Dual Perspectives: Immigrants’ Comparisons of Host and Home Countries’ Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic Emphasize the Salience of Cultural Differences

Differing approaches by countries to managing the COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique context to explore how a shock event can prompt novel sensemaking about culture in immigrants as they compare pandemic management strategies implemented by their host country, the United States of America (U.S.), with those of their respective home countries. In this qualitative study, we use thematic analysis to identify patterns in interviews with a diverse sample of 25 U.S.-based immigrant workers in 2020. Results indicate that immigrants differ in the conclusions they draw from their comparison of the U.S. pandemic management with that of their home country. We also observed that the different approaches to managing the pandemic emphasized cultural differences between the U.S. and the respective home countries in terms of individualism/collectivism and open confrontation when disagreeing, power distance and egalitarian leadership, and uncertainty avoidance and consensual decision-making. Overall, with this chapter, we aim to integrate the experiences of U.S.-based immigrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic into the management literature and we suggest new research questions for researchers in this area for exploring the role of cultural differences on workplace outcomes based on a sensemaking perspective beyond the context of the pandemic.