IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v129y2015icp80-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Egalitarianism makes organizations stronger: Cross-national variation in institutional and psychological equality predicts talent levels and the performance of national teams

Author

Listed:
  • Swaab, Roderick I.
  • Galinsky, Adam D.

Abstract

The current research examined whether cross-national variation in egalitarianism predicts talent levels and organizational performance. We propose that national variation in egalitarianism predicts country-level talent because egalitarianism influences policymaking at the institutional level and everyday social interactions at the psychological level. We compared the relative impact of institutional and psychological measures of equality using the context of international performance in the most popular worldwide sport – football (soccer). Both institutional and psychological measures of equality were associated with greater national team performance. Egalitarian countries also had higher talent levels, which mediated the link between egalitarianism and performance. Furthermore, psychological equality mediated the effects of institutional equality on performance: Countries with greater institutional equality had better performing national teams because they psychologically endorsed egalitarianism. Overall, the findings support a serial mediation model: institutional equality→psychological equality→top talent levels→performance. Importantly, psychological equality at Time 1 predicted the performance of national football teams at Time 2 more than a decade later. All of these effects held when controlling for a host of country-level variables. The forces of equality appear to be a critical driver of talent levels and ultimately performance. These findings demonstrate that both institutional practices and normative systems help determine talent levels and have important implications for organizational performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Swaab, Roderick I. & Galinsky, Adam D., 2015. "Egalitarianism makes organizations stronger: Cross-national variation in institutional and psychological equality predicts talent levels and the performance of national teams," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 80-92.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:129:y:2015:i:c:p:80-92
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074959781400034X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holzer, Harry J, 1987. "Informal Job Search and Black Youth Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 446-452, June.
    2. Marmaros, David & Sacerdote, Bruce, 2002. "Peer and social networks in job search," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 870-879, May.
    3. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Determinants of Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 158-183, December.
    4. Guido Tabellini, 2008. "Presidential Address Institutions and Culture," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(2-3), pages 255-294, 04-05.
    5. Robert Hoffmann & Lee Chew Ging & Bala Ramasamy, 2002. "The Socio-Economic Determinants of International Soccer Performance," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 5, pages 253-272, November.
    6. Ned Kock & Lebrian Gaskins, 2014. "The Mediating Role of Voice and Accountability in the Relationship Between Internet Diffusion and Government Corruption in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 23-43, January.
    7. Erez, Miriam & Nouri, Rikki, 2010. "Creativity: The Influence of Cultural, Social, and Work Contexts," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 351-370, November.
    8. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "A Market Test for Discrimination in the English Professional Soccer Leagues," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 6, pages 136-150, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    10. Yannis M. Ioannides & Linda Datcher Loury, 2004. "Job Information Networks, Neighborhood Effects, and Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1056-1093, December.
    11. Siegel, Jordan I. & Licht, Amir N. & Schwartz, Shalom H., 2011. "Egalitarianism and international investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 621-642.
    12. Morris, Michael W. & Leung, Kwok, 2010. "Creativity East and West: Perspectives and Parallels," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 313-327, November.
    13. Isham, Jonathan & Kaufmann, Daniel & Pritchett, Lant H, 1997. "Civil Liberties, Democracy, and the Performance of Government Projects," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 219-242, May.
    14. Globerman, Steven & Shapiro, Daniel, 2002. "Global Foreign Direct Investment Flows: The Role of Governance Infrastructure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1899-1919, November.
    15. Per Fredriksson & Eric Neumayer & Gergely Ujhelyi, 2007. "Kyoto Protocol cooperation: Does government corruption facilitate environmental lobbying?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 231-251, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Morris, Michael W. & Hong, Ying-yi & Chiu, Chi-yue & Liu, Zhi, 2015. "Normology: Integrating insights about social norms to understand cultural dynamics," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Şahin, Faruk & Taras, Vas & Çetin, Fatih & Tavoletti, Ernesto & Askun, Duysal & Florea, Liviu, 2024. "A configurational approach for analyzing cultural values and performance in Global Virtual Teams," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1).
    3. Lieberman, Alicea & Duke, Kristen E. & Amir, On, 2019. "How incentive framing can harness the power of social norms," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 118-131.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.
    2. Kukharskyy, Bohdan & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Roland, Gerard, 2015. "Culture and Global Sourcing," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113015, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Edward L. Glaeser & David I. Laibson & José A. Scheinkman & Christine L. Soutter, 2000. "Measuring Trust," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 811-846.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Laibson, David I. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Soutter, Christine L., 2000. "Measuring Trust," Scholarly Articles 4481497, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    4. Renée B. Adams & Patricia Funk, 2012. "Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Does Gender Matter?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 219-235, February.
    5. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross & Giorgio Topa, 2008. "Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 1150-1196, December.
    6. Coro Chasco & Maricruz Lacalle-Calderon & Javier Alfonso-Gil, 2021. "Spatial Diffusion of Civil Liberty," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 44(87), pages 146-169.
    7. Vincent Boucher & Marion Gousse, 2019. "Wage Dynamics and Peer Referrals," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 1-23, January.
    8. Linus Siming, 2014. "Your Former Employees Matter: Private Equity Firms and Their Financial Advisors," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(1), pages 109-146.
    9. Breuer, Janice Boucher & McDermott, John, 2013. "Respect, responsibility, and development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 36-47.
    10. Kan, Kamhon, 2007. "Residential mobility and social capital," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 436-457, May.
    11. Vincent Boucher & Marion Gousse, 2019. "Wage Dynamics and Peer Referrals," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 1-23, January.
    12. Xin, Guangyi, 2017. "Social Interaction and Labour Market Outcomes," MPRA Paper 80976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Heineck, Guido & Süssmuth, Bernd, 2013. "A different look at Lenin’s legacy: Social capital and risk taking in the Two Germanies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 789-803.
    14. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    15. Karla Hoff & Mayuresh Kshetramade & Ernst Fehr, 2011. "Caste and Punishment: the Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(556), pages 449-475, November.
    16. Shi, Wei & Tang, Yinuo, 2015. "Cultural similarity as in-group favoritism: The impact of religious and ethnic similarities on alliance formation and announcement returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 32-46.
    17. Maystre, Nicolas & Olivier, Jacques & Thoenig, Mathias & Verdier, Thierry, 2014. "Product-based cultural change: Is the village global?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 212-230.
    18. Andreia Tolciu, 2010. "The Economics of Social Interactions: An Interdisciplinary Ground for Social Scientists?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 223-242, January.
    19. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    20. Shikha Silwal, 2017. "On peace and development economics," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 12(2), pages 5-9, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:129:y:2015:i:c:p:80-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.