National work-family policies: Multilevel effects on employee reactions to work/family conflict

BACKGROUND: Despite considerable differences in national work-family (WF) policies offered in countries around the world, research concerning the implications of such policies for employee reactions to work-family and family-work conflict (WFC/FWC) is limited. OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the contextual role of country-level national WF policies as a moderator of the relationships between individual-level WFC/FWC and job stress, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and general health. METHODS: Using archival data sources, the ISSP Work Orientations Survey (2015) and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center Adults Labor Database (2014), multilevel analyses tested the predicted cross-level interaction effect in a sample of 49,637 individuals (54% female; M age = 48 years) nested across 36 countries. RESULTS: Results were largely counter to expectations: while more supportive national WF policies attenuated the positive relationship between FWC and job stress, it exacerbated the negative relationships between WFC and organizational commitment, WFC and job stress, and FWC and general health. CONCLUSIONS: Our study responds to calls to consider phenomena functioning at multiple levels of analysis. While reactions were more negative in countries with more robust national-level policies, it suggests an unexpected dark side of such policies. That is, it may not be enough to legislate the availability of national-level policies; it may also be needed to ensure that such policies are meeting employees’ needs.

Power distance in India

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultural differentiation can affect the successful transplantation of lean management and production techniques from the parent country to subsidiary countries in the developing world. In particular, the focus will be on car manufacture in India and the role of hierarchy in Indian society, with reflection on how this seeps into workplace and power relations.

Design/methodology/approach

Lean production techniques have been hailed as revolutionising modern manufacturing, particularly in the automotive sector. In developed world countries, car manufacturers have made significant gains in efficiency and productivity as a result of their implementation. However, as many of these multinational companies (MNCs) have expanded production into rapidly-developing nations to take advantage of both their market and low-labour costs, the introduction of lean production practices have met some resistance. This is because certain underpinning concepts and values of the lean system, such as team work, delegation of authority and upward communication can be considered incompatible with aspects of local culture and employees’ attitude towards work and their superiors. The analysis presented is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with managers and workers from an India-based subsidiary of a MNC car manufacturer and engagement with the existing literature.

Findings

It concludes that paternal relationships, religious values and group orientation in Indian society have a significant impact on the dynamics of the workplace and result in a brand of power distance that is specific to this national context, raising questions about the suitability of universal implementation of lean production practices.

Originality/value

“Power distance” has become a catch-all term for cultures with an orientation towards hierarchy and status in society. However, this categorisation masks some of the factors belying the phenomenon and intricacies relating to how it plays out in the workplace. It is simplistic to postulate that high power distance cultures might be incompatible with management approaches that decentralise authority and increase worker participation. Rather than rely on overgeneralisations, the analysis provided has attempted to deconstruct the composition of power distance in the Indian context and document systematically how features of Indian culture conflict with the principles of lean production techniques, using a case study from an Indian subsidiary of a MNC. In particular, the study finds that religion, caste and paternalism create an India-specific power distance that manifests itself in worker behaviour and workplace relationships.

What Do Managers Like to Do?

Previous research on the nature of managerial work has defined managerial activities, assessed their importance, and examined the contribution of the activities to managerial success and effectiveness. Researchers have not examined preferences for managerial activities, however. This article describes a paper-and-pencil instrument designed to assess managerial activity preferences and provides evidence to support its reliability and validity. Participants in five countries responded to the instrument. Results indicated that substantial similarities exist between countries in the relative attractiveness of 10 managerial activities. The managerial activities receiving the highest ratings involved leading employees, networking, and innovating. Activities receiving the lowest ratings included controlling employees, doing desk work, and handling time pressures. Country differences were related to each country’s culture and business environment. Within each country, women and men showed a high level of agreement in their preferences, and the observed gender differences were related to shared conceptions of femininity and masculinity.

An Investigation of Cross-Cultural Differences on the Impact of Productivity Interventions: The Example of ProMES

The success of a productivity intervention may depend on the fit between the intervention and the country in which it is implemented. In particular, a country's horizontal collectivism may influence the intervention's effectiveness. Results based on a database of 90 organizational units from seven different countries in which ProMES, a productivity intervention, was implemented indicated that in general, ProMES is more successful in some European countries than in the United States. Furthermore, results indicate that this effect may be due to an interaction between power distance and social collectivism. The degree of collectivism plays an important role in predicting whether ProMES succeeds in countries with relatively low power distance. In countries that score relatively high in power distance, the intervention succeeds regardless of the degree of collectivism. Lastly, whether a country's level of uncertainty avoidance has implications for the success of ProMES is also explored. Implications are discussed.

Conceptual Foundations of Cultural Management Research

This article is a reflection on conceptual foundations of cultural management research. By relying on extant literature, a few conceptual underpinnings are examined and criticized, and some suggestions for improvement are proposed. Discussing such issues can be useful not only for advancing future research but also for achieving a more profound understanding of previous studies and their limitations.

Organizational Behaviour across Cultures

The present article has two objectives. First, general issues for developing and testing cross cultural multi-level models such as variable identification, measurement, sampling and data analysis are discussed. A second aim is to illustrate some of these issues by developing a multi-level framework incorporating variables at an individual, organizational and national level. The goal is to explain cross cultural differences in extra-role behaviour. Based on a review of previous multi-level research and cross cultural research it is proposed that the effect of national culture on work attitudes and behaviour is mediated by organizational practices. The framework is formulated using recent recommendations for the development of multi-level models.

