Search results

This study aims to examine the role of horizontal and vertical individualism‐collectivism in explaining conflict management styles. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 640 respondents completed the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory‐II (ROCI‐II, Form C) designed to assess five conflict management styles and the individualism‐collectivism (I‐C) scale designed to assess the vertical and horizontal aspects of individualism‐collectivism. Findings – Correlation and regression analyses provide support for a conceptual fit between cultural dimensions and conflict management styles. Horizontal and vertical aspects of individualism‐collectivism explained 5‐20 percent of the variance in the various conflict management styles. Specifically, individuals displaying an individualist orientation (horizontal and vertical) tended to give greater importance to satisfying personal needs and preferred a dominating style, rather than an obliging or avoiding style. In contrast, collectivists (horizontal and vertical) seemed more likely to sacrifice personal needs for the sake of the group and preferred an integrating style. Further, horizontal collectivists were more likely to prefer an obliging style and vertical collectivists an avoiding style of conflict management. Research limitations/implications – Generalization is limited to college student samples from the USA. Practical implications – Organizations could provide training programs to sensitize employees to their specific cultural orientations and their preferred conflict management styles. In addition, employees could learn to switch between styles depending on the situation, issue, or relationship within which the conflict is taking place. Originality/value – Highlights the importance of sensitizing employees to their cultural orientation and preferred conflict management style; raises the possibility of training them to develop alternate styles.

This paper aims to put forth a model that accounts for the effect of servant leadership on employee creativity from a social identity perspective. Specifically, this paper aims to examine team identification as the mediating mechanism by which servant leadership influence employee creativity. This paper also intends to investigate the moderating influences of horizontal and vertical collectivism on the effectiveness of servant leadership on follower team identification.

Servant leadership, team identification, collectivism (consisted of horizontal and vertical collectivism) and employee creativity were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 451 employees from 11 banks in China.

Drawing on social identity theory, this study found that follower team identification partially mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity. In addition, results showed that horizontal collectivism moderates the relationship between servant leadership and follower team identification; the relationship was more positive when horizontal collectivism was high, rather than low; vertical collectivism also moderates the relationship between servant leadership and follower team identification; the relationship was more positive when vertical collectivism was low, rather than high. However, results of this study indicated that the moderated mediation effects of team identification on the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity are nonsignificant.

First, this research affirmed the need to promote servant leadership in employment settings. Second, managers’ understandings of the instrumental role of servant leadership in showing interpersonal acceptance, offering encouragement and support and expressing trust would prove to be valuable because it could enhance employee creativity. Finally, the findings from this study should help managers gain a better understanding of the contextual factors.

The first contribution of the current study was to identify team identification as an important psychological process that can link servant leadership to employee creativity. Another important contribution of the current research was the identification of the boundary conditions (e.g. horizontal and vertical collectivism).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of individualism‐collectivism, trust, and ethical ideology on ethically questionable negotiation tactics, such as pretending, deceiving and lying, in Turkey.

Survey questionnaires translated from English to Turkish were administered to 400 respondents, of whom 379 fully completed the questionnaires.

The research empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretending, deceiving and lying. Turkish negotiators who scored high on horizontal individualism tended to score highly on pretending and deceiving and less on lying, and presented an inverse relationship between scores on those tactics and score on idealism. Trust was not found to be related to any of the negotiation tactics.

The study investigated the respondents' perceptions rather than their actual negotiation behavior. The sample size, though large and inclusive of public and private sector employees, provided limited ability to generalize Turkish negotiator conduct.

The study provides hints to managers negotiating in Turkey of the extent to which Turkish managers would employ ethically questionable negotiation tactics.

This empirical field research is the first to present a model of the antecedents of negotiation tactics in Turkey, a country where negotiation studies are limited and are mostly conducted within the safe controls of the laboratory.

