The effectiveness of methods such as job design, goal setting,
performance appraisals, and the use of incentives is likely to be
culturally determined. For example, research conducted in Western
countries suggests that empowering employees is an effective method
of motivating them. However, not all employees around the world
respond favorably to concepts such as autonomy or empowerment. For
example, it has been noted that the use of self-managing teams, a
method of increasing employee empowerment in the workplace, is
difficult to execute in Mexican companies because of the
traditionally paternalistic and hierarchical nature of many Mexican
organizations. In such a context, employees may not be willing or
ready to take responsibility for individual action, while managers
may be unwilling to share real power with employees (Nicholls,
Lane, & Brechu, 1999). Researchers also found in a four-country
study that while employees in the United States, Mexico, and Poland
responded positively to empowerment, Indian employees were actually
less satisfied when they were empowered (Robert et al., 2000). In
other words, we may expect both greater levels of difficulty and
potentially different reactions to empowerment depending on the
cultural context.
Are all employees around the globe motivated by goal setting?
Even though there is limited research in this area, existing
findings point to some differences. For example, we know that
American employees respond negatively to goals when these goals are
perceived to be extremely difficult. However, Chinese employees
actually were most motivated when the goals were very difficult.
This may be because Chinese employees believe that their
performance depends on their effort, and therefore, they are able
to respond to goals that are very difficult with very high effort.
On the other hand, there is some evidence that while specific goals
motivate Western salespeople, in China goals low in specificity
were more motivational (Fang, Palmatier, & Evans, 2004).
How about performance appraisals? You may predict that concepts
such as 360-degree appraisal are not suitable to all cultures. The
360-degree appraisals require a climate of openness and social
equality in the workplace. Therefore, countries high in power
distance and authoritarianism may respond negatively to appraisal
systems where lower level employees give performance feedback to
their managers. Likewise, in cultures high in collectivism, using
peer appraisals may not be as effective, because employees might be
hesitant to give accurate performance feedback to their colleagues
with the fear that negative feedback may damage interpersonal
relationships.
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