Cross-Cultural Research recent issues

Workaholism From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Snir, R., Harpaz, I. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Cross-Cultural Differences Concerning Heavy Work Investment

Snir, R., Harpaz, I. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

The study makes a cross-cultural comparison of heavy work investment, as well as its dispositional and situational types, based on data gathered through representative national samples of the adult population in twenty countries (N = 25,962). We have found that work investment is heavier in societies where survival values are important, as compared to societies where self-expression values are important. Situational heavy work investors are more common in societies where survival values are important, as compared to societies where self-expression values are important. However, work-devoted persons are more common in societies where self-expression values are important, as compared to societies where survival values are important. It was also found that work investment is heavier in societies where mastery value is high, as compared to societies where mastery value is low. Dispositional heavy work investors are more common in societies where mastery value is high, as compared to societies where mastery value is low. Finally, it was found that men work more hours per week as compared to women in both masculine and feminine societies. However, the gender difference concerning time investment at work is greater in masculine societies, as compared to feminine societies. Dispositional heavy work investors are more common among men in masculine societies, than among men in feminine societies. The fact that the magnitude of work investment and the prevalence of its types vary in different cultural contexts demonstrate the importance of differentiating between types of heavy work investment; namely, realizing that not every heavy work investor is a workaholic.

Being Driven to Work Excessively Hard: The Evaluation of a Two-Factor Measure of Workaholism in The Netherlands and Japan

Schaufeli, W. B., Shimazu, A., Taris, T. W. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Based on a conceptual analysis, a two-dimensional self-report questionnaire for assessing workaholism (work addiction) is proposed, including (1) working excessively hard and (2) working compulsively. Using independent explorative and confirmative samples that include employees from The Netherlands (N = 7,594) and Japan ( N = 3,311), a questionnaire is developed and psychometrically evaluated. Results show that both scales (five items each) are internally consistent and that the hypothesized two-factor structure fits to the data of both countries. Furthermore, convergent validity was shown with measures of excess working time and discriminant validity was shown with measures of burnout and work engagement. Workaholics who work excessively hard and compulsively have a high relative risk on burnout and a low relative risk on work engagement. It is concluded that the two-dimensional measure—dubbed the Dutch Workaholism Scale (DUWAS)—is useful tool in future (cross-cultural) research on workaholism.

Work Motivations, Satisfactions, and Health Among Managers: Passion Versus Addiction

Burke, R. J., Fiksenbaum, L. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Individuals in managerial and professional jobs are now working longer hours for a variety of reasons. Building on previous research on workaholism and on types of passion, the results of an exploratory study of correlates of work-based passion and addiction are presented. Data were collected from 530 Canadian managers and professionals, MBA graduates of a single university, using anonymously completed questionnaires. The following results were noted. First, scores on passion and addiction were significantly and positively correlated. Second, managers scoring higher on passion and on addiction were both more heavily invested in their work. Third, managers scoring higher on passion also indicated less obsessive job behaviors, greater work and extrawork satisfactions, and higher levels of psychological well-being. Fourth, managers scoring higher on addiction indicated more obsessive job behaviors, lower work and extrawork satisfactions, and lower levels of psychological well-being. Fifth, managers scoring higher on addiction saw their world in dog-eat-dog terms and their organizational cultures as less supportive of work—personal life balance; this pattern was in the opposite direction among managers scoring higher on passion.

Centrality of and Investment in Work and Family Among Israeli High-Tech Workers: A Bicultural Perspective

