National Culture and the Preference for Wagement Controis an Exploratory Study of the Firm-labor Market Interface*

This study uses Hoi%tede’staxonomy of work-refated mtionaf cultural dimensions to analyze preferences for specitic management controfs at the interface between the organization and the external labor markeL Four experiments were conducted with samples of last-semester Japanese and U.S. MBA students. Most of the resufts did not provide support fir the four hypotheses. These tirtdingsare used as the basis for suggesting potentiat directions for fhture empiricat refinements and theory construction. With the accelerating globalization of business, the extent to which any particular management control can be effectively used in different countries has become an increasingly important issue. This issue has arisen because much evidence exists that people from different countries have diverse work-related national cultures (Adler et al, 1986; Hofktede, 1980, 199 1; Kagitcibasi & Berry, 1989; Laurent, 1983), and that people of di.tTerent cultural origins have ditTerent attitudes toward, or reactions to, the same management controls (Bimberg & Snodgrass, 1988; Chow et al., 199 lb; Daley et a~, 1985; Harrison, 1992; Horovitz, 1980; Kreder & Zeller, 1988). These cultural differences suggest that management controls which are effective in one country may be ineffective, or even dysfunctional, in another. Such crosscultura.1 dtierences can arise both internally (e.g. by affecting the work-related behavior of a given set of employees) and at the interface between the organization and the external labor market (e.g. attracting and retaining employees ). A large number of empirical studies have examined relationships between mtional culture and various aspects of management (e.g. longrange planning, strategic decision making). However, only a few have specifically focused on the relation between national culture and employees’ attitudes toward, or reactions to, “ The authors are indebted to Takayuki Asada (Tsukuba University) for his help in data collection, and to Jake Birnber& Steve Kachelmeier, ,MarkYoung and two anonymous reviewers for providing us with many helpfid comments. h earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1992 University of New South Wafes Management Accounting Research