Can the Discretionary Nature of Certain Criteria Lead to Differential Prediction Across Cultural Groups?

We examined the conjecture that relations between constructs across cultures may be susceptible to cultural moderation where the performance of the criterion construct is discretionary. This hypothesis was investigated using the relationship between personality and three performance constructs, with samples from the United States and New Zealand, two ideologically distinct cultures with respect to achievement orientation. All hypotheses were supported by results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses using bias free measures, suggesting that considering whether construct behaviors are discretionary is important when considering the merit of generalizing research findings across cultures.