Snir, R., Harpaz, I., Ben-Baruch, D. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Workers’ attitudes concerning the competition for individual’s resources between work and family are expressed by the relative centrality they attribute to each of these domains. This competition is also manifested in the tradeoff between work and family time. The study deals with 319 Israeli high-tech workers. We examined the effect of parenthood on men and on women regarding the centrality of and investment in work and family in the bicultural context of the Israeli high-tech industry (i.e., the family-centered Israeli society on the one hand, and the masculine work-centered high-tech industry on the other hand). A contrasting parenthood effect on men and women was found. Fathers showed higher relative work centrality than childless men, whereas mothers showed lower relative work centrality than women without children. Fathers invested more weekly hours in paid work than childless men, whereas mothers invested fewer weekly hours in paid work than women without children. In the parents’ sub-sample, mothers evinced higher relative family centrality than fathers. Mothers also invested more weekly hours in childcare and core housework tasks than fathers. The uniqueness of the findings is that the contrasting parenthood effect prevails even in the demanding high-tech sector, in which women are expected to work long hours and play down their care-giving activities. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that mothers struggled to juggle active family caring with a career, rather than give up either of them. We also found that mothers invested more weekly hours in work in general (paid and unpaid work) than fathers.

The National Context Effect: An Empirical Test of the Validity of Cross-National Research Using Unrepresentative Samples

Straus, M. A. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:26:01 PDT

The objective of this study was to investigate whether results from cross-national studies using convenience samples which are not representative of the nation can provide valid cross-national comparisons. Analysis of data from the International Dating Violence Study (IDVS) of university students in 32 nations (n = 17,404) enabled 18 tests of concurrent validity and found an average correlation of .51 between variables measured by the IDVS measured and by nationally representative samples. Construct validity was also supported by 41 empirical tests. The concept of national context effects explains how samples that are not nationally representative can provide valid nation-to-nation differences. It was concluded that convenience samples that are not representative of the nation but are comparable across nations can provide valid tests of theories about differences between nations. Consequently, if a study can only be done using convenience samples, that should not deter proceeding.

Multiple Imputation of Missing Data in Cross-Cultural Samples

Dow, M. M., Eff, E. A. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:26:01 PDT

Listwise deletion of cases with missing data prior to statistical analysis, the approach overwhelmingly used by cross-cultural survey researchers, requires the assumption that the missing data are missing completely at random. This assumption is not often likely to hold for cross-cultural sample data, and when it fails statistical analysis based only on complete-case subsamples introduces the possibility of biased estimates and standard errors. Over the past 20 or so years statisticians have made major advances in specifying the conditions under which missing data can be ignored when making inferences based on incomplete data. We review these conditions since they have a direct bearing on when the usual approaches to dealing with missing cross-cultural survey data are invalid.

Nations With More Dialectical Selves Exhibit Lower Polarization in Life Quality Judgments and Social Opinions

Minkov, M. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:26:01 PDT

This study shows that nations whose members are less likely to dissociate pleasant and unpleasant emotions (an established measure of individual-level dialecticism) are also less likely to exhibit strong and polarized quality judgments (very good vs. very bad) in life appraisals or in assessments of current domestic social issues as measured by the 2007 Pew Research Center survey in 47 nations. Middle Eastern Arab societies are characterized by the highest polarization in their answer patterns, while East and South East Asia are at the opposite extreme. It is suggested that pastoralism may have promoted the adoption of a strong stance in communication styles, resulting in stronger polarization, whereas rice cultivation may have encouraged the expression of moderate statements.

Personality, Health, and Coping: A Cross-National Study

Shyh Shin Wong, , Boon Ooi Lee, , Ang, R. P., Oei, T. P. S., Aik Kwang Ng, — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:26:01 PDT

This study explored group and relational differences in personality, health, and coping across 189 Australian students and 243 Singaporean students. Life Orientation Test—Revised showed a one-factor structure for Australians but a two-factor structure for Singaporeans. Australians tended to be more agreeable, more conscientious, more optimistic, more satisfied with their lives, while Singaporeans tended to be more neurotic and more pessimistic. Singaporeans tended to utilize less frequent adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. Neuroticism was a significant predictor for state-trait anxiety and stress, while unipolar optimism was a significant predictor for life satisfaction and unipolar pessimism was a significant predictor for trait anxiety for both samples. Bipolar optimism was a significant predictor for trait anxiety and life satisfaction for both samples whereas it was a significant predictor for state anxiety for the Singaporean sample. Optimists, pessimists, and neurotics in both samples tended to use different coping strategies. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Divorce Attitudes Around the World: Distinguishing the Impact of Culture on Evaluations and Attitude Structure

