Cultural Differences in Job Motivation

What makes people get up in the morning – is it the simple habit, the routine or the sense of purpose? Why do people make promises to do and decide certain things? “Some people get more done than others" (Riley:1996, p.44); while some drift along, others are goal-setters; and some just cannot get started, whereas others are unstoppable. Why is it so? Why do employees ask themselves if it is worth the reward to make “an effort to achieve a goal” (Van der Wagen, Davies:1998, p.24)? The answer can be found in the realm of motivation. Motivation, something that according to various book titles1 needs to be understood, belongs to leadership studies and organisational behaviour. Consequently, “looking at what motivates people, and to lead them, is essential for every manager” (ibid.), because different things might motivate different staff members. One would not expect people to be as complex as they are, but “culture, although not the only variable of importance contributes significantly to explain key differences in social behaviour” (Treven, Mulej, Lynn:2008, p.33). Factors motivating followers in organisations often differ from culture to culture and do not only diverge from different organisational cultures (ibid.: p.34). There is no proof that motives like need for achievement, intrinsic needs for competence and self-efficacy can be generalised across cultures as the specific factors which drive such motives vary across cultures (Gelfand, Erez, Aycan:2007, p.482). This leads to the area of cross-cultural organisational behaviour, which, as well as culture-specific work motivation, only have a relatively short research history, but they actually date back to the times of Dionysios I. from Syrakus2 and Agathon3. Superscripts by Herodotus, a Greek historian, show that differences in work behaviour already existed throughout the time of the Persian Empire (circa 400 BC) (Herodotus, De Selincourt, Marincola:2003). Trade between the different villages and towns and therefore between the different cultures was “widely widespread along the Silk Road”4 (Gelfand, Erez, Aycan:2007, p.481). However, researchers have started focusing “on cultural differences in career development” (Aycan, Fikret-Pasa:2003, p.129) only three decades ago. This new focus has arisen due to globalisation and the increase of multiculturalism in societies and their organisations (Yang et al.:2002). Silk Road”4 (Gelfand, Erez, Aycan:2007, p.481).