Cross Cultural Variables: Evaluating Employee Attitudes Across Four Regions Of Asia, Europe, North And Latin America

There has been an explosion of businesses moving operations overseas, setting up international joint ventures and establishing multinational enterprises. This trend has led organizational researchers as well as corporations to explore the implications of cultural differences in managing a workforce. Can the same Western management practices be used as effectively with employees in Asia as in North America? Does the application of Western management principles in multinationals affect aspects of job satisfaction in non-Western countries? This poster reports the findings from two exploratory analyses on the relationship between job attitudes and the geographic/cultural setting of business organizations. The first analysis is an overview of the levels and correlates of job satisfaction in four regions, North America, East Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and in nine countries of East Asia – China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand. The second analysis uses 2002 survey data from three large multinational companies, in financial services, manufacturing, and oil & gas production, to examine the relative importance of top and immediate management, recognition, teamwork, salary and pay, and other employee attitudes for overall job satisfaction across these four regions. The research suggests that it is advisable for multinational companies to examine differences in employee views geographically to gain an understanding of attitudes and influences on occupational satisfaction in each of the countries they are involved in

The Glass Cage: The Gender Pay Gap and Self-Employment in the United States

Self-employment is often viewed as a more desirable work arrangement than working as an employee for a firm. Women are pushed into self-employment due to organizational factors, such as a shrinking workforce or limited job opportunities, while being attracted to self-employment by the many psychological and social benefits (e.g., independence, flexibility, work-life balance, job satisfaction). Despite more women moving into self-employment, this type of employment still has different financial consequences for men and women. This article investigates whether a pay gap exists for self-employed women after controlling for industry, occupation, and hours worked and seeks to quantify the gender wage gap for the self-employed. A sample of 467 self-employed independent contractors in the United States was examined from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce. The results indicate a large financial disparity between self-employed women and men. On average men earned $54,959 as compared to women who earned on average$28,554. Regardless of the parity in education, work experience, number of hours worked, or occupations, women earn less than men in self-employment. Findings suggest the existence of the glass cage—a phenomenon whereby self-employed women earn significantly less than self-employed men with limited abilities to narrow the economic inequality