Presents a study which derives relationships between the personality/cultural variables of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism, on the one hand, and the organizational criteria of intrapreneurship and organizational commitment on the other. Suggests that horizontal individualism may explain intrapreneurship jointly with a supportive organizational climate. Vertical collectivism demonstrates a direct positive relationship with organizational commitment. Horizontal collectivism varies jointly with work‐group and supervisor commitments in a negative relationship with organizational commitment, indicating a perception of conflict between work‐group and supervisor goals on the one hand and organizational goals on the other. Concludes that, while the basis of the vertical collectivist’s commitment seems unclear, horizontal collectivists base their commitment on compliance or rewards. Discusses theoretical and a few practical implications.

One of the main issues that many organizations will face in the coming years is the management of increasing diversity in the workforce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the levels of individualism and collectivism of managers in two different cultural environments, that is, Malaysia and Australia.

Data were collected by questionnaire from middle managers in a total of 18 organisations in Malaysia and ten organisations in Australia. Individualism‐collectivism was measured using Singelis et al.'s 32‐item scale. The items in the scale are designed to measure the horizontal and vertical aspects of individualism‐collectivism. The items were answered on seven‐point scale where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 7 indicates strong agreement. In addition, the seven‐item job satisfaction measure, which is part of the Survey of Organizations questionnaire developed by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, was used.

The study reveals the existence of differences between Malaysian and Australian managers on the level of vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism. In addition, the Australian managers appear to have a significantly higher level of job satisfaction than their counterpart in Malaysia.

Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that there have been significant shifts in value classifications in Malaysia since Hofstede conducted his original study. This finding underscores the fact that, although a nation's work‐related values and attitudes are deep‐seated preferences for certain end states; they are subject to change over the years as external environmental changes shape a society. Therefore, researchers and practitioners should use caution before attempting to use work‐related values and attitudes to understand human behaviours in organizations.

The results of this study may be of interest and assistance to managers of multinational and international organizations who need to manage in global contexts and, therefore, need to understand cultural‐driven differences in personal and interpersonal work‐related conditions between and across nations.

The results of this study provide empirical corroboration of the theoretical perspectives of Singelis et al. on individualism‐collectivism and horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism respectively. In addition, they may be of interest and assistance to managers of multinational and international organizations who need to manage in global contexts and, therefore, need to understand cultural‐driven differences in work attitudes of employees between and across nations. Finally, the study's findings contribute to a growing body of research that illustrates the need to take a multidimensional approach to the study on individualism‐collectivism.

Studies have explored expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among cultures, but findings are mixed. A more nuanced view of cultural dimensions rather than using Hofstede’s aggregate country scores can offer a stronger empirical foundation for studying the effects of culture. Based on two cultural dimensions and Carroll’s four-dimensional model of CSR, the purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between individualistic/collectivistic values and individuals’ expectations of different types of responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic), the relationship between long-term values and individuals’ expectations of different types of responsibilities and the degree of skepticism about CSR related to these values.

This study surveyed panel participants in two countries, South Korea (collectivistic and long term) and the USA (individualistic and short term), chosen because they are at extreme ends of the cultural values continuum. Multi-dimensional aspects of the cultural variables were tested in the samples rather than using national scores as proxy variables for culture. Data were quantitative and various statistical tests including structural equation modeling were used for analysis.

The findings show that horizontal collectivism and the planning dimension of long-term orientation are positively associated with CSR expectations, whereas the tradition dimension of long-term orientation is negatively associated with CSR expectations. In addition, vertical individualism is positively associated with skepticism toward CSR activities.

The differences in types of individual-collectivism (horizontal and vertical) as well as the different aspects of long-term orientation had an effect on the results, pointing to the importance of exploring the nuances of the dimensions as well as the importance of testing them within the sample rather than using aggregated national scores.

Previous studies that used a proxy variable for culture assumed that collectivistic cultures have higher expectations for CSR. While empirically supporting the assumption of the relationship between cultural factors and CSR expectations at the individual level, the study found that people who view themselves as autonomous within a group but accept inequality within the group (vertical individualism) are more likely to be skeptical of CSR activities and suggests that skepticism about CSR may be more closely related to individual viewpoints or to particular contexts or particular corporations rather than to cultural factors, which has implications for international corporate communication.

This study aims to generalize the research findings about the impact of individualism-collectivism, ethical idealism and inter-personal trust on ethically questionable negotiation tactics, such as pretending, deceiving and lying, in a Germanic culture, namely, that of Austria.

