Perceived management style, cultural adjustment, and job attitudes among Korean and non -Korean employees in Korean -owned domestic and foreign subsidiary operations: Nationality and organization differences

This thesis examined management styles, cultural adjustment, and work attitudes of local workers of Korean foreign subsidiaries in the host countries and migrant workers in Korean companies in Korea. Specifically, I examined the relative predictive power of country and organization on management styles, cultural adjustment, and work attitudes. I also examined the moderating role of country (national cultures) on the relationship between management styles and cultural adjustment and work attitudes.;My results indicate that the effect of country was statistically significant, but that differences in management styles, cultural adjustment, and work attitudes were attributable mostly to within-country (e.g. organization differences) rather than to between-country differences. Previous national culture work has emphasized that international management is different due to different national characteristics across countries. However, the results of this thesis suggest a different picture in which the differences between organizations within countries were more important. This result is consistent with findings of 'converging divergences' (Katz & Darbishire, 2000) which found that within-country variance in management systems was large relative to between-country variance in international settings.;Although the effects of national cultures were not large as contended in much previous work, national culture did play some role in influencing management styles, cultural adjustment, and work attitudes. National cultures (specifically, national cultural distance) influenced the cultural adjustment of employees. However, the effects of national cultures in terms of power distance and uncertainty avoidance were not empirically meaningful in my sample. The effects of supportive management style and cultural adjustment on work attitudes were contingent on the national cultures (specifically, cultural distance).