IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jintbs/v46y2015i3p332-354.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Involvement work systems and operational effectiveness: Exploring the moderating effect of national power distance

Author

Listed:
  • Yuan Jiang

    (Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China)

  • Saba Colakoglu

    (1] Campbell School of Business, Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia, USA[2] Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey)

  • David P Lepak

    (School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, Piscataway, USA)

  • Joseph R Blasi

    (School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, Piscataway, USA)

  • Douglas L Kruse

    (School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, Piscataway, USA)

Abstract

Work practices that involve employees are generally assumed to be less effective in more hierarchical societies where employees’ values are not aligned with such practices. In this study, we challenge this assumption by developing a theory that differentiates between the symbolic and instrumental aspects of involvement work systems and proposing that their symbolic impact will be more pronounced in egalitarian societies, whereas their instrumental impact will be more pronounced in hierarchical societies. In particular, we draw on the symbolic action perspective and theories on culture to test the relationship between involvement work systems and operational effectiveness by incorporating organizational climate of participation and national cultural differences in power distance. Using multi-source, multilevel data from 260 facilities of a multinational company operating in 22 countries, we found that the mediated relationship between involvement work systems and operational effectiveness through climate of participation (i.e., the symbolic impact) was stronger among facilities located in lower power distance societies. On the other hand, the direct relationship between involvement work systems and operational effectiveness (i.e., the instrumental impact) was stronger in higher power distance societies. Overall, our study resolves a seeming cultural dilemma with regard to how involvement work systems operate cross-culturally.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan Jiang & Saba Colakoglu & David P Lepak & Joseph R Blasi & Douglas L Kruse, 2015. "Involvement work systems and operational effectiveness: Exploring the moderating effect of national power distance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(3), pages 332-354, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:46:y:2015:i:3:p:332-354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v46/n3/pdf/jibs201461a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v46/n3/full/jibs201461a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fascia, Michael, 2019. "WORKING PAPER SERIES: PHILOSOPHY AND KNOWLEDGE: Reflexion on a flexible management method," OSF Preprints 38m2d, Center for Open Science.
    2. Srivastava, Saurabh & Singh, Shiwangi & Dhir, Sanjay, 2020. "Culture and International business research: A review and research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    3. Eroglu, Cuneyt & Hofer, Christian & Hofer, Adriana Rossiter & Hou, Young, 2023. "“Cultural inventories”: How dimensions of national culture moderate the effect of demand unpredictability on firm-level inventories," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    4. Fascia, Michael, 2019. "Working Paper Series: Innovation Enablers," OSF Preprints 39vbq, Center for Open Science.
    5. Estrin, Saul & Meyer, Klaus E. & Nielsen, Bo B. & Nielsen, Sabina, 2016. "Home country institutions and the internationalization of state owned enterprises: A cross-country analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 294-307.
    6. Urtzi Uribetxebarria & Alaine Garmendia & Unai Elorza, 2021. "Does employee participation matter? An empirical study on the effects of participation on well-being and organizational performance," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 29(4), pages 1397-1425, December.
    7. Liou, Ru-Shiun & Chao, Mike Chen-Ho & Yang, Monica, 2016. "Emerging economies and institutional quality: Assessing the differential effects of institutional distances on ownership strategy," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 600-611.
    8. Ali Dastmalchian & Nick Bacon & Nicola McNeil & Claudia Steinke & Paul Blyton & Medha Satish Kumar & Secil Bayraktar & Werner Auer-Rizzi & Ali Ahmad Bodla & Richard Cotton & Tim Craig & Behice Ertenu , 2020. "High-performance work systems and organizational performance across societal cultures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(3), pages 353-388, April.
    9. Dan V. Caprar & Sunghoon Kim & Benjamin W. Walker & Paula Caligiuri, 2022. "Beyond “Doing as the Romans Do”: A review of research on countercultural business practices," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(7), pages 1449-1483, September.
    10. Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos & Bulent Menguc & Ryan Mullins, 2023. "Will you speak up for me? Inducing retail store managers’ engagement with MNCs’ brands across cultures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(7), pages 1222-1255, September.
    11. Shilpa Madan & Krishna Savani & Constantine S. Katsikeas, 2023. "Privacy please: Power distance and people’s responses to data breaches across countries," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(4), pages 731-754, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:jintbs:v:46:y:2015:i:3:p:332-354. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.