Toth, K., Kemmelmeier, M. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:26:01 PDT

This article examines the link between culture and divorce attitudes using country-level data of the International Social Survey Programme 1994. Outside of examining the favorability of attitudes, we distinguish different types of attitudes based on whether the consequences of marital dissolution on children were considered when evaluating the acceptability of divorce. Testing competing hypotheses derived from attitude research and cross-cultural psychology, we demonstrate that (a) individualist societies exhibit more favorable divorce attitudes than collectivist societies but that (b) there is a curvilinear relationship between culture and type of divorce attitude, such that highly individualist and highly collectivist societies are similar with regard to the structure of prevailing divorce attitudes. The discussion focuses on the broader meanings of endorsing certain types of divorce attitudes in individualist and collectivist cultures.

Analogical Reasoning and the Content of Creation Stories: Quantitative Comparisons of Preindustrial Societies

Moor, N., Ultee, W., Need, A. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:11:06 PDT

A long-standing question in sociology concerns preindustrial societies and the relationship between their subsistence technology and ideas about god. This article proposes a shift from questions regarding gods who now and then create to questions about creations that sometimes involve a god. For preindustrial societies, it addresses the relation between their subsistence technology and the content of their creation stories. This article's answer combines Hume's general hypothesis that people reason by analogy with Topitsch's specification that invokes vital, technical, and social analogies. This conjunction yields concrete hypotheses about the substance of creation stories in societies with varying levels of subsistence technology according to Lenski's typology. To test these hypotheses, the authors used Murdock's Standard Cross-Cultural Sample and the Human Relations Area Files. Field reports were coded for 116 preindustrial societies. The findings show that people use different thought models to explain the unknown, depending on the society's level of subsistence technology.

Warm Climates and Sonority Classes: Not Simply More Vowels and Fewer Consonants

Munroe, R. L., Fought, J. G., Macaulay, R. K. S. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:11:06 PDT

Previous research has shown that speakers in warm-climate languages make use of relatively more vowels, and speakers in cold-climate languages relatively more consonants. The high sonority (audibility) of the vowel, and its adaptive value under certain conditions, have been invoked to account for its greater frequency in warmer climates. We show here, however, that the above generalization is over-broad, and that sound classes vary across climate zones in complex ways. One new finding is that speakers in warm-climate languages make more use of the so-called "sonorant" consonants, that is, consonants with some of the qualities of vowels. We offer a provisional framework that continues to find value in the concept of sonority and its relation to climate, but attempts to incorporate the new results and provide a more comprehensive explanation.

Cultural Trait Transmission and Missing Data as Sources of Bias in Cross-Cultural Survey Research: Explanations of Polygyny Re-examined

Dow, M. M., Eff, E. A. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:11:06 PDT

Ember, Ember, and Low (2007) recently reported male mortality in warfare and environmental pathogen stress as statistically significant predictors of nonsororal polygyny. Two sources of bias can be identified in their data analysis: 1) omitted variable bias due to not including a variable for cultural trait transmission, that is, Galton's Problem; and 2) bias caused by extensive deletion of cases when the basic assumption required by listwise deletion, that the missing data are missing completely at random, does not hold. We first re-estimated Ember et al.'s model after adding a trait transmission variable using the listwise deletion subsample, and then again after using contemporary multiple imputation procedures to deal with missing data. Our findings indicate that the significant effects reported for male mortality and pathogen stress are the result of these two sources of bias. The only significant predictor of the world-wide distribution of nonsororal polygyny in the current analyses is cultural trait transmission.

