MOTIVATION ACROSS CULTURES:Meaning of Work, Role of Religion

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

LESSON 22

MOTIVATION ACROSS CULTURES

Motivation and motivators differ across cultures. Practices that might be highly motivating for

employees in one country may not be as effective in others. Some of the reasons for this variance

in motivational factors are as follows:

Meaning of Work

In some cultures work is more central to one's life than in other cultures. In culture's that value

work, people's self-identity is derived from their work; they "live to work". In culture's that place

less value on work, people's self-identity is tied to other factors such as family, friends, etc.; they

"work to live". Motivating workers in culture's valuing work can, in part, come from the work itself

and not the manager's actions.

In some countries, work is equated with monetary and economic rewards. People tend to work

because they want money to buy things and make their lives better. Thus people try to do

maximum amount of work in least possible time. They exert extra efforts on it therefore. They also

like to have things defined for them so that they know what is expected and when tasks should be

completed.

But motivation theories do no hold applicable uniformly over all countries of the world. Different

countries have different work habits and people tend to equate work with non-monetary rewards

also. The Japanese philosophy Kaizen, which means continuous improvement in lives is an

example of it. Kaizen means "improvement". Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for

improvement involving everyone in the organization managers and workers alike.

The roles of work and the motivational processes of human resources in given cultures may also

change over time. For example, in recent years downsizing and increased competitive pressures

within organizations and people tend to work harder in order to remain with the organization.

Role of Religion

While not everyone is stringently religious, many people who are, agree that religion helps improve

daily motivation. Religion can be used as a great motivational tool for people from all walks of life.

Religion - no matter what kind - encourages mindfulness and internal motivation. The religious

depend

their

beliefs

strengthen

them

mentally.

People often depend on their religion when things are going downhill. Prayer and meditation

inspire those who might otherwise turn to drinking, food, or drugs to nurture their spirits. Religion

may help some people to be more mentally and physically healthy. Therefore, religion is a positive

source of daily motivation.

For instance, some religions place greater emphasis on allowing events to develop in their own

way, or just letting things happen. Many Hindus in India would follow this line of thinking. North

Americans, on the other hand, are more likely to practice religions that teach them to try to control

matters.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance is a cultural measure of the degree to which people tolerate risk and

unconventional behavior. We live in a world of uncertainty. The future is largely unknown and

always will be. Societies respond to this uncertainty in different ways. Some socialize their

members into accepting it. People in such societies are relative comfortable with risks. They are

also relatively tolerant of behavior and opinions that differ from their own because they do not feel

threatened by them. Hofstede describes such societies as having low uncertainty avoidance. That is

people feel relative secure. Countries that fall into this category include Singapore, Sweden and

Denmark.

A society that is high in uncertainty avoidance is characterized by a considerable level of anxiety

among its people, which manifests itself in nervousness, high stress and aggressiveness. Because

people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity in these societies, political and social

Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

mechanisms are created to provide security and to reduce risks. Their organizations are likely to

have more formal rules, there will be less tolerant for unusual ideas and behaviors and members

will strive to believe in absolute truths. Not surprisingly, in organizations in countries with high

uncertainty avoidance employee demonstrate relatively low job mobility and lifetime employment

is widely practiced policy. Countries in this category include Japan, Portugal, Pakistan, etc.

Power Distance

People naturally vary in terms of physical and intellectual abilities. This, in turn, creates differences

in wealth and power. How does a society deal with these inequalities? Hofstede used the term

power distance as a measure of the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in

institutions and organization is distributed unequally. A high power-distance society accepts wide

differences in power in organizations. Employees show a great deal of respect those in authority.

Titles, ranks, and status carry a lot of weight. When negotiating in high power-distance countries,

companies find it helps to send representatives with titles at least as high as those with whom they

are bargaining. Countries high in power distance include Philippines, Venezuela, India and

Pakistan.

In contrast low power-distance society plays down inequalities as much as possible. Superiors still

have authority, but employees are not fearful or in awe of the boss. Denmark, New Zealand, Israel

and Australia are examples of countries with low power-distance scores.

Nature of National Economy

This contribution has been made by Prof. Humair Hashmi. According to him, nature of economy,

i.e. free, controlled and mixed effect motivation

Acquired motives of an individual are to a great extent dominated by economic motives. In other

words it is the most important of the acquired motives. For an employee working in an

organization, the foremost incentive and motivation is certainly money. Therefore, the nature of

economy has a direct influence on motivation of an employee, since economy determines the

importance of the wealth that an individual has. Let us consider the motivation of an employee in

case of each of the three natures of economies separately, assuming utopian economies in the first

two cases:

Controlled Economy (Socialist Economy)

In a controlled economy, (centrally planned economy) all employees are government servants. The

key characteristic of such an economy is that all individuals have equal opportunities, and there is

no private ownership. Here private ownership refers to ownership of those resources which can

help an individual to generate income. Therefore every individual in this economy is guaranteed all

his or her basic necessities to survive. As a result the individual is not motivated to strive harder for

something. The employee working in an organization has no desire to work harder because he is

sure that his basis necessities of life would be fulfilled and his hard work would seldom render him

better off than his companions.

