The impact of cross-cultural differences on the relationships among management practices, organizational climate, and employee satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences in the relationships among organizational variables across different cultures. Specifically, three organizational variables, a subset of the Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and Change (1992, 1994), were included in the study: management practices, organizational climate, and employee satisfaction. The relationships among these three organizational variables have been validated in previous research, but in a limited number of countries and cultures. Twenty-five thousand and 53 employees of a US-based global technology company operating in 32 countries were included in the study. Respondents completed questionnaires to measure their perceptions and attitudes of management practices, organizational climate, and their degree of satisfaction in the workplace. Countries were categorized according to Hofstede's widely used typology of four cultural dimensions: individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance (Hofstede, 1980, 1983, 1991, 2001). The results provide evidence for the existence of a mediated causal path from management practices to organizational climate to employee satisfaction in numerous countries, and that the strengths of the relationships among the three organizational variables are moderated by culture. Specifically, individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance were found to moderate the strength of the relationship between management practices and organizational climate. The relationship between organizational climate and employee satisfaction was found to be moderated by uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and power distance. Overall the results indicate that the strength of the relationships among the three organizational variables vary by the culture of the country in which an organization operates. The results support the existence of significant linkages among this sub-set of the organizational model across countries while at the same time providing additional information both theoretical and practical on cross-cultural differences.