Culture, Work, and the Self

Abstract

This chapter reviews research on culture and the self in social psychology, highlighting seminal research on culture and cognition, motivation, and emotion. It discusses the evolution of research on culture and self in industrial organizational (IO) psychology in the areas of motivation, leadership, negotiation, organizational justice, and teams. The chapter explores how research on culture and the self in social psychology influenced the development of research in IO psychology and how research in IO psychology considerably expanded research on culture and the self in social psychology to other levels of analysis and contexts. The self mediates the relationship between HR practices and work behavior, helping to explain why employees in Japan and Germany might respond differently to certain motivational techniques. The chapter deals with new directions that both fields inspire for the future. Yet individuals with interdependent self-construal are less concerned with self-consistency, given the importance of context and maintaining social harmony.