Need for approval from others and face concerns as predictors of interpersonal conflict outcome in 29 cultural groups

The extent to which culture moderates the effects of need for approval from others on a person's handling of interpersonal conflict was investigated. Students from 24 nations rated how they handled a recent interpersonal conflict, using measures derived from face-negotiation theory. Samples varied in the extent to which they were perceived as characterised by the cultural logics of dignity, honour, or face. It was hypothesised that the emphasis on harmony within face cultures would reduce the relevance of need for approval from others to face-negotiation concerns. Respondents rated their need for approval from others and how much they sought to preserve their own face and the face of the other party during the conflict. Need for approval was associated with concerns for both self-face and other-face. However, as predicted, the association between need for approval from others and concern for self-face was weaker where face logic was prevalent. Favourable conflict outcome was positively related to other-face and negatively related to self-face and to need for approval from others, but there were no significant interactions related to prevailing cultural logics. The results illustrate how particular face-threatening factors can moderate the distinctive face-concerns earlier found to characterise individualistic and collectivistic cultural groups.

A 10 nation exploration of trustworthiness in the workplace

In the context of the workplace, and especially in today’s often fast-paced, cross-cultural and virtual work environment, a basic type of trust—“swift trust”—forms quickly based on cognitive processes and beliefs, or stereotypes, of another. Interpersonal trust is in large part based on these contextualized assessments of the extent to which another person is trustworthy. While trust across cultural boundaries has been examined, there is a lack of research investigating how trustworthiness is determined cross-culturally, especially with respect to what heuristics are used in the development of trust. The current project explored how trustworthiness is conceptualized and described for both colleagues and supervisors across 10 nations using the Stereotype Content Model. Qualitative descriptors of trustworthy supervisors and colleagues were coded based on the importance ascribed to warmth and competence, and these codes were used as the basis for cluster analyses to examine similarities and differences in descriptors of role-based trustworthiness. Both differences and similarities in the expectations of trustworthiness were found across the national samples. Some cultures emphasized both warmth and competence as equally important components to developing trustworthiness, some emphasized only warmth, while others emphasized only competence. Variations of trustworthiness stereotypes were found in all but two national samples based on role expectations for supervisors and colleagues. Data from the GLOBE project related to societal cultural practices and cultural leadership prototypes were drawn on to discuss findings.

Sex Differences in Self-Construal and in Depressive Symptoms: Predictors of Cross-National Variation

Sex differences in aspects of independent versus interdependent self-construal and depressive symptoms were surveyed among 5,320 students from 24 nations. Men were found to perceive themselves as more self-contained whereas women perceived themselves as more connected to others. No significant sex differences were found on two further dimensions of self-construal, or on a measure of depressive symptoms. Multilevel modeling was used to test the ability of a series of predictors derived from a social identity perspective and from evolutionary theory to moderate sex differences. Contrary to most prior studies of personality, sex differences in self-construal were larger in samples from nations scoring lower on the Gender Gap Index, and the Human Development Index. Sex differences were also greater in nations with higher pathogen prevalence, higher self-reported religiosity, and in nations with high reported avoidance of settings with strong norms. The findings are discussed in terms of the interrelatedness of self-construals and the cultural contexts in which they are elicited and the distinctiveness of student samples.

Organizational Citizenship and Withdrawal Behaviors in the USA and India

The effect of three components of organizational commitment - affective, continuance, and normative commitment - on four different dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors and withdrawal were examined in two samples of engineers employed in mid-sized manufacturing companies. One sample (n = 151) was from the midwestern United States, while the other sample was from India (n = 159). The four dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors - personal industry, individual initiative, interpersonal helping, and loyal boosterism - were found to have somewhat different relationships with the hypothesized predictors. Additionally, different patterns emerged in the two national samples. Affective commitment was the only component found to relate to either positive or negative organizational behaviors in the American sample, while all three components were differentially related to work behaviors in the Indian sample.

Do Occupational Groups Vary in Expressed Organizational Culture Preferences?

The objective of our study was to examine whether there are differences in how employees in six occupations (Accounting, Management Information Systems, Marketing, Production, and Secretarial/Clerical) describe the organizational culture in which they felt they would be most effective. The differences found within the context of one national culture were differences in degree rather than in kind. Members of each occupational group indicated that an organizational culture that emphasizes constructive interpersonal relationships, participative management, and values individual work initiative and task accomplishment is preferred. Management Information Systems emerged as having significantly more extreme preferences in their description of an ideal organizational culture. Additionally, it was found that the professional occupations had distinctly different degrees of preferences for specific types of organizational culture than the non-professional occupations. The dominant type of work (person-oriented vs. task-oriented) also had an effect on organizational culture preferences.

Testing predictive models of positive and negative affect with psychosocial, acculturation, and coping variables in a multiethnic undergraduate sample

Despite the prevalence and popularity of research on positive and negative affect within the field of psychology, there is currently little research on affect involving the examination of cultural variables and with participants of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. To the authors' knowledge, currently no empirical studies have comprehensively examined predictive models of positive and negative affect based specifically on multiple psychosocial, acculturation, and coping variables as predictors with any sample populations. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to test the predictive power of perceived stress, social support, bidirectional acculturation (i.e., Canadian acculturation and heritage acculturation), religious coping and cultural coping (i.e., collective, avoidance, and engagement coping) in explaining positive and negative affect in a multiethnic sample of 301 undergraduate students in Canada. Two hierarchal multiple regressions were conducted, one for each affect as the dependent variable, with the above described predictors. The results supported the hypotheses and showed the two overall models to be significant in predicting affect of both kinds. Specifically, a higher level of positive affect was predicted by a lower level of perceived stress, less use of religious coping, and more use of engagement coping in dealing with stress by the participants. Higher level of negative affect, however, was predicted by a higher level of perceived stress and more use of avoidance coping in responding to stress. The current findings highlight the value and relevance of empirically examining the stress-coping-adaptation experiences of diverse populations from an affective conceptual framework, particularly with the inclusion of positive affect. Implications and recommendations for advancing future research and theoretical works in this area are considered and presented.

The effect of self-construals on perceptions of organizational events

This empirical research examines the effect of culture on the way people perceive and assign causes to events in organizations. It explores the idea that attributional biases and errors are moderated by a person’s culture. Results supported proposed hypotheses; they showed that Indonesians, New Zealanders, and Canadians perceived their interdependent self-construal as salient, moderately salient, and least salient, respectively. Furthermore, self-construals moderated and mediated people’s perceptions of organizational events. High-interdependents attributed negative organizational events to factors that are external, less controllable, thus had a more fatalistic outlook compared to Moderate-interdependents and Low-interdependents, respectively. In contrast, Low-interdependents attributed positive organizational events to more internal and stable factors compared to Moderate- and High-interdependents, respectively; they also perceived positive events as being controllable and caused by their own actions compared to High-interdependents. Implications for management practices in multinational organizations are discussed.

Clinical assessment using the Clinical Rating Scale: Thomas and Olson revisited

Does the Clinical Rating Scale retain its validity when it is used, not by researchers, but by psychotherapists in their clinical practice? Students in a marital and family therapy training center routinely used the Clinical Rating Scale as part of the intake process. Although they had modest training in its use, confirmatory factor analysis indicated that they produced data that provided a reasonable approximation of the underlying factor structure. Therefore, although primarily considered a research instrument, the Clinical Rating Scale may have a role in clinical assessment and treatment planning.