Using a field survey of 81 self-managing work teams (SMWTs) in Belgium, Finland, the Philippines, and the United States, we examined the extent to which team members’ resistance to SMWTs mediated the relationships between team members’ cultural values and team effectiveness. Specifically, we found that teams higher, rather than lower, in collectivism were also more productive, cooperative, and empowered; and that these relationships were fully mediated by the level of team resistance to the team-related aspect of SMWTs. Also, we found that teams that were more, rather than less, doing-oriented were also more empowered, and that this relationship was fully mediated by the level of team resistance to the self-managing aspect of SMWTs. The findings suggest that it may behoove managers who are charged with implementing SMWTs to pay close attention to the predominant cultural values inherent in the teams they lead. Additional practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, N. J. (1997). International dimensions of organizational behavior (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing.
2.
Andres, T. D. (1985). Management by Filipino values. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day.
3.
Au, K. Y. (1999). Intra-cultural variation: Evidence and implications for international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 30, 799-812.
4.
Baron, R. M. , & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
5.
Bar-Tal, D. (1990). Group beliefs. New York: Springer-Verlag.
6.
Birnbaum-More, P. H. , Wong, G. Y. Y., & Olve, N. (1995). Acquisition of managerial values in the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 255-275.
7.
Bochner, S. , & Hesketh, B. (1994). Power distance, individualism/collectivism, and job-related attitudes in a culturally diverse work group. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 25, 233-257.
8.
Bond, M. H , Leung, K., & Wan, K. C. (1982). How does cultural collectivism operate? The impact of task and maintenance contributions on reward distribution. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 13, 186-200.
9.
Brislin, R. W. (1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In H. C. Triandis & J. W. Berry (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Vol. 2, Methodology (pp. 389-444). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
10.
Buzaglo, G. , & Wheelan, S. A. (1999). Facilitating work team effectiveness: Case studies from Central America. Small Group Research, 30, 108-129.
11.
Campion, M. A. , Medsker, G. J., & Higgs, A. C. (1993). Relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: Implications for designing effective work groups. Personnel Psychology, 46, 823-850.
12.
Campion, M. A. , Papper, E. M., & Medsker, G. J. (1996). Relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology, 49, 429-452.
13.
Campion, M. A. , Stevens, M. J., & Medsker, G. J. (1996). An input-process-output (IPO) model of work team effectiveness. Paper presented at the 11th annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Diego, CA.
14.
Chatman, J. A. , & Barsade, S. G. (1995). Personality, organizational culture, and cooperation: Evidence from a business simulation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 423-443.
15.
Chen, C. C. (1995). New trends in rewards allocation preferences: A Sino-U.S. comparison. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 408-428.
16.
Church, A. T. , Carlota, A. J., & Katigbak, M. S. (1998). Indigenous personality measures: Philippine examples. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, 249-270.
17.
Clugston, M. , Howell, J. P., & Dorfman, P. W. (2000). Does cultural socialization predict multiple basis and foci of commitment?Journal of Management, 26, 5-30.
18.
Cohen, S. G. , & Ledford, G. E., Jr. (1994). The effectiveness of self-managing teams: A quasi-experiment. Human Relations, 47, 13-43.
19.
Cohen, S. G. , Ledford, G. E. Jr., & Spreitzer, G. M. (1996). A predictive model of self-managing work team effectiveness. Human Relations, 49, 643-676.
20.
Cordery, J. L. , Mueller, W. S., & Smith, L. M. (1991). Attitudinal and behavioral effects of autonomous group working: A longitudinal field study. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 464-476.
21.
Cox, T. , Lobel, S., & McLeod, P. (1991). Effects of ethnic group cultural differences on cooperative and competitive behavior on a group task. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 827-847.
22.
Dorfman, P. W. , & Howell, J. P. (1988). Dimensions of national culture and effective leadership patterns: Hofstede revisited. Advances in International Comparative Management, 3, 127-150.
23.
Earley, P. C. (1989). Social loafing and collectivism: A comparison of the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34, 565-581.
24.
Earley, P. C. (1993). East meets West meets Mideast: Further explorations of collectivistic and individualistic work groups. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 319-348.
25.
Earley, P. C. (1997). Face, harmony, and social structure: An analysis of organizational behavior across cultures. New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
Earley, P. C. (1999). Playing follow the leader: Status-determining traits in relation to collective efficacy across cultures. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 80, 192-212.
27.
Earley, P. C. , & Erez, M. (1997). The transplanted executive. New York: Oxford University Press.
28.
Earley, P. C. , & Gibson, C. B. (1998). Taking stock in our progress on individualism-collectivism: 100 years of solidarity and community. Journal of Management, 24, 265-304.
29.
Eby, L. T. , & Dobbins, G. H. (1997). Collective orientation in teams: An individual and group-level analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18, 275-295.
30.
Fisher, K. (1993). Leading self-directed work teams: A guide to developing new team leadership skills. New York: McGraw-Hill.
31.
