-
$IIil
Jounutl of Orgtuti:.atiorruI Belnt iorl. Orgurti.-.. Behuv. 22.
8 15-8ll (1001 )DOI: 10.1002/job.IIl3
Do national levels of individualismand internal locus of control
relateto well-being: an ecological levelinternational studypAUL E.
spEcroRt*. cARy L. coopER:. JUIN l. srNCHEZr, MICHAELO'DRISCOIL',
KATE spARKS2, PEGGY BERNIN5, ANDRE siisslf,lco,pHtt oBwE7, PETER
HART*, LUo LU', KAREN NIILLERt0, LUCIOFLAVIO RENAULT DE NIORAES'',
GABRIELLE U. OSTNOGIIAV8,MILAN pAGoNtt, HOREA pITARIUtt, srEvEN
POELN,IANSt*,PHANI RADHAKRISHNAN'5, VESSELINA RUSSINOVA'U,VLADIMIR
SALANIATovtt, JEsus SALGADOtt, SATORU sHItvIA",oI LING 51920..;6,1N
BENJAN,IIN sroRA2t, NIARE TEICHIIANN't,ronns ruronEll-s, pnlsR
vLERICK", vtINA wESTMANtt,MARIA TVIDERSZAL-BAZYL'', plut woNc2o AND
SHANFA YUttI Llniy'ersitt of South Florila, L.S.A.2lJniversih of
Munchester lnstitute o.f St[ente uncl Tet'hnology, U.K.t F ktr ida
lnte rnat ional LI nit' e rsi n, U. S. A.r,Llni|ersi!) of Waikuto,
Ne* ZeulandlNatalnal Iniliute for PJ!.roJrt idl Fcr(brs and Hedllh,
S\reLlent'Tecllni(cl Unir'ersii of Minchett, Gem.tn\- t/ir.irer
Urirer.i^. \pf Zdt,DL!" S ocial Re searc h C tnt s ul tants.,\u
stra L i a" Kaohs i un e M edical Uilir e rsi
^. nti w on
tuLlniversit! of Wiwarersrantl. South AlTica"-FeLlera| Universin
L).l Minits (;erdis, BrLtaiI'',College oJ Police arul Secui^
Snklies, Slorenia'' Babes- Bo lvoi U n iy e rs itr, Ra nton
iatalESE Business School, IJniredin of Navarro,
Spain1'Llnivt'rsin
oJ Tonrrrrt tt Scarborou!h, Ctnudu'"Bult,rian A, iltm',,t S,
rtrr cr. Br,lt,rrr,t" Ukrainian Acadenl of Public Adrninistration,
Ukrdine'"Universih' of Santiuqo, SlrditlteTokr-o Kei:ai LlnL ersi
t,-, J.)punzttLingnan IJniversin. Hong Krlg2t Hautes Eruties
Conrnercitles Grcupe. Frunce-- ltllllttn llrlutlLal Ltuv(rstl\'.
L\tonta)3Ghenr Llniversi4. BeIgiun"Tel t\tiv Univenin.
ltruel''Ciltral Inrtiil(e for Laboilr Proletailn,
Polilnal]t'Tri
n i tt llt s t e rn li ni| L rsi t\'. Cdt ktda21Henon Institute
of Occupdtionul Mecliciile, China
University of South Florida. Tampa. FL 31620,
U.S.A*Correspondence to: Prul E- Spcclor, Depi(nlent of
PsychologyE-mail: [email protected]
Copyright r' 2001 John Wilcr, & Sons. [-td.
Received l5 April 2000Retised 30 lvlorclt 2001Acteptetl 25 Jul,"
200 I
t-
-
lt l6 P E. SPLCTOR 67"\L
Summrrl f)rta rrcrc collected from mantgcrs in 2-l
nations/tcrritories on work l{)cus of control
(LOC).individualrsm+ollcctivism (l-C). and'-well-bern-e fjirb
satisfacrion. absence of pslcholouicalstrlin. and rbsc'ncc of
phvsical strain ). Thcrc rvcre signi ficant nlern di lfcrenccs
acrosr samplcson rll hve of these measures. and consistent u'ith
our hypothesis. at the ecologicai or santplemcan Ie\cl well-beinc
was dssociated with an intcrnal locus of control. However. contrar!
toour hvpothcsis. well-beilq was not tssocirted with I-C. despite a
strong correlation bcl\\'ccnI C and LOC. Findinss rt thc ccological
level were consistcnt wirh the Iircrtture concernin-!the salutar\
cffects of control on rcll-being. Copyright r l0{ll John Wiler
& Sons. Lrd.
