Reward Yourself

In particular, young people in the Far East and Middle East countries have the highest sense of work ethic and a sense of achievement A sense of achievement means to master a certain kind of knowledge, skill, and so on through a sustained effort. When we look at the needs and motivations of cross-cultural employees in the workplace, we must take these complex reasons into account, so that the designed incentive mechanism can play the expected role.

For a manager of an international enterprise, how can he effectively motivate cross-cultural employees?

Of course, he can find the answer by drawing on the management experience of people who have worked in that country, or by examining the culture of the region to infer a possible incentive structure type [5]. They find that employees with different nationalities have the common needs and target group. How employees meet their needs to the greatest extent, which varies among different cultures.

Employees from different countries have different perceptions for what occupies the main place in the sources of job satisfaction. A clear conclusion can be drawn that employees of different cultures have similar needs, but the degree of satisfaction they get from work is different.

Cross-Cultural Employee Motivation in International Companies

It is found in many international enterprises that the needs of local employees and their ways for work are different from those of domestic employees. Japanese enterprises tend to show their recognition of their employees through medals, attention and applause, and some Japanese employees may even be angry when they receive material rewards, because this kind of rewards mean that they have to work harder to get material rewards again, not by other means. Compared with Western culture, in Oriental cultures, the overall needs of the society, rather than the individual needs are paid more attention to.

The needs of Chinese employees include four levels: It is difficult to evaluate and measure the individual needs of Chinese employees as China is a highly collectivist country [6]. It can be seen from the cultural development of China, the political belief plays a dominant role in the stimulation of many respects [7]. As the backbone of the industrial system, the enterprise managers and workers are given clear and detailed instructions which are what they are expected to follow as members of the factories, the workshops, or the work groups [8]. In China, it is very important for ordinary employees to become members of the work group.

At the same time, money is another incentive.

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According to the history, Chinese employees have more pursuit of savings. A pyramid for the needs of Chinese employees.


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The dichotomy of internal and external factors theory of Herzberg includes two aspects: Hygiene factors are what causes dissatisfaction among employees in a workplace. When hygiene factors cannot be satisfied, it is easy for employees to produce discontent, negative sabotage, and even lead to strikes and other confrontational behavior. But when hygiene factors have been improved to some extent, no matter how the improvement efforts are often difficult to make employees feel satisfied.

So it is difficult to further stimulate the work of the enthusiasm of the staff, so the hygiene factor: Such as salary remuneration, working conditions, corporate policy, administration, labor protection, leadership level, welfare, security measures, interpersonal relationships are hygiene factors. These factors are part of the working environment and working relationship factors, and the necessary conditions to maintain the psychological integrity of workers. That is why they are called maintenance factors. They cannot directly stimulate for workers, but they are preventive. Motivation factors are factors that make employees feel satisfied.

Motivation factors to make employees feel satisfied with the results, can greatly stimulate the enthusiasm of the work of staff to improve labor productivity. But even if the managers do not give their satisfaction to meet, often do not make employees feel dissatisfied. So for the motivation factors, the opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction. On the use of the Herzberg model, the conclusions of the study which focus on employees from different countries help us to test whether the Herzberg model is universally applicable in different cultural contexts.

In the context of the international culture, the study of incentives is necessary. But the current large number of research results cannot determine which is more effective incentives for employees between the internal factor and external factor, more accurately speaking, effective incentives are based on specific circumstances [9]. In many multinational companies, savvy managers will often ask the locals, and use all the information they have about the relevant cultural and subcultural to determine the most appropriate incentives in the environment at that time [10].

In addition, experienced managers will consciously avoid the attitude with some sense of racial superiority, otherwise they will imagine the purpose of cross-cultural staff motivation or work habits by their own point of view. Every class is based on the lower level class. Physiological needs are needs, which people must satisfy to keep alive, like food, sleep and clothing.

Applied to the work environment, these physiological needs are often satisfied through basic salary. Safety needs include the desire for security. In the work environment, these needs involve ensuring personal safety and income. Social needs include the desire to interact with other people as well as receive and give friendship.

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On the workplace this can be obtained in informal or formal groups. Esteem needs are for example the need for status. At work this could be fulfilled through a company car or an important position. In the work environment this class seems to be hard to satisfy.

According to Maslow, as each of these needs is substantially satisfied, it is no longer motivating and the next class of needs becomes dominant. This means, that a higher need will only become active, if the lower needs are satisfied. Therefore, they surveyed managers from 14 countries.

According to his uncertainty avoidance and masculinity scale see Figure 3 the investigated countries are divided in 4 quadrants. The countries in the first quadrant score low on uncertainty avoidance and high on masculinity, which means, that performance and risk are important for them. Countries in the second quadrant are countries with strong uncertainty avoidance and masculinity.

Motivation in an international context

This is characterized by performance and security motivation. The countries in quadrant 3 and 4 are both on the feminine side. They distinguish themselves from those in quadrant 1 and 2 by a focus on relationships between people and quality of life rather than on performance, achievements and money. It can be expected that employees in countries in the third quadrant will be motivated by quality of life and security, while employees in the fourth quadrant will emphasize quality of life and risk.

This explains why Maslow puts self-actualisation achievement and esteem above social and security needs, because his theory is based on the value system of Americans. Hofstede suggests, that employees in countries in different quadrants should be motivated in different ways. For countries, which belong to the second quadrant, security needs should be at the top of the pyramid, whereas for countries in the fourth quadrant social needs are more important and therefore situated at the top. For countries in the third quadrant both, security and social needs should be on top of the pyramid Hofstede, , pp.

Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance. Germanistik - Semiotik, Pragmatik, Semantik. BWL - Personal und Organisation. Or, get it for Kobo Super Points! Introduction Differences in external factors like culture, economy, history, political and management systems may lead to differences in employee job attribute preferences across countries.

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A motivation concept designed for one cultural context may be inappropriate when transferred to another. Assuming, that this is true, managers and designers of motivation systems must understand the preferences of local employees. Therefore, in an international context it is required to examine the differences in motivation from country to country. Ratings and Reviews 0 0 star ratings 0 reviews. Overall rating No ratings yet 0. How to write a great review Do Say what you liked best and least Describe the author's style Explain the rating you gave Don't Use rude and profane language Include any personal information Mention spoilers or the book's price Recap the plot.

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