The management of people across cultures: Valuing people differently

Abstract Ethnocentric and parochial human resource systems have been called into question as obstacles to globalization. This is addressed here by examining the way value is attached to people in organizations across cultures. Western managers and HR practitioners who work with affiliates in non‐Western emerging countries should particularly be aware of differences in “locus of human value.” Policies and practices developed in the West along instrumental lines see people primarily as a means to an end. This may be directly opposed to a humanistic view of human value that sees people as having a value in themselves. To provide support for these assumptions, an exploratory study across seven nations was carried out. Its findings indicate potentially important implications for global HRM policies and practices. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.