Research On Culture free essay sample

With global expansion, understanding the impact of national culture on organizational variables has become one of the most influential factor in the success or failure of multinational corporations. Cultures provide a necessary framework to interpret behaviour in their people. Thus, it is believed that the attributes that distinguish national cultures from one another can be used to predict and formulate a suitable organizational and management practice tailored to that culture. (Luthans Doh 2012) Research assessed by Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, and Nisbett implies that Western individuals see behaviour primarily as a function of personal attributes and dispositions, such as emotions, whereas East Asian individuals see situational factors, such as norms, roles, and obligations, as the major determinants of behaviour. The cultural dimension theories utilized by Hofstede and Trompenaars so far provide the only legitimate and accepted approach to the cultural dilemma. The validity of the dimensions remains to be proven however, the correlation between the dimensions and culture are ostensive. RESEARCH ON JOB SATISFACTIONJob satisfaction is a key construct in industrial and organizational psychology, and has been associated with multiple desirable outcomes such as job performance, organizational citizenship behaviour , absenteeism, and life satisfaction (Heller et al.,  2002; Erdogan et al.,  2012). In a survey done in 1997 indicated that, out of 10 job attributes, employees ranked interesting work as the most important job attribute (good wages was ranked fifth), whereas when it came to what managers thought employees wanted, good wages ranked first while interesting work ranked fifth (Kovach, 1997). In another research, it has been found that employee satisfaction influenced employee productivity, absenteeism and retention (Derek and Merris, 2002).RESEARCH ON WORK MOTIVATIONOn average, there is a 60 percent probability that administering extrinsic rewards such as money to employees performing interesting, challenging tasks will increase their level of intrinsic motivation more than those who do not receive extrinsic rewards. However, a moderator analysis has revealed that in some cases extrinsic rewards can actually decrease employees intrinsic motivation by shifting the employees focus away from wanting to perform well on a task because it is intrinsically interesting or challenging, to the desire for an external reward. Moreover, it is suggested that the extrinsic-intrinsic relationship depends on how intrinsic motivation is measured (Wiersma, 1992). Thus, it can be said that challenging tasks, providing extrinsic rewards can increase the level of intrinsic motivation.Meta an alysis done by Fried Ferris (1987) found that there is an 87 percent probability that for employees who perceive the characteristics found in the job characteristics model (JCM) to be high, the higher their internal work motivation and overall job satisfaction will be compared to those who do not perceive these job characteristics. Further analysis indicated that the critical psychological states of the JCM played a mediating role between job characteristics and outcomes indicating that the more that employees perceive their work to be designed according to the characteristics in the job characteristics model (JCM), the more motivated and satisfied they will be. RESEARCH ON WORK ENGAGEMENTWork engagement could also be comprehended as a passion for work, the enthusiasm someone feels towards his/her job, and a willingness to go the extra mile and do their work whole heartedly. There are abundant potential benefits of engaged workforce. Engaged employees create value to the organization in terms of greater job performance more creative and proactive thinking, more innovative work behaviour, reduced absenteeism and turnover, more committed/loyal employees, organizational citizenship behaviour; higher career satisfaction , higher life satisfaction, fewer safety incidents, higher customer satisfaction and loyalty because of better customer service higher, and increased profitability (Greenberg, 2015; Xanthopoulou et al., 2007; Agarwal et al., 2012). Harter et al. (2010) found in a longitudinal study of 10 large organizations that worker engagement makes a difference to productivity. Work units in which employees were satisfied and otherwise felt highly engaged with their work led to improvements in the bottom line, measured in terms of revenue, sales, and profit.RESEARCH ON HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEINGSurvey researchers often implicitly assume that the concept of well-being is apparent to people in most countries (e.g., Inglehart, 2009; Veenhoven, 2009) Drawing upon a meta-analysis of 245 studies in 32 countries, Veenhoven identifies the following factors as ones associated with happiness rather than unhappiness – living in an economically prosperous country where freedom and democracy are respected; political stability; being a part of a majority rather than a minority; being toward the top of the social ladder; being married and having good relationships with family and friends; being mentally and physically healthy; being active and open minded; feeling in control of ones life; having aspirations in social and moral matters rather than money-making and be ing politically conservative.RESEARCH ON AFFECTA comprehensive meta-analysis indicated that an individuals tendency to experience positive emotions and moods is associated with increases in a variety of work performance measures, including more positive supervisory evaluations, higher income, enhanced negotiating ability, and performing discretionary acts for the benefit of the organization (Lyubomirsky, King, Diener, 2005). Longitudinal field research has indicated that employees who tend to meet work obstacles in a positive mood (using both state and trait measures) tend to derive more favourable outcomes—including more favourable supervisor evaluations and higher pay 18 months after the initial measure of positive emotions— than their more negative counterparts (Staw, Sutton, Pelled, 1994).