Introduction
There has been increasing interest in cross-national research
that attempts to understand difterenccsand similarities among
empiovees i'rom ditterent cultures and nations. One ofthe basic
issues cfcon-cern to organizational researchers is the health and
well-being ofemployees. and it has been viewed asboth a resp()nsc
to the work environment and as an at'fect-related antecedent of
other emproyee our-comes such as job pertbrmance or turnover.
Employee control beliets and perceptions have
beenIinkedtowell-beingandplayanimportantrole(GansterandFusilier,
1989;Spector, 1982).Althoughthere is a tremendous amount ofresearch
at the individual level relating control and other variables
towell-being, most has been done in the USA and a handful of
western nations. and most has targeted thetndilidual employee. Our
study compared managers from 24 nations/tenitories at the
ecological orsample mean level (Leung and Bond. 1989). as opposed
to the individual participant level, in orderto draw more
definitive conclusions about nation differences.
Inte rruIional dffi rences in well-beingWell-being at work can
be indexed by a number of variables. We chose three fbr this
study-job satis-Trc:iirrt. .il.ilIrlc: oln nsi chok'riclrl struin,
and al'sence of physicul strain. Job satisfaction is
conccrner.l\\lLll il()\\ l)c()t)i. l-- :tbrrrl rirrrk-whethcr !)r
t)ot thcy enjoy the ir iobs. It hls sened a central role in{llillli
lrcils. frrrrt: irir .lr'rign lrt leadership. anrl is ttsr'.l lrs r
generli indicrrtor r,i !'mplo)rnenl-felatedrell-being thll i:
rnIr'rrrrr.tte ]err)\\ nittions/culturcs (lJhtl]t t l r;/.. i
t)r)O). Job \ifr'ss is cr.Iccr:iiJ rvithlllr ;nr:r:tct oi.j,ri.
1ry11pl;1i1r11\ (rn pe()ple s hc'llth and gcll-bei1,g. indicatrrrs
of rvhich are ciLlicrl jobstrrti:li. Wc ittciuria r nrcrsttrc of
psvchoiogicll strlrin. r'hich indicltcs the e\tcnt to *hich
indiviilu;rlsrre e.:pc11!'ncrl! psycholrr_uical dist|css. such Js
rnxietv or tension. Pltysical strain ir indictted bysomatic
symptorrs associated with stress. Absence of strain is an indicator
of well-being.
Wt chose these particular measures because they have been well
studied. and contbined they cover abroad portion of wcll-heing that
is specitically reievant to work. Job satisfaction reflects a
person st]encral attitudc abotrt his or hcr.job. lt rellccts an
overall evaiuation that is an importlnt indicatorof irork
well-hcing. \ltntrl strxin rctl!-cts psychological rvelt-bcing in
tenls oftntotional rcspoltscto rvork. High stttin tnctns thc
individual is experiencing negative emotionai responscs such ls
rnxi,'tyand tensiorl. Phl,sical strain is the shoil-ternr
physiol0gically based reaction to the job. [t consists ofsomatic
svniptorns linked to bothjob stressors and psychological strain,
such as anxiety.
N{ost studies of rvell-hcing have lookcd rt individuals, but a
handtirl of studics have invcstigaredcross-nation dillcrcnces in
errplorec wcil-bcing. Such studics havr- shorvn that on averirge,
pcople
INDI\IDT]r\LISI,IA\DWLT-L,BLINC I.II7
rucross dif flrcnt nations diifcr. This is not [{] \ilv that er
ery individual within r nation is the samc. or thttthere isn't
overlap in tlistributions across niitions. \\'cll-being itself is
in fact an individual r':rriable. i.e..people and not nations
experience uell-being. Horveler. as pointed out by Morgeson and
Hoimann( 1999) individual level constructs take on collective level
meanins when individuais rvithin that col-lective inferact in a way
that has inrplications tbr the construct. To put this in our
contert. it crn berneaninstr.rl to discuss well-being at the
national level ifit can be argued (and better still
denlonstratcd)that social interaction among people uithin r socierv
ai'fects well-being. In other words. if we detecrwell-bein-s
differences. can we attribute those difterences to experiences rnd
interrctions that vrrvacross nltions due to cultural and olher
fictorsl Thus in some nations. accepted rvorkplacc prrerieernight
enhlncc well-being whe reas in othcrs it mav inhibit it.
