Cross-national differences in the work values of employees of a US-based multi-national corporation: A comparative study of the United States, Poland, and Mexico

In today's global economy, when U.S. corporations expand abroad they usually bring with them management practices that are ingrained in U.S. culture and management theory. Literature has indicated that often these management practices do not transfer well to foreign locations, undermining effectiveness and productivity at these sites.; Values are a central component of culture. Work values are a special component of the overall value system, which, in turn, is reflective of the national culture. This study compared the work values of workers from Poland, Mexico, and the United States. The participants were local-national employees of a U.S.-based multi-national corporation with operational sites in Poland and Mexico as well as the United States (N = 296). The Survey of Work Values (Wollack et al., 1971) was deployed in these three sites, and the means of the six scales of the survey were compared with a one-way ANOVA to determine if significant differences would be found among the respondents from the three national cultures.; This study indeed found significant differences between the participants from these three countries on five out of six scales of the survey, with .01 confidence level. Statistically significant differences were found to exist with regard to social status, job involvement, upwards striving, pride in work, and activity preference. No statistically significant differences were found on the attitude towards earnings scale. Pairwise comparisons utilizing Tukey HSD pointed to substantial work value differences between Polish and the US and Polish and Mexican participant groups, whereas US to Mexico comparisons, although pointing to some statistically significant differences, failed to demonstrate the same magnitude of differentiation.; Based on the findings, recommendations for managers and leaders of U.S.-based multi-national corporations are presented. This study supports the premise that traditional ways of managing local workforces in foreign locations may benefit from adjustments to account for the local national culture and specific work values typical to it.