Organization Culture and Work Values of Global Firms: Merging Eastern and Western Perspectives

Abstract

With growing presence of global firms in India, organizational culture and work values are receiving an increasing research attention. Western firms (e.g., those from USA and Germany) that operate in India are characterized with American and European cultural perspective and global orientation. In view of rapid economic growth over the years, both Japan and Korea have achieved the status of advanced economies through their distinct organizational culture and work values. In contrast, India in general and South India in particular, demonstrate unique organizational and work culture that are based on India’s cultural complexity and vibrant demographic patterns. This research aims to examine organizational culture and work values of global firms from USA and Germany (i.e., Western sense of effectiveness) and those from Japan and Korea (i.e., Confucian work ethics) in the context of India. These global firms operating in India translate their Western and Eastern Perspectives and merge them into Indian work values. Based on literature review, we summarize the findings of organizational culture, work values of these global firms from USA, Japan and Korea. We do the same for organizational culture of Indian firms and work values of Indian people. We then compare environmental contexts, corporate cultural practices and performance outcomes. The research model defines key constructs. Propositions explain how organizational culture and work values develop corresponding work practices and performance goals. These organizational culture and work values practices are further examined from four different cultural perspectives — North America (e.g., USA), European (e.g., Germany), Northeast Asia (e.g., Japan and Korea) and Southeast Asia (e.g., India). Managerial implications and future research issues are discussed.