wallstreetjournaleurope_20170111_The_Wall_Street_Journal___Europe

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, January 11, 2017 |B

porate globalization efforts,

said Ms. Teagarden, who is

working on a business case

study about the company’s

training.

Mr. Shofnos is still adjust-

ing to life in Hangzhou, where

something as simple as hailing

a ride with the country’s ver-

sion of Uber can befuddle an

outsider. But he is intent on

fulfilling his career goal of be-

ing a “cultural translator.”

Earlier in his career, he real-

ized that being “an American

company’s China guy” wasn’t

going to happen, thanks to

lackluster Mandarin skills.

With Alibaba, he said, “I can

absolutely be a Chinese com-

pany’s American guy.”

online retailer veto power

over hires who might not fit

in—even if they have the right

skills for the job.

Businesses should “change

their screening criteria from

being about fit to being about

adaptability’’ because those

employees perform better

over time, said Mr. Srivastava.

He and Amir Goldberg, an

associate professor of organi-

zational behavior at Stanford

University’s business school,

led the research with help

from two Stanford associates.

They examined email ex-

changed among 601 full-time

staffers of the tech concern

between 2009 and 2014. Their

paper, titled “Enculturation

Trajectories,” will appear soon

in Management Science.

Measuring cultural fit by

scrutinizing email content is

unusual, according to Mr.

Srivastava. Prior research typ-

ically relied on subjective re-

porting.

The team used email to

gauge cultural alignment be-

cause language represents

“the behavioral signature of

the complex processes that

underlie organizational inte-

gration,’’ the paper stated.

MICHAEL SHORT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Google offices in California.

Some Tech Workers

Are Underpaid

Sure, you know what you’re

paid. But what are you worth?

In high-demand labor markets

such as technology, it is tough for

workers to keep up with changing

salary norms, so they might be

leaving money on the table, a new

study says.

More than one-third of technol-

ogy professionals are earning at

least 10% less than they could

command if they looked for a new

job today, according to salary-data

firm Paysa. The firm compared the

resumes and total compensation,

including bonuses and equity

where applicable, of more than five

million workers with real-time in-

formation on what companies are

paying employees with similar cre-

dentials.

The lost income can translate

to thousands of dollars at a time

when median annual pay for soft-

ware developers, for instance, is

$100,690, according to the Labor

Department.

Paysa analyzed thousands of

variables, such as individual work

histories, hiring trends and turn-

over rates at companies to deter-

mine whether workers might be

underpaid or overdue for a promo-

tion. It found that nearly 80% of

technologists—software engineers,

developers, systems administrators

and others—have one or more

characteristics that indicate they

might be ready to move to a new

job.

The mismatch on salaries prob-

ably doesn’t stem from malicious

intent or a desire by employers to

“get a deal,” said Paysa CEO Chris

Bolte. More likely, many workers

don’t know their own value, espe-

cially if they haven’t looked for a

job in a while, and employers often

set compensation using outdated

or overly broad benchmarking

data.

Compensation is one of the

most opaque aspects of employ-

ment. Although a few small com-

panies have experimented with

salary transparency, most employ-

ers closely guard their pay prac-

tices, hoping to retain the upper

hand in salary negotiations and

minimize resentment among

workers. But employees are seek-

ing, and in some cases seizing,

more information about their com-

pensation. Greater transparency

can also keep in check pay discrim-

ination based on race or gender.

Paysa, created in 2015, tracks

only technology occupations. A

handful of other services offer

data on compensation and bene-

fits in tech and other industries.

—Lauren Weber

Compensation is

one of the most

opaque aspects of

employment.

WORKAROUNDS

MANAGEMENT

CHRISTINE WANG

The recruits complete two

six-month rotations at Alibaba

businesses such as shopping

platform Tmall Global, and

take classes on Chinese cul-

ture, politics and economics.

They also travel, visiting rural

villages to observe how e-com-

merce has transformed local

economies.

Participants must learn how

to navigate life in China, in-

cluding finding apartments,

commuting to work and learn-

ing Alibaba products, many of

which are in Chinese. Veteran

Alibaba workers called “life

buddies” greet arrivals at the

airport and help them load

useful smartphone apps.

“We say you have to empty

yourself out when you enter

the company,” said Brian

Wong, a company vice presi-

dent and Wharton M.B.A. who

oversees the program. “It’s like

drinking from a fire hose plus

getting blasted by a tornado

wind.”

Come fall, the graduates are

expected to head back to Ali-

baba offices in their home re-

gions in places such as New

York and Paris. Having been

integrated into “the mother-

ship,” in the words of one ex-

ecutive, the workers will help

ensure an expanded Alibaba

stays true to its Chinese roots

and company culture.

