National Culture on Knowledge Sharing in the U.S. and China

Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Chang ◽  
Ping-Yu Hsu ◽  
Wen-Lung Shiau

A major challenge for multinational companies is how to motivate employees with different individual cultural characteristics and national cultures to share knowledge. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of individual and national cultures on knowledge sharing. Individual cultural characteristics are incorporated into the model as antecedents of knowledge-sharing motivations (organizational rewards, image, and reciprocal benefits). National cultural differences are examined by conducting studies with subjects in the U.S. and China. The results show that power distance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits in the U.S. but not in China. Individualism/collectivism is related to organizational rewards and image in the U.S. but not in China, while individualism/collectivism is significantly related to reciprocal benefits in China but not in the U.S. Uncertainty avoidance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits in the U.S. but not in China. This study provides knowledge-sharing practices and management implications for multinational companies.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Chang ◽  
Ping-Yu Hsu ◽  
Wen-Lung Shiau ◽  
Yun-Shan Cheng

A major challenge for multinational companies is to motivate employees with different individual cultural characteristics and national cultures to share knowledge. Although comparative studies across different countries have been conducted, little is known about the effects of individual cultural differences in this context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of individual and national cultures in knowledge sharing. The individual cultural characteristics of power distance, individualism/collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance are incorporated into the model as antecedents of knowledge-sharing motivations (organizational rewards, image, and reciprocal benefits). National cultural differences are examined by subjects conducted in the U.S. and China. Results show that power distance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. Individualism/collectivism is related to organizational rewards and image for the U.S. but not for China, while individualism/collectivism is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for China but not for the U.S. Uncertainty avoidance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. This study provides knowledge-sharing practices and managements for multinational companies attempting to motivate U.S. and Chinese employees to share knowledge.


Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Chang ◽  
Ping-Yu Hsu ◽  
Wen-Lung Shiau ◽  
Yun-Shan Cheng

A major challenge for multinational companies is to motivate employees with different individual cultural characteristics and national cultures to share knowledge. Although comparative studies across different countries have been conducted, little is known about the effects of individual cultural differences in this context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of individual and national cultures in knowledge sharing. The individual cultural characteristics of power distance, individualism/collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance are incorporated into the model as antecedents of knowledge-sharing motivations (organizational rewards, image, and reciprocal benefits). National cultural differences are examined by subjects conducted in the U.S. and China. Results show that power distance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. Individualism/collectivism is related to organizational rewards and image for the U.S. but not for China, while individualism/collectivism is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for China but not for the U.S. Uncertainty avoidance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. This study provides knowledge-sharing practices and managements for multinational companies attempting to motivate U.S. and Chinese employees to share knowledge.


Author(s):  
David Gefen ◽  
Tsipi Heart

Trust and trust beliefs (trustworthiness) are key to e-commerce success but depend, to a large extent, on culture. With e-commerce being an international phenomenon, understanding the cross-cultural aspects of trust creation is therefore arguably required although mostly ignored by current research which deals almost exclusively with the U.S. This exploratory study examines whether definitions of trust beliefs as conceptualized and verified in the U.S. apply in Israel which differs markedly in individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance. The data, crossvalidating the scale of trust and its antecedents in both cultures, generally support the proposition that trust beliefs apply across cultures, and may be a relatively unvarying aspect of e-commerce. However, as expected, the effects of predictability and familiarity on trust beliefs may differ across national cultures. Implications about the need to include national culture in the research on trust, in general, and in e-commerce in particular, are discussed.


Kultura ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 323-345
Author(s):  
Gordana Đuretić ◽  
Nevena Krasulja

The main goal of this paper is to point out that the dimensions of national cultures have a huge impact on different aspects of organisational behaviour. The main support in the work is Hofstede's five-dimensional cultural model. The authors pay special attention to the dimensions of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. When both of indexes are high at the level of national culture, organizational climate will have some special features such as high hierarchical pyramids, centralised decision making, and autocratic behaviour of managers, negative attitudes towards work, stress and lack of entrepreneurial behaviour. Also, special interest in this topic results from the fact that both of these dimensions in Serbia are very high.


