Culture, Work, and Motivation

1. Culture, Work, and Motivation Chapter 9

2. To motivate employees, you must bring them into the family and treat them like respected members of it. -- Akio Morita Founder and former CEO Sony Corporation, Japan (p. 280)

3. We need the fork on employee’s necks in Russia, not all these nice words and baby techniques. -- Snejina Machailova University of Auckland, New Zealand (p. 280)

4. Opening question: Why are these two observations about how to motivate employees so different? And what are the managerial implications?

5. Consider:Performance incentives at Lincoln Electric Lincoln is the story of applying a highly successful American-based employee incentive system in Germany, Mexico, and China. Why did the plan fail when it was applied in Germany and Mexico? What did Lincoln managers learn that allowed them to finally succeed in Mexico, and later in China? (pp. 281-285)

6. Topic for today: Culture, work, and motivation • The world of work • Work and leisure • Culture, motivation, and work behavior: A model • Culture and the psychology of work • Incentives and rewards across cultures

7. Consider: Work motivation Why do people work? Why do you work? Do these motivations differ across cultures and regions? If so, how? Recognizing individual differences, would you expect the within-culture or the between-culture variance to be larger in the reasons why people work?

8. Personal work values and employee behavior (p. 286)

9. Managing a maquiladora: Mexico and Korea • Korean manager’s views: Mexican workers do not see work as a sacred duty, routinely make commitments they have no intention of keeping, fail to distinguish between work and play, play loud music, and talk incessantly. • Mexican worker’s views: Korean managers evaluate everyone using their own (Korean) standards and philosophy, establish unrealistic work goals, blame workers for failures, and look down on locals. (pp. 286-287)

10. Top 4 work preferences across countries (p. 288)

11. Work values and the psychological contract Organization Employees Abilities, skills, and loyalty Work, wages, benefits and security (p. 290)

12. Consider: Work and leisure Do most people work to live or live to work?What about you?

13. Vacation policies (p. 292)

14. What is motivation? Work motivation is defined as that which energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. Consider: Which, if any, of these three components of work motivation can be affected by cultural differences? (p. 294)

15. Cultural influences on work motivation and performance: A model Culture 1: Manager’s normative beliefs about social relationships and time/work patterns (e.g., belief in individualism; monochronic behavior) Culturally compatible approach to motivation (e.g., preference for goals and targets; performance-based compensation) Manager’s approach to work motivation (e.g., use of management-by-objectives programs; merit-based compensation tied to individual performance) Other influences on work motivation and performance (e.g., company policies; legal or contractual obligations; employee skills and abilities; managerial and organizational experience in motivating others; mutual trust; personal and situational differences) Employee response (e.g., lack of employee buy-in or commitment; resistance to intra-group competition; poor work attitudes) Culture 2: Employees’ normative beliefs about social relationships and time/work patterns (e.g., belief in collectivism; polychronic behavior) Culturally compatible approach to motivation (e.g., preference for general goals and targets; seniority or group-based compensation) (p. 295)

16. Culture and the psychology of work Culture can influence: • Cognitions and expectations: How problems are identified or analyzed by both employees and managers, as well as what constitutes an acceptable solution. • Causal attributions: How credit and blame are apportioned. • Risk and uncertainty: The extent to which individuals and groups will accept or tolerate risk. • Social loafing and team performance: The extent to which groups experience social loafing. (pp. 296-300)

17. Extrinsic and intrinsic rewards • Extrinsic rewardsare rewards that are provided to employees as a result of good performance, including such items as salaries, bonuses, benefits, and job security. They are largely “administered” by the firm, not the employee, as a consequence of his or her performance. • Intrinsic rewardsare rewards that arise from doing one’s job in a satisfactory way. They are largely “self-administered;” that is, employees may feel pride or satisfaction from a job well done or they may enjoy the holiday time they receive as a consequence of hard work. (p. 301)

18. Extrinsic incentives and rewards • Financial incentives • Executive compensation • Gender and compensation • Employee perks (p. 302)

19. Ratio CEO compensation to average employees (p. 304)

20. Wage gaps between men and women across nations (p. 305)

21. Intrinsic incentives and rewards • Employee involvement • Work-related attitudes (p. 307)

22. Expectations, rewards, and job attitudes Employee expectation for extrinsic rewards Actual extrinsic rewards received Employee equity perceptions and cognitive dissonance Positive or negative job attitudes Employee expectation for intrinsic rewards Actual intrinsic rewards received (p. 308)

23. Average job satisfaction (p. 309)

24. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Motivating a global workforce (p. 311)

25. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Power distribution and incentives • Hierarchical cultures tend to stress specific job requirements and top-down directives to subordinates, with primarily extrinsic rewards for compliance and loyalty. • Egalitarian cultures tend to stress employee involvement in helping to determine the best means to achieve corporate objectives, with a greater (though not exclusive) emphasis on intrinsic rewards. (pp. 311-312)

26. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Social relationships and incentives • Individualistic cultures tend to emphasize extrinsic rewards tied to personal responsibility and achievement. • Collectivistic cultures tend to emphasize intrinsic rewards tied to employee commitment and/or group-based rewards based on group achievement. (p. 312)

27. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Environmental relationships and incentives • Mastery-oriented cultures tend to encourage competitive work environments with large monetary and symbolic rewards for “break-through” accomplishments. • Harmony-oriented cultures tend to emphasize cooperation and team efforts with standardized rewards based on seniority or collective efforts. (p. 312)

28. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Time, work patterns, and incentives • Monochronic cultures tend to provide employees with simple, straightforward—and measureable—tasks to accomplish within specific time limits, with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards tied to employee focus on the job at hand. • Polychronic cultures tend to provide employees with less direction and more flexibility in time limits, with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards tied to being able to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously. (pp. 312-313)

29. MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK:Uncertainty, social control, and incentives • Rule-based cultures tend to reward strict adherence to clearly publicized rules and regulations that are applied uniformly to all employees; rewards are often based on objective or quantitative criteria. • Relationship-based cultures tend to allow for extenuating circumstances or personal relationships in evaluating performance; rewards are often based on subjective or qualitative criteria. (p. 313)

30. Application:Lincoln Electric, one more time Lincoln Electric began with a naïve assumption that incentive systems are universal; they soon learned otherwise. Even so, they continued to try to tinker with their existing pay plan in plants around the globe instead of beginning anew based on local differences. • Why did Lincoln take this approach? • If you were in change, what would you do differently? Specifically, outline a plan you would recommend to design localized incentive systems in various countries that would still meet the company’s business objectives and maintain its corporate image.

31. Think about it:Personalizing work motivation • In rank order, list the five most important incentives or rewards that you seek in a job. • Are these rewards largely extrinsic or intrinsic? • How do you plan to pursue these rewards in the workplace? • Would working in a global environment (as opposed to a local one) enhance or impede the pursuit of these rewards? How?