Protestant Work Ethic and Worker Productivity in a Mexican Brewery

Abstract

The present study examines the relationship of the Protestant work ethic (PWE) to job satisfaction and productivity in a highly collectivistic culture – Mexico. The sample consists of 100 male workers in a highly traditional Mexican organization – a brewery. The authors hypothesized that PWE endorsement would be related to higher levels of worker motivation, job satisfaction and supervisor’s assessment of work-related productivity. The findings are a striking affirmation that the ‘work ethic’ notion captured by a traditional scale does generalize to other cultural contexts. The average score on the PWE in this sample is substantially lower than the means observed in studies in the US (primarily among college students). Results indicate that those with higher PWE scores tend to gain a greater vote of confidence and respect from their workplace supervisors, which translated into higher assessments of their workplace productivity. In a world becoming more globally and less nationally focused together with the increasing importance of intercultural communications and understandings, our findings have implications for multicultural business organizations.