We are not. however. drguing thrt uell-hcin-g i: rn emergent
eroup-level phenomcnon (Kozlowskiand Klein, 2000) analogous to
organlzltional climate or team elf'ectiveness. Well-being rs an
indivi-dual phenomenon and we rre not sus-gesting that there is a
national weil-being that is reflected in oura-egregated individual
dala. However. we are suggestin_s that there are meaningfuJ
nation-level dift'er-ences in well-being. and that thev are the
byproduct of interaction lmong people within their nationaland
cultural contexts. It has been noted that most studies of culture
have relied on aggregating indr-vidual-level responses such as
values. because the individual level is the byproduct ofboth
uniqueindividual experience and shared cultural influences
(Chao.2000). and this is rhe approach we havetaken.
The existing work on national dit'ference. in work well-being
have shown some difl'erences. but thepicture is tar tiom complete,
and f'ew studie\ have addressed possible reasons. For exlmple,
Japaneseconsistently report less job satistaction than Americans.
as well as other nations (Bae and Chung,1997; DeFrank et al..
1988:' Lincoln etal., l98l:McCormick and Cooper. 1988: Smith and
Misumi.1989). DeFrank et al. (t988) fbund that physical strains
were also higher in Japanese than inAmericans, and iwata el a1.
(1989) reported a higher level of depressive symptoms in Japanese
thanAmericans. Although these tindings have been consistently
shown, there is little research reflecting onthe reasoirs. Son:e
have suggested thlt Ji-lanese tend toward a modesty bias that leads
them to avoidreporting high levels of well-being ( Snith er rri.. i
995). but it is not clear to what extent these reportsreflect mere
bias or accurate experience.
Looking at a broader range of nations. McCormick and Cooper ( I
988) tbund that Anglo and westemE,uropean nations. such as New
Zealand. Germany. Srveden. and the USA had better
psychologicalhealth and higherjob satisfaction than nctions in Asil
(Japan and Singapore). South America (Brazil)or the middle east
(Egl"pt). Sadri et o/. ( l()96r ruributed these dilfcrences to
level ofcconomic devel-opnrent. Thus. we crn say tbat natior. nrl\
\urv in the extent to u,hich people report well-being atwork, but
f'ew generaiizations or conciLrsior';' har e been tlrarvn.
Intlividuuli,snt-collectivism ( l-C ) und \"ell-beine
I-C is a dimension of values that has been studied extensively
in relation to culture. As defined byTriandis ( 1995).
individualism is a tendencv tbr people b be motivated primarily by
their own goalsand pref'erences, or what has been tcrmed the
independent self (Markus and Kitayama. 1998) and anexpression
ofautonomy need lKagitgrbasi, 199+). Collectivism, on the
otherhand. is atendency toview one's self as part of a netrvork of
social groups, or a rellection of the interdependent self
(Markusand Kitayama, 1998). and ln expression ofrelatedness need
(Kagitqibasi, 199;1). lndividualist nationsare fbund in the
Anglo-European \\orld. including the United States, Canada. Western
Europe,Australia and New Zeirland. Collecririst nations are tbund
in Asia (China. India. and Japan). LatinAmerica (Hot.stede, 198.1).
and other places.
Coprright r l{)01 Jolrn \\'ill .t Sons. I_rd. L Or.qotti:.
Iltluy.22.8l-5 lt.jl (1001) Copyright t 2001 John Wiley & Sons.
Lttl J. Orguni:. Belnv. 22. 1ll5-lJ.l2 (2001)
I
I
I
I
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ITIIJ P E. SPECTOR fT,.\1-,
There is rerson to expecl thot I-C at the nation ievel will
reiate to rvell-being, alrhough there arecontradictory mechanisms
iikely at work. On the one hand, it has been note.l that people
from collec-tivist societies enjov a higher level of social support
iiom extended iamily, tiiends. and work groupthan do people from
individualist societies, and this has been linkcd to enhanced
psychologicai iSinharnd Verma. 199'1) and physical (llola. 1990)
well-being. Furthermore, individualists are likely tostruggle with
personal problems on their own. whereas collectivists rvill seek
help from others in theirgroup (Sinha and Tripathi, 199.t). On thc
other hand, inclividualists rend to fbcus on rheir own needsand
therefbre will spend morc time than coliectivists seeing to ir that
their weii-being is enhancedtRcl'kowski. 19941.
