Employee motivation across different cultures

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In present business context companies search for talented individuals for recruitment. If they do find such people, they will be absorbed to the organization. Hence,  we found employees of companies from different background. In addition to that due to advancement of technology and competition organizations has expand their borders. Due to these factors, we can find employees from different backgrounds and different cultures.

Why should organizations focus on cross culture employee motivation?

Employees from different cultural backgrounds have different ideas and insights about management and leadership, and they also have different perspectives and behaviours. In order to enhance the effectiveness of management, enterprises must face the obstacles of cultural differences in human resource management and must seriously solve the problems caused by cross-cultural factors. (Zhao and Pan, 2017)

For last two decades the employee productivity is reducing in the employees those who are working in the multinational organizations in the south Asian region (Salami, 2008). Although the labour productivity is greater with other business organizations, when compared with the past, figures the productivity is low (Salami, 2008). 

  DeVoe and Iyengar (2014) at Colombia business school conduct a study on cross culture employees. They have considered 03 cultural regions. They are North America, Asia, and Latin America. It is pertinent mention that these regions a distinct different from each one. This study has identified that North American managers perceived their employees as being more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated, perceptions of intrinsic motivation proved to be a more robust predictor of performance appraisal. Asian managers exhibited their subordinates as equally motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and their perceptions of both motivations proved to be comparable predictors of performance appraisal. Latin American managers perceived their employees as being more extrinsically motivated. 

  Rajapaksha (2015) conducted a survey on the impact of cross culture on employee performance in multinational companies in Sri Lanka and he found out that the Muslim and Islam employees are motivated from extrinsically than intrinsically motivated while Sinhala and Buddhist employees are motivated through intrinsically than extrinsically factors. However, in the case of Tamils and Christian employees have no large difference.

 Hofstede’s (1984, 2001) work-related cultural dimensions has been regarded as a paradigm in the field of cross-cultural studies. He believes culture can be divided into five dimensions: individualism and collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and femininity, long-term orientation, and short-term orientation.


  



(Zhang and Lowry, 2008)

The wrong judgments of above cultural dimensions in organization will not only lead to the failure of the incentive mechanism, but also may lead to negative impacts. For example, in Thailand, the individual incentive plan differs from the tradition of collective cooperation in society. Therefore, the introduction of the individual value incentive plan will reduce productivity instead of improving it in Thailand employees, because they are culture is to refuse to compete openly.

 

As a result, we must understand their needs, goals, values and expectations when considering how to motivate employees from different cultures and backgrounds. No matter what their cultural background is, they always hope that their needs can be satisfied. (Zhao and Pan, 2017)

 

References

Zhao, b. and Pan, Y., 2017. Cross-Cultural Employee Motivation in International Companies. Scientific Research, [online] 5(4). Available at: <https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=80524> [Accessed 16 April 2022].

 

DeVoe, s. and Iyengar, S., 2004. Managers’ theories of subordinates: A cross-cultural examination of manager perceptions of motivation and appraisal of performance. Science Direct, [online] 93(1), pp.47-61. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597803001031> [Accessed 16 April 2022].

 

Rajapaksha, U.G., 2015, December. The Impact of Cross Culture on Employee Performance in Multinational Companies in Sri Lanka. In 12th International Conference on Business Management (ICBM).

 

Zhang, D. and Lowry, P., 2008. Issues, Limitations, and Opportunities in Cross-Cultural Research on Collaborative Software in Information Systems. Journal of Global Information Management, [online] 16(1), pp.61-84. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220500429_Issues_Limitations_and_Opportunities_in_Cross-Cultural_Research_on_Collaborative_Software_in_Information_Systems> [Accessed 16 April 2022].


Comments

  1. NishaniMay 1, 2022 at 10:19 PM

    The incentives for cross-cultural employees in international enterprises from four aspects which are significance of work, hierarchy of needs, and dichotomy of internal and external factors as well as the reward and punishment mechanism. It is found that the characteristics and mechanisms of effective incentives for employees of different cultures are different. The managers of international enterprises should be good at observing and discovering the characteristics and inner needs of cross-cultural employees and design corresponding incentive mechanism, making it easy to achieve good results as well as fully arouse the employees’ enthusiasm for work so that the organizational performance can be improved.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Navod Galabada ArachchiMay 3, 2022 at 10:07 AM

    Nowadays, more and more employees come from different countries and regions in international companies and how to effectively motivate these employees becomes a very important issue. This study combines a lot of existing research results with the actual business operation situations. For cross-cultural employees, elaborating on influencing factors and mechanism design of the motivation in detail from the significance of work, hierarchy of needs, and dichotomy of internal and external factors as well as the reward and punishment mechanism. It finds that the most fitting motivation methods are different for employees from different cultural backgrounds and provides some references and suggestions for cross-cultural human resource management in international companies.

    Reference,
    Zhao, B. and Pan, Y., 2017. Cross-cultural employee motivation in international companies. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 5(4), pp.215-222.

    ReplyDelete

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