Job interview a candidate at a job interview

Methodological biases

Construct bias

There are a few ways that cross-cultural differences can mess up the results of our attempts to predict job performance.^[209] The first source of error is construct bias, the possibility that the construct being measured is viewed differently by those from another culture, if it exists at all. One way this could happen is if the behaviors a person displays, that go with that construct, are viewed differently in different cultures. It could also be the extent to which the construct even exists in their country. For example, the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP), is a scale demonstrated to work across many countries.^{[210][211][212]} However, in China the MWEP concept/dimension of Leisure has been shown to have poor equivalence with other countries, and may be a culturally inappropriate assessment due to the Confucian concept of hard work without leisure.^[213] Research has shown that differences in the levels of established cross-cultural constructs such as Cultural Tightness-Looseness increase or decrease the effect of the Five Factor Model personality traits.^[214] Tight cultures have strong social norms and adherence coupled with low tolerance for behavior that deviates from those norms, and loose cultures are the opposite with weak norms and high tolerance for deviance.^[215] An interviewer from a tight culture might view the normal behaviors of a loose cultured interviewee as signs of a poor moral character despite the behavior being normal. As such, differences between the tightness-looseness of the interviewer's and interviewee's home countries can introduce method bias, negatively affecting the interviewer's assessment of interviewee answers and behaviors. First construct bias must be measured by comparing groups of persons from distinct cultures and comparing if any real differences are discovered. Then information on those differences can be used to make the adjustments needed to allow the construct to measure what it is intended to measure in people from a different culture.