A Review of Cross-Cultural Methodologies for Organizational Research: A Best- Practices Approach

Cross-cultural studies that use self-report instruments can present researchers with a variety of challenges. This article reviews the organizational research literature between the years of 1995 and 2001 to identify common practices prevalent in this type of research. Key methodological issues are examined within the context of a three-stage framework: (a) the development of the research question, (b) the alignment of the research contexts, and (c) the validation of the research instruments. This examination serves as a basis for the identification of best-practice recommendations for cross-cultural researchers.

Religiosity, socio-economic development and work values: a cross-national study

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to use international survey data to investigate the effects of religiosity, religious denomination, communist heritage, and socio-economic development on work values.

Design/methodology/approach

– First, religiosity and work values are conceptualized. Next, the relationships among these concepts are discussed and the hypotheses, variables, and data are presented. Finally, the results of the empirical tests are presented and the theoretical and managerial implications, as well as avenues for future research, are discussed.

Findings

– It is found that socio-economic development negatively, whereas religiosity and communist heritage positively, influence extrinsic work values. Further analysis reveals that religiosity has a quadratic relationship with intrinsic work values. Conspicuously, after controlling for the effects of religiosity, no significant association is found between religious denominations and work values.

Research limitations/implications

– The current analysis relies only on national/societal level data and overlooks the effects of independent variables (religiosity and communist heritage) at the individual level. Furthermore, the methodologies and measurements of religiosity and work values are of a limited scope. Thus, future studies may look into the effects of religiosity on work values at the individual level and apply other conceptualizations and measures to test the validity of the results.

Practical implications

– Based on the findings of this study, it can be suggested that the use of intrinsic rewards might be less appropriate in the societies marked by communist heritage or high religiosity. On the contrary, these societies may embrace more extrinsic work values associated with direct, restrictive, and tangible aspects of work.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to the literature by conceptualizing, measuring, and incorporating various variables into the research design and by providing original insights into the influence of religion on work values. Furthermore, this study suggests that, at least with regard to work values, religiosity (the strength of one’s conviction for their religion) is more important than religious denomination (Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism).

Hybrid purposes of performance appraisal in a crisis

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine one aspect of the implementation of the performance appraisal with a focus on its operation in an economic downturn and particularly a global economic crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

– It identifies the stated purposes of the performance appraisal in multinational corporations (MNCs) and explores the unstated purposes of the performance appraisal, which emerge during performance evaluation and feedback stages. The paper then investigates the different expectations employees and managers have of the performance appraisal and finally examines the changes to these expectations in an economic downturn.

Findings

– The principal conclusion that can be drawn from this analysis is that there is a weakness in the design and substance of the performance appraisal research. The international appraisal is not exclusively conditioned by culture but also by the numerous contextual-organizational, institutional and economic factors found in the typical MNC.

Practical implications

– It is suggested that possible strategies could include careful implementation of performance appraisal with attention to both the cultural and contextual environment. It is argued that by addressing both cultural and contextual variables the appraisal will be effective in helping achieve not only the MNC's strategic goals in a time of global economic crisis, but also recovery and survival following economic crisis.

Originality/value

– This paper adds to the body of knowledge of international human resource management research by illuminating the consequences of an uncertain economic environment on performance management across borders and also paves the way for future research in this important area of management research.

Organizational Cross-Cultural Competence

The present study was designed to assess the viability of developing quantitative measures of cross-cultural competence as an emergent organizational-level construct using samples of military organizations. Cross-cultural competence has predominantly been discussed as an individual-level construct but has not been extensively assessed as an organizational-level phenomenon. A synthesis of the cross-cultural competence, organizational intelligence, and multilevel analysis literatures was used to construct a theoretical basis for organizational cross-cultural competence and the development of quantitative measures of the construct. Based on this synthesis, three strategies were identified for assessing cross-cultural competence at the organizational level of analysis. Three studies were conducted to test these three strategies, each of which was supported empirically through the successful generation of interpretable organization-level scales and subscales. In a fourth study, each of the organization-level measures developed in Studies 1, 2, and 3 was found to be related to organization-level indices of organizational climate, perceived organization effectiveness, and cohesion.

The personal values of tomorrow's workforce: Similarities and differences across sex and nationality

Previous research has identified that values affect attitudes and behaviour, and value differences may be associated with conflict in organizations. This paper examines potential national and gender differences in values in a group of 345 young people soon to be entering the Australian workforce. Although there were national, and small gender, differences in the importance placed on particular values, the young people in the study were consistent in the relative importance placed on happiness, work success and friendship, and the unimportance of life and work activities that contributed to society. Implications for organizations and suggestions for future research are explored.

The personal values of tomorrow's workforce: Similarities and differences across sex and nationality

Previous research has identified that values affect attitudes and behaviour, and value differences may be associated with conflict in organizations. This paper examines potential national and gender differences in values in a group of 345 young people soon to be entering the Australian workforce. Although there were national, and small gender, differences in the importance placed on particular values, the young people in the study were consistent in the relative importance placed on happiness, work success and friendship, and the unimportance of life and work activities that contributed to society. Implications for organizations and suggestions for future research are explored.

Does the Job Satisfaction—Job Performance Relationship Vary Across Cultures?

The purpose of this study is to examine whether culture moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Multiple theoretical frameworks regarding culture are used as the theoretical guide. Based on meta-analytical moderator tests, the authors find some support for their hypotheses that the effect size for the job satisfaction—job performance relationship is likely to be stronger in individualistic (vs. collectivistic) cultures, in low-power-distance (vs. high-power-distance) cultures, in low-uncertainty-avoidance (vs. high-uncertainty-avoidance) cultures, and in masculine (vs. feminine) cultures. They also observe stronger evidence of these effects for task performance than for contextual performance. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.