Survey questionnaires translated from English to German were collected from 304 respondents. A regression analysis was used to test the contribution of the independent variables to the explanation of negotiators’ attitudes towards questionable negotiation tactics.

The research empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretending, deceiving and lying, in Austria. Austrian negotiators who scored high on vertical individualism tended to score high on the endorsement of the pretending tactic; those who scored high on horizontal collectivism tended to score low on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; those who scored high on vertical collectivism tended to score high on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; and those who scored high on inter-personal trust tended to score low on the endorsement of the pretending negotiation tactic. Idealistic negotiators tended not to endorse the use of pretending, deceiving and lying negotiation tactics.

The study investigated the respondents’ perceptions, rather than their actual negotiation behavior. Findings are limited to Germanic culture.

The study provides negotiators in Austria with a tool that has the potential to predict the extent to which Austrian negotiators would use various ethically questionable negotiation tactics.

This is the first study to present a model of the antecedents of negotiation tactics in a Germanic cultural context, where negotiation studies are limited. This study validates in Austria three questionable negotiation tactics groups of varying severity, which had previously been studied only in non-Germanic cultures. This research significantly contributes to the generalization of a model of the antecedents of the endorsement of questionable tactics across cultures.

Drawing on a contagion-interpretation model of leader affective displays and leader effectiveness, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of leaders’ angry feedback on followers’ cognitive and affective reactions, and ultimately, perceived leader effectiveness across different cultural contexts.

In this paper, two experimental studies were conducted with a total of 528 participants.

The results revealed a culturally divergent cognitive effect: in Western cultures where vertical collectivism is low, leaders’ angry feedback reduced followers’ inferred developmental intention and subsequently, perceived leader effectiveness, whereas in East Asian cultures where vertical collectivism is high, leaders’ angry feedback reduced the two variables to a lesser extent or did not have any effect. In contrast, there was a culturally convergent emotional effect: the impact of leaders’ angry feedback on followers’ negative emotions and subsequently, perceived leader effectiveness was the same, regardless of the level of vertical collectivism.

This research is the first to demonstrate that culture – in particular, the dimension of vertical collectivism – has different impacts on the two mechanisms (i.e. cognitive and affective) through which leader’s angry feedback influences followers’ perceived leader effectiveness.

The aim of this chapter is to study individualism and collectivism as two construct indicators of social patterns in Lebanon using Triandis's (1995) framework of individualism and collectivism. This study explores the Lebanese autostereotypes and views of their extreme individualism and collectivism compared to the common opinion held by cross-cultural research. The study sheds light on how social patterns of different Lebanese individuals are distributed across four “cultural syndromes,” namely vertical and horizontal collectivism and vertical and horizontal individualism. These four social patterns will be tested against various contextual factors such as age, gender, and education. The results may provide a better idea for managers and human resources practitioners of how to prepare training and evaluation programs for their employees. Findings from 161 respondents showed that the subjects tested tended to be individualistic in their choices, and this suggests that the classification in the literature of the Lebanese as collectivists was based on the fact that there was no evidence to the contrary. Also, results showed a positive correlation between sociodemographic measures (gender, age, education, income, occupation, and location) and individualism. The author argues that these findings might have been the result of the evolution of the Lebanese family in the past 25 years. Suggestions for the use of these results in management and human resources practices and theory are given.

This study aims to explore whether collectivistic and individualistic users exhibit different e‐commerce loyalty and purchase intentions.

The paper operationalises Triandis' individuality and collectivism typology. Empirical data were gathered using face‐to‐face questionnaire instruments with 140 respondents, comprising undergraduate students and government employees.

Online shoppers are more individualistic than those who have not shopped online, while individualism and collectivism do not influence online loyalty.

As firms compete for online custom, it would be useful to gain some understanding of the possible effects of individual and collective behaviour on purchasing behaviour.

Instead of competing for existing online users, online stores could expand their market by appealing to offline shoppers using collective techniques.

Online loyalty has been an important focus of prior work and, while there has been significant focus on communities, Internet use remains a very personal activity. The paper provides new evidence that offline shoppers are more collectivistic than online shoppers.