Role of subjective culture in organizations: A review and directions for future research

Abstract

Reviews cross-cultural research on micro-organizational behavior conducted during the past decade and introduces a conceptual framework for classifying the studies. It is argued that much of the current research fails to specify "culture" adequately, and because the cultures studied are often "targets of opportunity," pancultural theories of organizational behavior have not emerged. Methodologically, although an improvement over the literature reviewed in K. H. Roberts (1970) is evident, there remains an inadequate concern for the culture-specific nature of behavior, for alternative hypotheses that might also explain findings, and for achieving proper equivalence in translation. It is proposed that future researchers examine more carefully their rationale for doing cross-cultural research, commit themselves to theory, adopt a more rigorous concern for suitable methodologies, and form multicultural teams to achieve these ends. (4 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)