Individualism/Collectivism and Attitudes towards Human Resource Systems: A Comparative Study of American, Irish, and Indian MBA Students

Abstract

In this study, we collected data from one-hundred-and eight MBA Students from the USA, Ireland, and India on their individualism/collectivism (IC) orientations and their preferences for human resource management (HRM)practices. Countrary to expectations, the Indian sample tended to be more individualistic than the American or Irish sample. While there were no differences on the preferences for progressive HRM practices across sample, the Americans exhibited a greater preference for paternalistic practices than the Indians and the Irish. Further, the Americans also showed a greater preference for quality in rewards than the Irish and fairness in appraisals/rewards than the Indians. At the individual level, controling for nationality, age, and gender, a higher individualism on the supermacy of group goals and self-reliance dimensions were positevly related to progressive HRM practices. A higher individualism on supremacy of group goals was also positively related to procedural fairness in appraisals/rewards and negatively related to paternalistic HRM practices. A higher preference to work alone was negatively related to progressive HRM practices. Further a higher indvidualism on supermacy of group interest dimension was negatively related to progressive HRM practices and positively related to paternalistic HRM practices. Implications are discussed.