The Impact of Societal Culture on the Use of Performance Strategies in East Asia: Evidence from a comparative survey

The role of societal culture affecting bureaucratic processes is often suspected and asserted, but seldom researched in comparative ways. This article provides a general framework and systematic, comparative evidence showing societal values permeating organizational practices relating to performance. This study examines effects of work ethic, group belonging, and followership in a survey of public managers in South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, and the United States. Results show (i) culture having foremost indirect effects on performance strategy and (ii) culture being as relevant an explanatory factor as HRM or leadership, when both direct and indirect effects of culture are considered. A key study implication is that researchers should not ignore societal culture in decisions surrounding the selection and implementation of management efforts and conditions that shape performance practice in organizations. This study contributes by providing a framework and evidence showing how culture’s effects on performance occur.