“We have no bench outside

of China. This is definitely fill-

ing that gap,” said Jodee Ko-

zlak, the company’s senior vice

president of human resources.

Within a week of arriving in

Hangzhou, the 30-year-old Mr.

Shofnos was cast in an internal

Alibaba video for Singles’ Day,

a daylong shopping extrava-

ganza in China. He donned

glowing neon glasses and sang

and danced to an original

song. On the day itself, he and

his team at Tmall Global,

where he is doing one of his

six-month rotations, dressed

up as superheroes.

Scheduled to attend Alibaba

affiliate Ant Financial Services

Group’s annual meeting, pro-

gram participant Anna Kim,

28, expected the typical recita-

tion of graphs and PowerPoint

slides. What awaited her was a

massive party in a stadium.

“When I go to work I don’t

know what kind of surprise is

going to come my way,” she

said.

Chinese companies often

stumble when it comes to

global expansion, said Mary

Teagarden, a professor at the

Thunderbird School of Global

Management who has helped

Chinese companies craft their

international strategies. Firms

are “still teenagers at best

when it comes to those skills

to go abroad,” she said, noting

that some companies have

done poorly developing and

choosing employees to send

overseas.

Alibaba’s program could be

a model for other Chinese cor-

Since starting at Alibaba

Group Holding Ltd. in Octo-

ber, Matt Shofnos has im-

proved his Mandarin, helped

an American retailer target

Chinese consumers and

donned a Captain America cos-

tume to meet the company’s

chief executive.

Alibaba has brought Mr.

Shofnos and 31 other young

workers from around the

world to China for a yearlong

immersion in Chinese busi-

ness, language and the com-

pany’s culture. Alibaba execu-

tives are betting that the

leadership program will pro-

duce China-trained, globally

minded leaders able to make

and manage partnerships with

Western retailers, moving the

e-commerce giant closer to its

goal of earning 40% of revenue

outside China in the next de-

cade.

As Chinese companies look

abroad for growth, they are

trying to build workforces able

to do business abroad without

cultural or commercial hic-

cups. China’s overseas direct

investment reached nearly

$146 billion in the first 10

months of 2016, up 53.3% from

the year-earlier period, accord-

ing to official data.

“Going global is almost like

a buzzword now for Chinese

companies,” said Audrey Wi-

djaja, an Aon Hewitt partner in

China who helps companies

there with leadership develop-

ment.

Alibaba has committed to

running the program for at

least 10 years, and expects en-

rollment to grow to 100 annu-

ally. Participants, all new hires,

typically join after business

school or a few years working

in fields such as marketing and

technology. More than 3,

applied to the inaugural class,

according to Alibaba. Finalists

underwent several rounds of

interviews, including a visit to

the company’s Hangzhou

headquarters. The company

wouldn’t provide salary figures

for the workers, but said they

are paid competitively.

BYRACHELFEINTZEIG

Alibaba New Hires Get Crash Courses

E-commerce giant seeks to create globally minded leaders with one-year immersion program in Chinese business, culture

But individuals with low cul-

tural fit had a four-times-

higher risk of getting fired af-

ter three years.

Researchers scrutinized 64

categories of language style,

including curses, expressions

of positive emotion and the

use of concrete imagery.

Salespeople at the tech firm

frequently swore, for instance.

New colleagues eager to fit in

“had to swear a fair amount in

their email,” recalled Sameer

B. Srivastava, an assistant

management professor at Uni-

versity of California-Berkeley’s

Haas School of Business.

By contrast, the study re-

ported, fired recruits “fail to

accommodate their colleagues

linguistically from the moment

they join the organization.’’

Companies say cultural fit

often determines who suc-

ceeds or fails in their work-

place. Zappos.com Inc., for in-

stance, gives veterans at the

New hires don’t always fit

in—despite companies’ best

efforts to assess their cultural

suitability.

There may be a smarter

strategy: analyzing newcom-

ers’ email.

A team of California re-

searchers used this novel ap-

proach to predict whether

fresh recruits would adjust or

exit a midsize technology firm

that favors hiring for cultural

fit. The review of 10.2 million

internal messages found that

new hires who stuck around

and thrived used language

styles similar to those of their

co-workers.

Newcomers with high cul-

tural fit had a greater chance

of advancing to managerial

positions, the study found.

Quitters experienced de-

creased cultural fit roughly

midway through their tenure.

BYJOANNS.LUBLIN

Email Can Reveal How Workers Will Fit In

Zappos gives veterans veto power over hires who might not work out. Above, Zappos training session.

ISAAC BREKKEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Matt Shofnos, fifth from left, with a group including some other Alibaba program participants, on trip to Wuzhen in December.

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