Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

624 M IRIAM E REZ
High
Power Distance
Low
Top-Down – Group Top-Down – Individual
Assigned Group Goals Assigned Individuals Goals –
Group Feedback Individual Feedback
Face Saving – error Be successful – promotion
prevention
Team based bonus – high Individual based bonus – high
differential differential
Lateral – Group Lateral – Individual
Participative Group Goal setting Empowering personal goal setting
Team reflexivity – Feedback 360-degree personal feedback
Face Saving/harmony – Error Risk taking/uniqueness –
prevention promotion towards new
opportunities and new records
Team based bonus – low Individual based bonus – low
differential differential
Collectivism Individualism
FIGURE 33.3 Fit interpersonal management practices with local cultures
in Western cultures are more intrinsically motivated when they are involved in setting the
goals rather than when goals are externally set for them. Empowerment is considered to
be a strong motivational approach in Western cultures. This is not the case in India and
the Far East. In these high power distance cultures, employees expect their boss to set
goals for them and they are highly motivated to accomplish externally set goals. In fact,
managers who empower their employees to set goals are considered to be weak and they
often lose the respect of their subordinates.
Employees in Asian countries, where there is high collectivism and high power distance,
are often more strongly motivated to avoid errors and failures than they are motivated to
win and be the first one. This may be because of the fear of authority should they fail,
and because of fear of failing the group to which a person belongs, as his/her personal
failure is attributed to the entire group. Therefore, employees in the Far East are likely to
set moderate rather than diffi cult goals, to reduce the risk of failure.
The motivations to avoid failure and to save face have implications for what is deemed the
acceptable form of feedback. Feedback is considered to be a strong motivational factor in
Western cultures, in particular when it is provided at the individual level. Yet, in countries
such as Japan, feedback takes a different form. Explicit individual feedback threatens the
individual ’s status in the team. It violates the important value of face saving, causing a
person to feel shame. For this reason, implicit and impersonal feedback, oriented to the
collective rather than to the individual, is considered to be the norm. Consequently,
Western managers operating in the Far East should recognize such cultural differences
and adjust their feedback to their employees to the local culture.
Reward allocation
A key issue is how to allocate rewards in order to enhance motivation. If you are an
American manager, you most likely implement the principle of equity. Indeed, in most