A study of the key cultural selection criteria that New Zealand selection managers use to select staff for overseas assignments

Abstract

Choosing the appropriate expatriate selection criteria is essential for those organisations that send staff overseas to work on assignments. This is extremely important in regards to the expatriate’s capability of adapting to the general environment factors (GEF) and being able to deal with the interaction adjustment factors. Previous research has shown that poor adjustment to the GEF in particular can cause an expatriate’s assignment to fail and this can prove to be very costly to the home organisation in the immediate and longer terms. This research focused on 30 New Zealand based organisations that sent expatriate staff on overseas assignments. Organisation managers who select their expatriates were asked what selection criteria they use. Hence, the research was predominantly culture based since there is a miniscule amount of research performed in this area involving organisations in New Zealand who send staff overseas to work on assignments.