Predictors of Differences in Subjective Well-Being Across 97 Nations

Minkov, M. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:11:06 PDT

This study analyzes national differences in various facets of subjective well-being as measured by the World Values Survey, including the most recent wave (2005-2007), across a sample of 97 nations. The main predictor of the cognitive facet (life satisfaction) is a perception of life control, followed by wealth. The hedonic facet (happiness) is explained by a syndrome of correlated variables: perceived life control, high importance of leisure, and low importance of thrift. It is proposed that this syndrome is stronger in societies that do not have a powerful cultural legacy of highly intensive agriculture. The negative pole of the hedonic facet (unhappiness) seems to be related mostly to poverty and a perception of low life control (helplessness), plus various situational factors.

Risk-Taking Reproductive Competition Explains National Murder Rates Better Than Socioeconomic Inequality

Minkov, M. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:42:27 PST

This article presents evidence that national murder rates are not well explained as a function of socioeconomic inequality; risk-taking reproductive competition (RTRC) provides a better explanation. RTRC is a single nation-level dimension, measurable through national road death tolls, adolescent fertility rates, and Gini coefficients (thus, socioeconomic inequality is just one facet of it). RTRC explains 50% of the variance in national differences in murder rates— far more than Gini coefficients alone. RTRC correlates highly with national values that explicitly reflect full approval of interpersonal competition as well as perceptions of full life control (being free to act as one pleases). Respondents from societies that score higher on RTRC tend to perceive their fellow citizens as more emotional, impulsive, and lacking deliberation. The author discusses the origins of the national differences in RTRC and he proposes that high-scoring countries do not have a long history of intensive agriculture.

A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Aggressiveness in the Workplace: A Comparison Between Jews and Arabs in Israel

Galin, A., Avraham, S. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:42:27 PST

The study aimed to investigate whether employees' ethnic culture affects their organizational aggression toward their managers. The authors compared aggression toward managers in two samples of Israeli employees—Jews who are low collectivists and Arabs who are high collectivists. The study's sample was composed of 160 employees in 19 community centers—80 Israeli Jews and 80 Israeli Arabs. Results indicate that ethnic group is the major predictor of employees' aggressive behavior, whereas gender predicts aggression within each ethnic group. Furthermore, a significant distinction in the use of direct and indirect aggression was found between the two ethnic groups. Theories of power distance, cultural communication patterns, and comparative analysis of emotion expressions offer possible explanations for these results.

The Influence of Length of Stay, Linguistic Competence, and Media Exposure in Immigrants' Adaptation

Miglietta, A., Tartaglia, S. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:42:27 PST

Empirical evidence shows that immigrants adapt best in relation to their ability to negotiate between the cultural entities they confront. Factors such as cultural knowledge, length of stay in the new culture, and linguistic competence strongly influence this process. Length of stay and linguistic competence may be essential for cultural knowledge acquisition that, in turn, may be enhanced by mass media consumption. A questionnaire is completed by 576 immigrants (196 Romanians, 179 North Africans, and 201 Latino Americans) investigating time spent in Italy, proficiency in the Italian language, familiarity with Italian and homeland mass media, and acculturation. The authors hypothesize that language plays a central role in the acculturation process and assume that length of stay influences acculturation mostly through linguistic competence and mass media knowledge. A structural equation model is tested to verify the hypothesis. The model results are acceptable, invariant across genders, and partially invariant across ethno-cultural groups.

Cultural Adaptations After Progressionism

McCall, L. W. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:42:27 PST

How should behavioral scientists interpret apparently progressive stages of cultural history? Adaptive progress in biology is thought to only occur locally, relative to local conditions. Just as evolutionary theory offers physical anthropologists an appreciation of global human diversity through local adaptation, so the metaphor of adaptation offers behavioral scientists an appreciation of cultural diversity through analogous mechanisms. Analyses reported here test for cultural adaptation in both biotic and abiotic environments. Testing cultural adaptation to the human-made environment, the culture's pre-existing technical complexity is shown to be a predictive factor. Then testing cultural adaptation to the physical environment, this article corroborates Divale's (1999) finding that counting systems are adaptations to unstable environments, and expands the model to include other environmental indices and cultural traits. Interpreting divergent and convergent behaviors as due to differences and similarities of local environments represents an enlightened, post-progressionist research program for the investigation of cultural adaptations.