Need for Multicultural Competencies in the Selection Process of Multinational Companies

Abstract

Being employed by a multinational company can be an attractive opportunity for graduate entrants. Even if they do not start their careers abroad, they must adapt to a multicultural environment in their jobs in Hungary. When selecting new entrants, a successful combination of multicultural competencies may play an important role. A tool for measuring multicultural competencies can be the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). First of all, employers should define the exact requirements and competencies that they need to be able to draw up an ‘ideal profile’ of employees. Our research aims to create this ‘ideal profile’ delineated by employers using the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) when selecting graduate entrants (or graduates with little experience).
Method: We used two versions of the MPQ in our research: the 91-item version in Hungarian and a direct five-dimensional questionnaire, also in Hungarian.
Procedure: The collection of data took place in spring, 2017 at three different venues in Debrecen, at Job Expos, where many employers were present, mainly from the region. (n=12; 14; 34). After collecting and cleaning the data, we analysed 31 questionnaires of the 91-item version and 45 questionnaires of the direct five-dimensional version (20 respondents filled in both versions).
Results: First we used the 91-item version of the questionnaire to evaluate employers’ requirements, but after realising the difficulties, such as the complex nature of the questionnaire, we prepared a direct questionnaire for the evaluation of the five dimensions, which we applied successfully. We believe that the direct questionnaire for the evaluation of the five dimensions is an applicable tool for measuring employers’ requirements for multicultural competencies in the following dimensions: cultural empathy, open-mindedness, emotional stability, social initiative and flexibility.