Cultural Orientations and Individual Reactions to Organizations: A Study of Employees of Japanese-Owned Firms

Abstract

March 1981, volume 26 This study concerns cultural differences in the reactions of persons to work organizations. The data pertain to 522 employees of 28 Japanese-owned firms in the United States. First, an additive model of national origin effects showed: (a) that Japanese and Japanese-American employees were more likely than American employees to value paternalistic company behavior; (b) that there were no differences among national origin groups in the extent of personal ties with co-workers; and (c) that there were lower levels of work satisfaction among the Japanese and Japanese-Americans. Second, a model of personal ties and work satisfaction was postulated that allowed effects to vary across national origin categories. Consistent with a view that the Japanese favor vertical social structures, vertical differentiation of the organization's structure had positive effects on the personal ties and work satisfaction of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans but had no effects on the non-Japanese Americans. Furthermore, horizontal differentiation had negative effects on personal ties and work satisfaction for Japanese and Japanese-American workers but had no effect on these variables for non-Japanese Americans. These results were interpreted from a theoretical perspective that stresses the matching of organizational forms to cultural contexts. Such a perspective can be viewed as'consistent with recent theoretical constructions of organizations as loosely-coupled systems.