Personal investment in Japan and the U.S.A.: A study of worker motivation,

The Inventory of Personal Investment (IPI) was administered to 522 Japanese and 746 American workers to compare their work motivation and self-concepts. Eleven subscales were formed based on the IPI model and were found through factor analysis to be appropriate for the samples in both countries. Discriminant analyses of scale scores by subjects' nationality, gender, occupational strata, and age are reported. Findings included: (1) Japanese and American workers sampled emphasized different aspects of meaning as they perceive work and self, (2) Japanese and American women sampled exhibited similar profiles to one another, as did the two male subsamples, and (3) motivational profiles for various age groupings differed between the two samples. The results are related to previous research on Japanese and American workers.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30299/1/0000701.pd

Psychological attachment to the group: Cross-cultural differences in organizational identification and subjective norms as predictors of workers' turnover intentions

Two studies wed the theory of reasoned action, social identity theory, and Ashforth and Mael's work on organizational identification to predict turnover intentions in Japanese and British commercial and academic organizations. In both studies and in both countries, the authors expected and found that identification with the organization substantially and significantly predicted turnover intentions. Attitudes predicted intentions only in Study 2, and subjective norms significantly predicted intentions across both studies. The authors hypothesized that subjective norms would be a significantly stronger predictor of turnover intentions in a collectivist setting. This prediction was supported. Although social identity is strongly associated with turnover intentions across both cultures, the subjective normative aspects of group membership are significantly more strongly associated in the Japanese organizations

Self-Construal and Concerns Elicited by Imagined and Real Health Problems 1

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74826/1/j.1559-1816.2007.00283.x.pd

Boundary work: An interpretive ethnographic perspective on negotiating and leveraging cross-cultural identity

The complexity of global organizations highlights the importance of members’ ability to span diverse boundaries that may be defined by organization structures, national borders, and/or a variety of cultures associated with organization, nation-based societal and work cultures, industries, and/or professions. Based on ethnographic research in a Japan–US binational firm, the paper describes and analyzes the boundary role performance of the firm\u27s Japanese members. It contributes toward theory on boundary spanning by introducing a “cultural identity negotiation” conceptual framework. We show boundary spanning as a process shaped through the interplay of the contextual issues that make a boundary problematic; an individual\u27s multiple repertoires of cultural knowledge; and the individual boundary spanner\u27s “negotiation”, through interaction with others, of his/her cultural identities – the sense of “who I am” as a cultural being that is fundamental to an individual\u27s self-concept. At the same time, we make transparent the epistemological and methodological foundations of an interpretive ethnographic approach, demonstrating its value for understanding complex organizational processes. Research findings have practical implications for the selection and training of an organization\u27s employees, particularly of persons who may be considered “bicultural”

Early Social Cognition: Alternatives to Implicit Mindreading

According to the BD-model of mindreading, we primarily understand others in terms of beliefs and desires. In this article we review a number of objections against explicit versions of the BD-model, and discuss the prospects of using its implicit counterpart as an explanatory model of early emerging socio-cognitive abilities. Focusing on recent findings on so-called ‘implicit’ false belief understanding, we put forward a number of considerations against the adoption of an implicit BD-model. Finally, we explore a different way to make sense of implicit false belief understanding in terms of keeping track of affordances

A Culturally Nuanced Test of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s ‘‘General Theory’’: Dimensionality and Generalizability in Japan and the United States

The current research addresses two specific issues that direct attention to the relatively neglected topic of the cross-cultural applicability of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s ‘‘general theory’’ that has been developed in and tested primarily in the United States. With theoretical and empirical guidance from the literature on dimensionality of low self-control, we first predict that the six elements identified in the theory form a multidimensional latent construct in two diverse societies—Japan and the United States. Drawing on the literature concerning cultural variability in individualism, and inconsistent with self-control theory, the authors then expect that although low self-control leads to deviance in both societies, the causal relationship is stronger among Americans than among Japanese. Analysis of identical survey data collected simultaneously from college students in Japan and the United States provides somewhat mixed support for our expectations and the findings appear largely consistent with predictions by self-control theory.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline