The Relationship between Individualism—Collectivism and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

On a exploré dans trois recherches la relation entre la satisfaction professionnelle et les mentalités individualiste ou communautaire. Dans la première, une étude de niveau écologique, nous avons trouvé des corrélations à la limite de seuil de signification entre l'indice d'individualisme de Hofstede et des attitudes défavorables envers la communication et les relations professionnelles; toutes deux relèvent des aspects inter‐individuels du travail. Pour la deuxième recherche, c'est un échantillon d'employés chinois de Hong Kong qui ont fourni les données. Les employés présentant un sentiment communautaire se montraient plus satisfaits de leur travail, de leur salaire, de leur promotion, de leur encadrement et de leurs collègues que leurs homologues individualistes. La troisième étude a retrouvé les résultats de la deuxième avec un échantillon d'employés d'un niveau plus modeste. The relationship between individualism‐collectivism and job satisfaction was explored in three studies. In the first, ecological‐level, study, we found marginally significant correlations between Hofstede's individualism index and unfavourable attitudes towards working relationships and communication, both being interpersonal aspects of work. In the second study, data were collected from a sample of Chinese employees in Hong Kong. Collectivist employees reported higher satisfaction with their work, pay, promotion, supervision, and coworker than their individualist counterparts. Study 3 replicated findings of Study 2, with a sample of employees at a lower rank.

Levels of Analysis in Cross-Cultural Psychology

“…In a similar way, the nations reported by Hofstede to be highly individualistic are the ones in which greater job satisfaction is reported (Hui, Triandis & Yee, 1995). However, in Hong Kong the individuals who espouse collectivist values rather than individualistic values are the ones reporting greater job satisfaction.…”

Asian Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 2009

“…Between-cultures studies of job satisfaction have generally found that collectivists have lower levels of job satisfaction than the individualists (Lincoln, 1989). One study (Hui, Yee, and Eastman, 1995) has found job satisfaction to be higher for collectivist employees, but it should be noted that the study was a within-culture and not a cross-cultural one. In her study Fauziah (2000) found that Australian managers (individualist culture) appear to have a significantly higher level of job satisfaction than their counterpart in Malaysia (collectivist culture).…”

The impact of organisational culture and person-organisation fit on job satisfaction and organisational commitment in China and the USA

“…For example, Lincoln and Kalleberg (1985) found that job satisfaction was higher in the USA than in Japan and Luthans et al (1985) found that US employees had higher levels of organisational commitment than employees in Japan or South Korea. Conversely, Hui et al (1995) identified a positive relationship between collectivism and job satisfaction and Palich et al (1995) found that organisational commitment was negatively related to Hofstede's (1980) values of individualism and uncertainty avoidance and positively correlated with masculinity. Kirkman and Shapiro (2001) also found a tendency for higher levels of collectivism to be associated with greater job satisfaction and commitment and a tendency for lower levels of power distance to be associated with higher levels of commitment.…”