However the acquired motives if classified into the following two broad categories, the comparison

would become simpler:

· Monetary Motives

· Social Motives

Social motives such as the need for power, importance, etc. are as important in a socialist economy

as in the capitalist economy. It is so because of the fact that even in a socialist classless society,

classes exist. While each individual has equal opportunity in comparison to an individual with equal

abilities, opportunities are different for individual on the basis of their abilities. For example a

doctor would have different and more opportunities than a nurse who would have different and

greater opportunities than a sweeper. Therefore, every individual would have a drive and an

internal motivation to achieve the social status with the greatest opportunities. Once the individual

has reached the desired social status, he would have no further desire to work hard since he has no

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greater opportunities than his companions. A student would work hard to become a doctor. An

employee on the other hand would not work hard to be a manager unless and until he sees that the

manger has a much high social standing as compared to that employee. This renders the

motivation level in a socialist society low as compared to the capitalist society.

Free Economy (Capitalist Economy)

In a capitalist economy or a free market economy all decisions are made by the market. People are

not government servants and private ownership is allowed, i.e. ownership of those resources which

can be used to generate income. Therefore, all individuals, whether belonging to any strata of the

society, may have different opportunities as compared to his or her companions. This entails a

drive to achieve more and make the most use of the resources in possession and excel ahead of the

fellow individuals. Considering the two broad categories of motives:

· Social Motives

· Monetary Motives

In the capitalist society, the social motives then get attached to the monetary motives. As you go

on earning more, you keep on shifting to a higher level of social status. Therefore each individual

has two sorts of motives working with him at the same time. This renders the level of motivation

in a capitalist economy greater as compared to the socialist setup. For example, in a capitalist setup,

a doctor can own his private clinic and practice to earn more as compared to his companions. This

drive to be wealthier and therefore belong to higher strata of the society dominates the individual's

thinking and he is motivated. An employee working for an organization would be more motivated

to be a manager because a manager would earn much more than he does. Once he reaches that

level, he would also have the opportunity to enjoy the luxuries that the manager enjoys, owing to

the higher level of income. These luxuries would in turn render him to be more socially important.

Mixed Economy

A mixed economy which is the case in most countries is the one in which some resources are

owned by the government while some are privately owned. In such an economy the level of

motivation varies from the nature of resources and organization in which an individual is working.

For example in Pakistan, employees working in a government organization get a promotion in

which all are benefited at the same time. Grades of all servants are raised while in a private

organization the case is different. Individual rewards and benefits are given which motivates every

employee individually. The government servants would therefore be contented not to work hard if

only one of them is working hard because the benefits would be reaped by all of them. On the

other hand, in a private organization if an employee sees his co-worker being rewarded, he might

have the desire to earn the same reward for himself or herself.

Therefore, the nature of economy has an effect on the motivation levels of employees working in

an organization. Employees in a capitalist economy are more motivated to work harder as

compared to a socialist economy. This is due to the reinforcement of the social motives by the

monetary motives. This is the reason why a capitalist economy is more efficient as compared to a

socialist economy.

There is little evidence that motivation theories hold true across cultures while there is also

evidence against it. However some intervening or extraneous variables have been identified which

affect motivation theory effectiveness across cultures:

· Cultural/ historical context

Cultural factors play a vital role in determining the validity of motivation theories across

cultures. Some of these factors are related with the factors mentioned above, such as

uncertainty avoidance, religion, power distance, etc. Hofstede's and Trompenaar's research are

important in this respect.

· Human resource management practices/ policies/ideas

Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

Human resource management policies and practices differ widely across countries. Some

countries follow stringent human resource management policies while others do not.

Therefore, motivational factors also differ across due to his reason.

REFERENCES

Mejia, Gomez. Balkin, David & Cardy, Rober. (2006). Managing Human Resources (Fourth

Edition). India: Dorling Kidersley Pvt. Ltd., licensee of Pearson Education in South Asia.

Luthans, Fred. (2005). Organizational Behaviour (Tenth Edition). United States: McGraw Hill

Irwin.

Employee Recognition Programs - Perks.com: The Perks incentive program solution is to

increase, motivate and reward deserving employees: http://employeerecognition.com/

Kaizen and Japanes culture. 1000ventures organization website: Retrieved from:

http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_kaizen_main.html

Culture and Motivation. Salisbury website. Retrieved from:

http://facultyfp.salisbury.edu/rchoffman/cultmgt.htm/culmotiv.htm

FURTHER READING

The Ownership Culture Report (PDF). Is employee motivation the answer?:

http://www.nceo.org/surveys/documents/motivation.pdf

Motivation:

http://www.fvcc.edu/academics/dept_pages/social.sciences/psych/Motivation.htm

Geert Hofstede: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Uncertainty avoidance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_avoidance

Uncertainty Avoidance: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology:

http://web.nmsu.edu/~mtomala/uncertaintyavoidance.htm

Culture - power distance: http://users.tkk.fi/~vesanto/ihfudge/culture-part2.html

HR Practices Guide: Implementing, and communicating workable HR policies for line

managers: http://hr.cch.com/products/ProductID-572.asp

A discussion of an economic theory that potentially could both increase wages but at the same time also

increase profits for firms:

www.americafront.com/news/23/what_is_efficiency_wage_theory_and_why_it_matters.html

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