| Author: | Leung, Kai-yuen Kelvin |
| Title: | To seek or not to seek : how do cultural oreintations [i.e. orientations] of individuals affect their proactive feedback-seeking behaviour? |
| Other Title: | To seek or not to seek : how do cultural orientations of individuals affect their proactive feedback-seeking behaviour? |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Employee motivation -- Cross-cultural studies Organizational behavior -- Cross-cultural studies. Feedback (Psychology) -- Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural orientation |
| Department: | Graduate School of Business |
| Pages: | 147 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Different cultures appear to lead to different frequencies of proactive feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB), as evidenced by a number of studies. Earley and Stubblebine (1989) found that a group of English production workers (with relatively higher power distance and lower uncertainty avoidance orientations) are likely to seek more feedback than a group of American production workers (with lower power distance and higher uncertainty avoidance orientations). Bailey, Chen, and Dou (1997) found that American respondents (more individualistic) have higher levels of desire for performance feedback and took more initiative to seek individual performance feedback compared with Japanese respondents (more collectivistic). Both Japanese and Chinese respondents (collectivistic) showed higher levels of desire for performance feedback, with emphasis on failures (negative FSB), as opposed to American respondents (individualistic). Morrison, Chen, and Salgado (2004) compared the frequency of seeking performance feedback of two groups of newcomers from the United States (more individualistic and lower power distance) and Hong Kong. Individuals with higher individualism and higher power distance (status identity) demonstrated higher frequencies of seeking performance feedback than those with higher collectivism and lower power distance. Although cultural orientations may notably influence the frequency of seeking feedback, little is known about the psychological process that governs this association. The tendency of individual employees in a workplace to seek feedback proactively from their direct-reported supervisors is believed to be influenced by the motives and perceived values associated with such behaviours as shown in a number of studies (e.g. Ashford, 1986; Ashford, 1988; Ashford & Cummings, 1983; Fedor, Rensvold & Adams, 1992; VandeWalle & Cummings, 1997; VandeWalle, Ganesan, Challagalla & Brown, 2000). Therefore, cultural orientations may logically influence the perceived values of FSB and frequency of FSB. Specifically, the current research attempts to empirically investigate how the three different cultural orientations of an individual, namely, tolerance for ambiguity, individualism/collectivism, and status identity, may lead to different levels of perceived impression management value and performance value of FSB and, in turn, affect the frequency of both positive and negative FSBs. The study analysis employs 486 samples of supervisor-subordinate dyads collected from the China and Hong Kong offices of DHL Global Forwarding (DGF), the biggest logistics company in the world. The results are as follows: (i) tolerance for ambiguity is positively related to impression management value of FSB; (ii) individualism is positively related to both the performance and impression management value of FSB; (iii) status identity is negatively and positively associated with performance and impression management value of FSB, respectively; (iv) performance value of FSB is positively associated with negative FSB; and (iv) impression management value of FSB is positively related to positive FSB but it is negatively associated with negative FSB. The implications of the findings are also discussed in this paper. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b23942642.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 21.5 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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