Rating Expatriate Leader Effectiveness in Multisource Feedback Systems: Cultural Distance and Hierarchical Effects

• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Jason L. Huang,John W. Fleenor,Marian Ruderman,Matthew M. Piszczek,Ellen Ernst Kossek
• Date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21763

Human Resource Management, January–February 2017, Vol. 56, No. 1. Pp. 151–172

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21763

*The first two authors contributed to the manuscript in distinctive and relatively equal ways.

Correspondence to: Ellen Ernst Kossek, Basil S. Turner Professor of Management & Director, Butler Center for

Leadership Excellence, Purdue University Krannert School of Management Rawls Hall, Office 4005, 100 S. Grant

Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2076, Phone: 765-494-6852, E-mail: ekossek@purdue.edu

RATING EXPATRIATE LEADER

EFFECTIVENESS IN MULTISOURCE

FEEDBACK SYSTEMS: CULTURAL

DISTANCE AND HIERARCHICAL

EFFECTS

ELLEN ERNST KOSSEK*, JASON L. HUANG*,

MATTHEW M. PISZCZEK, JOHN W. FLEENOR,

AND MARIAN RUDERMAN

A critical challenge for global fi rms is to implement assessment tools to develop

expatriate leaders who can effectively manage role relationships across differ-

ent directions (upward, laterally, downward) in cross-national contexts. Drawing

on social categorization and relational demography theories and a data set of

360-degree ratings of expatriates from 36 countries, we use multilevel modeling

to investigate relationships between cultural distance and ratings of leadership

effectiveness in task and contextual performance by colleagues with different

hierarchical vantage points (subordinates, supervisors, peers). Cultural distance

refers to the overall degree of difference in key cultural values identifi ed in the

GLOBE study between an expatriate’s and coworker s’ countries of origin. Unlike

supervisors as a rating group, results show that peer and subordinate raters as a

group may be more likely to have their ratings negatively infl uenced by cultural

distance, an effect that may be exacerbated for peer ratings from countries higher

in power distance and lower in humane orientation. This study contributes to the

understanding of multisource feedback systems to assess expatriate leadership

effectiveness by identifying likely group ratings tendencies linked to cultural dis-

tance and hierarchical perspectives. Organizations should develop strategies to

mitigate possible effects of cultural distance on subordinate and peer ratings of

expatriates. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: international HRM, performance assessment, training and

development, diversity, feedback

152 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

Cultural distance

plays a role

in different

types of raters’

perspectives on what

characterizes leader

effectiveness, and …

the strength of this

relationship may vary

by rater hierarchical

status and by host-

country cultural

values.

(in which ratings are provided by supervisors,

peers, and subordinates) are increasingly being

used in multinational enterprises (MNEs) to rate

leader effectiveness (Atwater, Wang, Smither, &

Fleenor, 2009). Originating in the United States,

360-degree feedback systems (also known as mul-

tisource ratings assessments) are based on the

assumption that ratings from peers and subordi-

nates add value and a more complete perspective

on performance to the more conventional sole

reliance on supervisor ratings. Yet little is known

about the interplay between cultural distance and

the rater’s hierarchical perspective on assessments

of expatriates’ leadership competencies.

This article addresses this void by considering

the growing need for global firms to effectively

implement HR leadership assessment and feed-

back tools to develop expatriates who can success-

fully manage a variety of role relationships across

organizational levels in cross-national contexts.

Drawing on social categorization theory (Tajfel &

Turner, 1986) and relational demography research

(Tsui & O’Reilly, 1989), we identify likely rating

tendencies of cross-national supervisors, subor-

dinates, and peers regarding expatriates’ com-

petencies. Using a large data set of 360-degree

assessments of nearly 700 expatriate managers

from 36 countries, we rely on multilevel model-

ing to investigate relationships between cultural

distance and ratings of leader effectiveness. We

argue that cultural distance plays a role in differ-

ent types of raters’ perspectives on what charac-

terizes leader effectiveness, and that the strength

of this relationship may vary by rater hierarchical

status and by host-country cultural values.

This study seeks to extend research and prac-

tice on 360-degree assessments in several ways.

First, we advance HR knowledge by demonstrat-

ing that organizations cannot assume that leader-

ship evaluation tools necessarily operate the same

when used by different types of raters of varying

national origins or in culturally distant environ-

ments as they do when used by raters who are cul-

turally homogenous or in more culturally similar

contexts. Specifically, we provide a nuanced per-

spective of the conditions under which raters who

are culturally dissimilar from an individual will

rate a leadership style as less optimal. We show

that cultural distance influences on ratings of

expatriate leader effectiveness are more likely to

be a factor in ratings by cross-national peers and

subordinates than supervisors. We also highlight

variation in national cultural context effects stem-

ming from cultural beliefs by showing that peers

located in countries higher in power distance and

lower in humane orientation were more likely to

rate expatriates’ leadership negatively.

Expatriate leadership effectiveness in cul-

turally distant workplaces is “critical to

the success (and failure) of global firms”

(Luthans & Doh, 2012, p. 454). As compa-

nies disperse workforces to compete glob-

ally (Bond & O’Byrne, 2014), growing numbers of

expatriates must lead effectively in contexts that

are often culturally distant from headquarters

(Arp, Hutchings, & Smith, 2013; Levy, Peiperl, &

Bouquet, 2013). Successful expatriate assignments

are vital for developing global leaders (Cerdin

& Brewster, 2014; Dalton, Ernst, Deal, & Leslie,

2002; Yao, 2013; Zhang, 2012) and transferring

knowledge from company headquarters to global

subsidiaries (Chang, Gong, & Peng, 2012; Fang,

Jiang, Makino, & Beamish, 2010; Lauring, 2013)

by fostering cultural and social

intelligence (Crowne, 2013; Story,

Barbuto, Luthans, & Bovaird, 2014)

and strategic thinking (Dragoni

etal., 2014).

Although it is critical for orga-

nizations to manage globalization

with productive expatriate assign-

ments, less is known about the

effective use of human resource

(HR) tools for leadership assessment

and developmental feedback from

multiple stakeholders with differ-

ing hierarchical viewpoints and cul-

tural backgrounds in cross-national

settings. More research is needed

to increase the understanding of

the assessment and development

of expatriates’ leadership effec-

tiveness amid a context of diver-

gent cultural expectations (Aycan,

2008; Lauring, 2013; Ng, Koh, Ang,

Kennedy, & Chan, 2011; Vromans,

van Engen, & Mol, 2013). There is

also a need to expand leadership

assessment research to account for multicul-

tural competencies (Inceoglu & Bartram, 2012).

These are critical gaps as expatriate assignments

can be plagued by poor performance and lack

of trust and acceptance by local nationals (Arp

et al., 2013; Tarique & Schuler, 2008), ineffec-

tive cross-cultural adjustment (Zhang, 2012), and

high psychological work strain (Takeuchi, Wang,

& Marinova, 2005). To address these challenges,

expatriate talent management systems often

require a costly investment in leadership devel-

opment tools to foster the development of multi-

cultural competencies (Leung, Ang, & Tan, 2014)

and intercultural cognitive complexity skills

(Fee, McGrath-Champ, & Liu, 2013). In particu-

lar, developmental 360-degree feedback systems