Flores, F. (1972). The applicability of American management practices to developing countries: A case study of the Philippines. Management International Review, 12, 83-89.
32.
Gibson, C. B. (1999). Do they do what they believe they can? Group efficacy and group effectiveness across tasks and cultures. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 138-152.
33.
Gochenouer, T. (1990). Considering Filipinos. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
34.
Gomez, C. B. , Kirkman, B. L., & Shapiro, D. L. (2001). The impact of collectivism and ingroup/outgroup membership on the evaluation generosity of team members. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 1097-1106.
35.
Goodman, P. S. , Devadas, R., & Griffith-Hughson, T. L. (1988). Groups and productivity: Analyzing the effectiveness of self-managing teams. In J. P. Campbell & R. J. Campbell (Eds.), Productivity in organizations: New perspectives from industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 295-327). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
36.
Goodman, P. S. , Ravlin, E. C., & Schminke, M. (1987). Understanding groups in organizations. In B. M. Staw and L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 9, pp. 121-173). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
37.
Grimm, S. D. , Church, A. T., Katigbak, M. S., Reyes, J. A. S. (1999). Self-described traits, values, and moods associated with individualism and collectivism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30, 466-500.
38.
Hackman, J. R. (1987). The design of work teams. In J. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 315-342). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
39.
Hampden-Turner, C. , & Trompenaars, F. (1993). The seven cultures of capitalism: Value systems for creating wealth in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
40.
Hofstede, G. (1980a). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
41.
Hofstede, G. (1980b). Motivation, leadership, and organizations: Do American theories apply abroad?Organizational Dynamics, 9, 42-63.
42.
House, R. J. , Hanges, P. J., Ruiz-Quintanilla, S. A., Dorfman, P. W., Javidan, M., Dickson, M. W., Gupta, V., and Associates. (1999). Cultural influences on leadership and organizations: Project GLOBE. In W. H. Mobley, M. J. Gessner, & V. Arnold (Eds.), Advances in global leadership (Vol. 1, pp. 171-233). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
43.
Hultman, K. E. (1979). The path of least resistance: Preparing employees for change. Austin, TX: Learning Concepts.
44.
Hyatt, D. E. , & Ruddy, T. M. (1997). An examination of the relationship between work group characteristics and performance: Once more into the breech. Personnel Psychology, 50, 553-585.
45.
James, L. R. (1982). Aggregation bias in estimates of perceptual agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 219-229.
46.
James, L. R. , Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. (1984). Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 85-98.
47.
James, L. R. , Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. (1993). rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 306-309.
48.
Judson, S. (1991). Changing behavior in organizations: Minimizing resistance to change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
49.
Kim, K. I. , Park, H., & Suzuki, N. (1990). Reward allocations in the United States, Japan, and Korea: A comparison of individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 188-198.
50.
Kirkman, B. L. , Gibson, C. B., & Shapiro, D. L. (in press). “Exporting” teams: Enhancing the implementation and effectiveness of work teams in global affiliates. Organizational Dynamics.
51.
Kirkman, B. L. , & Rosen, B. (1997). A model of work team empowerment. In R. W. Woodman, & W. A. Pasmore (Eds.), Research in organizational change and development (Vol. 10, pp. 131-167). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
52.
Kirkman, B. L. , & Rosen, B. (1999). Beyond self-management: The antecedents and consequences of team empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 59-75.
53.
Kirkman, B. L. , & Rosen, B. (2000). Powering up teams. Organizational Dynamics, 28, 48-66.
54.
Kirkman, B. L. , & Shapiro, D. L. (1997). The impact of cultural values on employee resistance to teams: Toward a model of globalized self-managing work team effectiveness. Academy of Management Review, 22, 730-757.
55.
Kirkman, B. L. , & Shapiro, D. L. (in press). The impact of cultural values on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in self-managing work teams: The mediating role of employee resistance. Academy of Management Journal.
56.
Klein, K. J. , Dansereau, F., & Hall, R. J. (1994). Levels issues in theory development, data collection, and analysis. Academy of Management Review, 19, 195-229.
57.
Kluckhohn, F. , & Strodtbeck, F. L. (1961). Variations in value orientations. Evanston, IL: Row.
58.
Lincoln, J. R. , & Kalleberg, A. L. (1985). Work organization and workforce commitment: A study of plants and employees in the U.S. and Japan. American Sociological Review, 50, 738-760.
59.
Luthans, F. , McCaul, H. S., & Dodd, N. G. (1985). Organizational commitment: A comparison of American, Japanese, and Korean employees. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 213-219.
60.
Manz, C. C. , & Sims Jr., H. P. (1993). Business without bosses: How self-managing teams are building high performance companies. New York: John Wiley.
61.
Maznevski, M. L. , DiStefano, J. J., Gomez, C. B., Noorderhaven, N. G., & Wu, P. (1997). The cultural orientations framework and international management research. Paper presented at the Academy of International Business annual meeting, Guadalajara, Mexico.
62.
