection in China, further
research should examine and evaluate the recruitment and selection practice and
empirical evidence. To see how recruitment and selection can help corporations stand
out from the competition, further research can investigate the failures and lessons
about successful recruitment and selection. Further research should investigate and
evaluate how the leaders influence their recruitment and selection strategies. Research
should be conducted by several researchers to analyze the findings critically and
increase the validity of the research.

85

Appendix 1 Turnover Rates in Sino-foreign Joint Ventures, 1997

SOURCE: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 1998, p.12

86

Appendix 2 Employee Turnover Rate, 2001-2005

SOURCE: China Business Review 2006: p.28

87

Appendix 3 Why Chinese Managers Leave Their Jobs

Legend for Table:

A - PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS [*]

REASON

A[*]

Inadequate career development opportunities

37.5

Dissatisfaction with interpersonal relationships

20.0

Inadequate salary

18.8

Antipathy toward the industry or company

17.5

Family matters

11.2

Plan to set up own company

7.5

Other

10.0

SOURCE: Goodall and Burgers, 1998, p.53

[*] Respondents could choose more than one reason

88

Appendix 4 Errors in Interviewer Decision Making

Expectancy effect Interviewers form an expectancy of the candidate based on
documented biographical information which strongly affects their final decision
Confirmatory information seeking bias Interviewers actively seek information to
confirm their initial impressions
Primacy effect Interviewers form impressions of candidates very early on in the
interview
Stereotyping and prototyping Interviewers possess notions of stereotypical and
prototypical ideal job holders and screen candidates against these notion Stereotyping.
Halo/horns effect Interviewers interpret information and rate candidates in either a
generally positive or generally negative manner
Contrast and quota effect- Interviewers decision are affected by decisions on earlier
candidates and pre-set employment quotas
Negative information bias Interviewers decisions are influenced significantly
more by negative information than by positive information
Similar-to-me effect Interviewers select candidates similar to themselves in
biographical background, personality and attitudes
Personal liking bias Interviewers favour candidates whom they like personally
Information overload and selective attention Interviewers have too much
information to cope with and so attend to only a fraction of the available data
Fundamental attribution error Interviewers incorrectly attribute the cause of
candidate behaviour at interview to their personality rather than to situational
constraints and demands
Temporal extension Interviewers temporally extend candidate behaviour at
interview to infer longer term emotional states and personality traits

89

Appendix 5 Interview Questions

SELF INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH
To examine HR strategic recruitment and selection strategy approaches in China
GENERAL NOTES
The interview will take approximately 45 minutes
Your responses are completely confidential and your company name will remain
anonymous
SECTION ONE: RECRUITMENT PRACTICES
Can you please tell me about the recruitment process in your company?
Which recruitment channels are usually used in your company?
E.g. Online recruitment
Newspaper Advertising
Campus recruitment
Internet job sites
Head-hunter (to what kind of position)
What is the ratio of campus recruitment to external recruitment?
*How do you view hiring through guanxi-family or personal contact?
Does your company encourage employees to recommend friends and
relatives when there is a vacancy?
If yes, does your company provide any reward to those who succeed in any
recommendation?
Has your company taken any action to prevent the negative impact of
recruiting through guanxi?
SECTION TWO: SELECTION PRACTICE
How does your company select job applicants? Which selection methods are usually
used in your company?
*Do you think personality matters?
*In recruitment, does your organisation fit the person to the job or the job to the
90

person?
Does your company use selection tests to screen applicants?
If yes, what kind of tests does your company usually use?
How does your company conduct these tests during the selection process?
E.g. Screening CVs
Aptitude Test
Personality Test
Interview (Structured/Unstructured) (One to One/Panel) (How many interviews)
Assessment Centres (Case study)
Reference Check
Physical Check
* When selecting, does your company ask the same questions and allocate the same
length of interview timing?
Interviewers are known as the major source of error. Has your company taken any
action to improve the interviewers skills?
*Does your company provide any training to interviewers?
*Has your company set any implicit or explicit selection criteria in terms of
recruitment and selection? (e.g., extra credit is given to graduates from prestigious
university)
Which selection criteria are likely to weigh heavily?
*When recruiting, does your company have any restriction on academic background,
age, sex, residential right, and language proficiency?
SECTION THREE:
STRATEGY

GENERAL

RECRUITMENT

AND

SELECTION

What is the role of HR in your company? Can you illustrate the role in Recruitment
and selection?
*Does your company usually make a detailed job analysis to determine the job
description and person specification in advance? If yes, who does the analysis?
*Does your organisation fit the person to the job or fit the job to the person?
Who is responsible for HR (line manager, HR manager, board of recruitment and
91

selection, or together)? Who makes the final decision regarding who to hire?
*Does your company tend to follow the cost minimisation or high commitment
strategy approach towards recruitment and selection?
You have come to the end of this interview.
I would like to thank you for your participation in my research and wish you great
success in your career!

92

93

Appendix 7 Pitfalls in Talent Acquisition in China

SOURCE: China Business Review 2006: p.29

94

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