Seeking innovating team players: contextual determinants of preferred applicant attributes

Recent prescriptive models hold that new employees should be selected on the basis of fit to organizational and contextual characteristics. To examine whether personnel managers’ preferences for different applicant attributes vary depending on such factors as organizational strategy, business context and culture, surveys were sent to personnel managers in Norway and in Canada. It was found that personnel managers in both countries currently place a high value on employees who can adapt to change and generate new ideas. Results also showed that national culture and two organizational characteristics, product development focus and team orientation, significantly influenced applicant preferences. Specifically, co-operativeness was valued especially highly in Norway, rather than in Canada, and in organizations that espoused a team orientation. Creativity was valued especially highly in organizations with an explicit product development focus.