There is little direct evidence that addrcsses the Iink between
I-C and rvell-bein*. In the job stressarea. Peterson ?l d1. ( 1995)
iound that role stressors related to I-C in an ecological study of
2 I diversenations lndividualisnt rvas lssociated with hi-sher
levels of role ambigurty and roie conUict. This sug-gests that
peopie in coilectivist societies are more likelv tO t-eel thlt
the1, know their roie at work lndperceive relativelv low conHicr
rmong roles. comprretl io individualist societies. Although they
didn'treport deta on strains. these role variables have been shown
to relate to well-being at the indrvicluallevel (Jackson and
Schuler, 1985), and perhaps this will hcjld at the ecological level
as well. Ail thisIeads to the first hypothesis that well-being
should be negatively relrred to I-C at the ecological level:
Ht'pothe.sis /: At the ecological level. collectivism is
associatecl with higher levels of well-being.
Work locus of control and individualism-collectivism
Locus of control (LOC) reflects an indiviclual's tendency to
believe rhat he or she controls events in life(intemality) or that
such control resides elsewhere, such as with powerful others
(externality). WorkLOC concerns beliefs about control specifically
in thejob domain, as opposeti to life in general. Therers reason to
expect that I-C will relate to LOC. People in individualist nations
are taught to value andpursue independence and individual
achievement (Gudykunst, 1998). which should lead to beliefi
inpersonal control. People in collectivist nations are taught to
value interpersonal harmony and solidaritythat results in an
emphasis on interdependence and group achievement (N{arkus and
Kitayama, I 99 I ),or control by others rather than the self.
It has been fbund that compared to people in individualist
nations, people in collectivist nations bothvalue autonomy less
(Lundberg and Peterson. I 994), and perceive less autonomy (S rnith
el a/., I 995).Furthermore. studies have shown that collectivist
Asians (e.g., Chinese antl Japanese) ilre more exter-nal in thcir
qeneral locus of control (LOC) than individualistic Americans and
other westem naiionst Flam id. I 994: Hui. I 982 ). Nations in
eastern Europe that were formally under control of the SovietUnitln
itrc ltlso coilectivistic. Arguments have been advanced that the
state-dominated econorric sys-tcnt in erstern Europe should have
led to the developrnent ofan external locus ofcontrol at work
(Freseet ul.,1996; Tobacyk;rnd Tobacyk, 1992).
One must be cautiotts. however, in overgeneralizing these
findin-es. Smith el at. (1995) used a gen-eral scale ofLOC in their
35 nation study, but used multidimensional scaling to produce three
dimen-sions. At the ecological level. only one dimension relating
to rhe ef'f'ecriveness ofthe individual in dailyiile was related to
I-C with individualism associated with internality. In reviewing
the cross-culturalliterature on LOC' Hui (1982) cautioned that we
must use specilic rather than general measures ofLOC. ln this study
we chose a measure of LOC specific to the workplace. This is a
domain in whichwe would expect I-C to show strong effects with
belief.s about control, and workplace LOC shouldrcHcct uurkplaee
prf,elit'es thut vury rero\s nltit)ns. Thc workplucc is r \cilin-s
in u lriclr tchrcv(,mcnlis emphasized, although how it is
emphasized can vary across nations. Individualist workplaces
areexpected to tbcus on individual action and autonomv as peopie
are expectcri to achieve work-related
INDIVIDLJALISM;\NDWELL,BEINC I]I9
objectives tirr the orcirnizrtion. Coilectivist workplaces, by
contrast. focus on eroup action endachievement rather than the
indivrdual. People in individualist societies are likely to see
themsclvesls having control over their careers lnd work. whereas
people in collectivist societies see career andworkasundercontrol
ofgroups.ThisleadstooursecondhypothesisthatworkLOCwill relatetol
C.
Hrpothesis 2: The nrean lerel ofrvork LOC will be related to the
individualism ol'r nati()n/terrirorvsuch that individualism is
associared wirh internalitv.
Loctrs oJ control uttd vell-heirtg
Theories ofbothjob design lHeckmrn and Oldham. 1976) and job
stress (Karasck. 1979) have linkedperceived control to well-being.
Such linkages have been supported empirically, as shown in
Spcctor's( | 986) control meta-analysis. Howeler. control beliefs
or LOC rather than perceptions have also beenconsidered by many
researchers to be an important component ofemotional adjustment and
ability tohandle stress (e.g., Kobasa st a1.. l98l). and qeneral
LOC has been firund to be relatcd to rvell,beins rtwork (e.g.,
Ganster and Fusilier, l9E9: Spector, 1982). Furthermore, work LOC
has been linked towell-being (job satisfaction and negative
emotional states at work) both inside (Spector. I 9881 Spectorand
O'Connell, 199.1) and outside of the US (Sadri er al., 1996; Siu
and Cooper, 1998). in much rhcsame way general locus oicontrol has
been linked to general well-being. Using data fiom this proleetat
the individual employee level. Spector et al. (in press a) found
that the relation of rvork LOC withmeasures of well-bein-e held
across lll nations/teritories tbrjob satistaction and across most
fbr phy-sical and psychological weli-being.