2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Steve Jenner ◽  
Brent MacNab ◽  
Richard Brislin ◽  
Reg Worthley

A great number of studies have been reported based on Hofstede’s seminal work on national culture (1980). Our findings for a very recent sample of people attending executive and MBA programs found no significant differences in Power Distance between the United States (U.S.), Mexico and Canada. Our results suggest that caution should be taken in automatically assuming cultural parity between the U.S. and Canada and that more traditional culture positions between the NAFTA member nations may be more subject to change than stable through phenomena like crossvergence. Our findings suggest that Hofstede’s (1980) study provides one useful framework; however, the relative positions of national culture are not necessarily applicable to present day.


Author(s):  
Tom E. Yoon ◽  
Samuel H. Goh ◽  
Robert Zinko ◽  
Christopher P. Furner

Internet-based surveys have emerged as a popular data collection method for researchers. Despites the popularity of Internet-based surveys, prior studies suggest that responses collected via internet-based surveys are not equivalent to those collected via paper-based survey. Thus, it is important to understand why the nonequivalence is occurred. Also, since internet-based surveys enable us to collect data from people around the globe, it would be important to understand how cultural differences influence participants' responses. In this study, the authors investigate the effects that espoused national culture and data collection mode have on confidentiality concerns and socially desirable reporting. Results indicate that data collection mode and espoused power distance influence confidentiality concerns, while data collection mode and collectivism influence socially desirable distortion.


Author(s):  
Timothy Shea ◽  
David Lewis

This chapter introduces how culture impacts global knowledge sharing. Effective knowledge sharing (KS), one of the four interdependent dimensions of knowledge management (KM), is particularly important in today’s global environment in which national cultural differences are negotiated all the time. Knowledge sharing is described along six dimensions and national culture along four dimensions. A model is presented, which provides guidelines for effectively sharing different types of knowledge within different cultural environments. Several examples are presented to illustrate the model’s effectiveness. Using the model as a guide, the authors believe that decision makers will increase the chances that information and knowledge will be shared successfully.


2003 ◽  
Vol 92 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1199-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basu Sharma

Using measures of national cultures published by Hofstede in 1991, this study examined their effects on the weighted index of social progress of 50 countries around the world. Empirical findings indicated that individualism was negatively associated, while power distance was positively associated with the social progress of nations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 660-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Ab Halim

Knowledge sharing is a systematic process for creating, acquiring, synthesizing, learning, sharing and using knowledge to achieve organizational goals. It is also a source of competitive advantage especially for multinational companies. The objective of this paper is to discuss the impact of subsidiary manager’s role in knowledge sharing, manager’s compensation system, and the level of cultural differences between home and host country on the level of knowledge sharing between the headquarters and subsidiaries of multinational companies. A study has been conducted at a subsidiary of a large manufacturing company in Malaysia. Data were collected via self-administered survey questionnaire. The respondents consist of 100 executives and managers of the company, and all the questionnaires distributed were filled and returned back for data analysis. Findings indicate that all three factors significantly influence the level of knowledge sharing with the manager’s compensation system has the strongest impact. MNC therefore should clearly define the manager’s role in knowledge sharing and provide attractive rewards and remunerations to encourage knowledge sharing. At the same time, cultural differences should not be considered as a barrier to knowledge sharing as this study indicates that it can be a driver for effective knowledge sharing between headquarters and subsidiaries.


Author(s):  
Timothy Shea ◽  
David Lewis

This chapter introduces how culture impacts global knowledge sharing. Effective knowledge sharing (KS), one of the four interdependent dimensions of knowledge management (KM), is particularly important in today’s global environment in which national cultural differences are negotiated all the time. Knowledge sharing is described along six dimensions and national culture along four dimensions. A model is presented, which provides guidelines for effectively sharing different types of knowledge within different cultural environments. Several examples are presented to illustrate the model’s effectiveness. Using the model as a guide, the authors believe that decision makers will increase the chances that information and knowledge will be shared successfully.


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