A cross‐cultural study of shame, embarrassment, and management sanctions as deterrents to noncompliance with organizational rules

Drawing on an extended deterrence model developed in the study of deviance, we offer a rationale for predicting that Japanese employees, compared to their American counterparts, perceive greater threats of shame, embarrassment, and management sanctions for non‐compliance with organizational rules. Consequently, Japanese workers are less inclined to violate these rules. The results from merged samples of employees in a Japanese and in a U.S. hospital are consistent with these predictions. The lower likelihood of noncompliance among Japanese employees is primarily attributable to their greater perceived threat of shame. We discuss the utility of studying compliance processes in organizations from the perspective of the compliance‐providers ‐ the people who ultimately decide whether or not to abide by the rules. We suggest that control theories in the study of deviance are an important resource for future research.