Near, J. P. (1989). Organizational commitment among Japanese and U.S. workers. Organization Studies, 10, 281-300.
63.
Nicholls, C. E. , Lane, H. W., & Brechu, M. B. (1999). Taking self-managed teams to Mexico. Academy of Management Executive, 13, 15-27.
64.
Nunnally, J. C. , & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
65.
Odiorne, G. S. (1981). The change resisters: How they prevent progress and what managers can do about them. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
66.
Palich, L. E. , Hom, P. W., & Griffeth, R. W. (1995). Managing in the international context: Testing the cultural generality of sources of commitment to multinational enterprises. Journal of Management, 21, 671-690.
67.
Pearson, C. A. L. (1992). Autonomous workgroups: An evaluation at an industrial site. Human Relations, 45, 905-936.
68.
Petrini, C. , & Hultman, K. E. (1995). Scaling the wall of resistance. Training and Development, 49, 15-18.
69.
Ravlin, E. C. , Thomas, D. C., & Ilsev, A. (2000). Beliefs about values, status, and legitimacy in multicultural groups: Influences on intragroup conflict. In P.C. Earley & H. Singh (Eds.), Work behavior across nations and cultures (pp. 17-51). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
70.
Roberts, K. H. , Hulin, C. L., & Rousseau, D. M. (1978). Developing an interdisciplinary science of organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
71.
Ryan, A. M. , Chan, D., Ployhart, R. E., & Slade, L. A. (1999). Employee attitude surveys in a multinational organization: Considering language and culture in assessing measurement equivalence. Personnel Psychology, 52, 37-58.
72.
Salem, M. A. , & Banner, D. K. (1992). Self-managing work teams: An international perspective. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 13, 3-9.
73.
Scarborough, J. (1998). The origins of cultural differences and their impact on management. Westport, CT: Quorum.
74.
Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
75.
Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications (pp. 85-119). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
76.
Shapiro, D. L. , & Kirkman, B. L. (1999). Employees’ reaction to the change to work teams: The influence of “anticipatory” injustice. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12, 51-66.
77.
Sison, A. J. G. , & Palma-Angeles, A. (1997). Business ethics in the Philippines. Journal of Business Ethics, 16, 1519-1528.
78.
Smith, P. B. , & Bond, M. H. (1999). Social psychology across cultures. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
79.
Smith, P. B. , Dugan, S., & Trompenaars, F. (1996). National culture and the values of organizational employees. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 231-264.
80.
Smith, P. B. , & Schwartz, S. H. (1997). Values. In J. W. Berry, M. H. Segall, & C. Kagitcibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 3). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
81.
Sommer, S. M. , Bae, S., & Luthans, F. (1996). Organizational commitment across cultures: The impact of antecedents on Korean employees. Human Relations, 49, 977-993.
82.
Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442-1465.
83.
Strebel, P. (1996). Why do employees resist change?Harvard Business Review, 74, 86-92.
84.
Thomas, D. C. (1999). Cultural diversity and work group effectiveness: An experimental study. Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 30, 242-263.
85.
Tornblom, K. Y. , Jonssons, D., & Foa, U. G. (1985). Nationality, resources, class and preferences among three allocation rules: Sweden and U.S.A. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 9, 51-77.
86.
Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
87.
Triandis, H. C. , Bontempo, R., Villareal, M. J., Asai, M., & Lucca, N. (1988). Individualism and collectivism: Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 323-338.
88.
Triandis, H. C. , Leung, K., Villareal, M., & Clack, F. L. (1985). Allocentric vs. idiocentric tendencies: Convergent and discriminant validation. Journal of Research in Personality, 19, 395-415.
89.
Trist, E. L. , Susman, G. I., & Brown, G. R. (1977). An experiment in autonomous working in an American underground coal mine. Human Relations, 30, 201-236.
90.
Trompenaars, F. (1993). Riding the waves of culture: Understanding cultural diversity in business. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.
91.
Tsui, A. S. , & Ashford, S. J. (1994). Adaptive self-regulation: A process view of managerial effectiveness. Journal of Management, 20, 93-121.
92.
Wagner, J. A. (1995). Studies of individualism-collectivism: Effects on cooperation in groups. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 152-172.
93.
Wagner, J. A. , & Moch, M. K. (1986). Individualism-collectivism: Concept and measure. Group and Organization Studies, 11, 280-304.
94.
Wall, T. D. , Kemp, N. J., Jackson, P. R., & Clegg, C. W. (1986). Outcomes of autonomous workgroups: A long-term field experiment. Academy of Management Journal, 29, 280-304.
95.
Wellins, R. S. , Byham, W., & Wilson, J. (1991). Empowered teams: Creating self-directed work groups that improve quality, productivity, and participation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
96.
Wellins, R. S. , Wilson, R., Katz, A. J., Laughlin, P., Day Jr., C. R., & Price, D. (1990). Self-directed teams: A study of current practice. Pittsburgh, PA: Development Dimensions International.
97.
Zaltman, G. , & Duncan, R. (1977). Strategies for planned change. New York: Wiley.