At the ecological level, we would rlso expect work LOC to relate
to well-being. Nations in whichpersonal autonomy and control are
the norm will have individuals who will fbcus on and manase
theirown well-being. They will be more free to change the work
environment if it is tor.r sttesstul, or evenchange jobs. Nations
in which peopie must fbrt'eit control to powerful external tbrces
will tend to havepeople with lower well-being because they are
unable to escape stressful situations either by modityingthe job
environment or by changing jobs. This suggests our third hypothesis
linking work LOC t
-
INDIVIDUT\I,ISVI,\NI) $ FLI- BEI\'; ti2lP F.. SP[Cll)li
Lr.\1.
'fhc'sc'rrltionll lrctors woulti br crpecteil to in.rpact rvork
loctts ofcontrol through both psychologic:rl rnd non,psychological
factors. On thc psychological side. ilitferences in vllues impact
how peo-ple Vierv the world. and that would be erpccted to impact
work loctts oi control. [n fact our resultssho[c-d such a re]ation
rvith individualism{ollectivism. but iikely there are manv
unmeasuretl vari-lblcs thrt might also rclrtc to loeus of c0ntrol.
Perhlps morc important is thrt work ltlcus of controltlevelops
throush the experience of being able or not able to contnrl rewards
in the workplace. Fac-trtrs that aflecrjOb ntobilirr'. thercfirre.
w0uld bc expected to irltpitct work loctts ofcontrol. Forexlnt-ple.
in Japanjob lrohilirl is linlited by culturll ttornts tienltnding
ltl'raltv to enrployers ln cotlpletingtlte \\ork Iocus of control
scalc. Jlplnesc. rrlnagcrs would likell' tltil to cndorse items
concerningcontrol Or'ergettingaj0h.
In()rhcrcountriesrnobility'islimitedhyltailabilitlr)f
illternrtiveemplov-:nent. This is especialll,truc in dereloping
countries (e.g.. lntliat and in countries with high unem-plorrlent
(c.g.. Spain iluring our studv). and this shouid scrve to decrease
intcrnality. StLcll tjlctorsrnar $e ll have accountcd fbl tite
rather large e iitct size lbr loctts of contro] in our
sltlrivParticipantsThe participants in rhis study Iere all
managers, rlnging from first level to the iops tll their
orgr-niiations. The mean ages in most samplcs was betwecn 35
and.15. and the nrajority ol partieipilnt:in nrost samples were
married. The gender breakdown rellects that most managers in the
world arcrnale- although most salnples containcd at least 25 per
cent fenrales. In I 8 of24 samples participantsu rr|keci tbr a wide
range 0f intlustries and organization tvpes- with tew cotning lionl
the same orglr-niz:ttions. Although one lrould not r.\pect gender
to allect results with locus of control. it is likclythat level
within the organization would be important. Managers halc greater
intJuence and power tnorganizations, and fbr them work would be a
more 'internal' place. Considering the items of theWork Locus of
Control scale used here, managers would be more likely than
non-managers toendorse items concerning rewards based on
performance and their ability to control rewards- Thistendency
would likely-. be stronger in countries where the power and status
differences between man-agers ancl non-managers (i.e., power
distance) tends to be large. Conclusions based on this studyshould
be generrlized be;onJ munrgcrs uith iume cauliun.
}l!ethod
| )\ {'t',,'i(\t' ol i/tL' .\ru(i\''fhe Jrra riported iiere lre
t|rr1 the Collaborative lnternational Study of lvlanagerial Stress
(CISlls)tr,ititrierl in l,)96 to c()lldLi-i
-sloirill reserrch on.i()b stress bl pooling ef'fbrts ofan
international group ofrc\!';Lrcitcrs. The goal.l the studv was ft)
collect d:r|l] on an equivalentjob {ntanagcrs.) trom a
repre-5entativc sample trorn erch nation/tcritory. Although we were
able to rchieve constancy oijob. therepresentativencss ofsampies
r.aried somewhat, as will be described below. The project has
produced alrrge dataset containing scveral rlozen variabies on 2.1
samples. Subsets of these data have been pub-lished seplrately to
address indcpendent questions (e.-r:. Spector tt ul. . in press;
100 | )
Pa rticipunts
Participants were 5 I 85 manaqers tl'orr 24 nations/teritories
(see Table I tbr sanrple sizes and samplecharacteristics fitr
each). The sirnrples vuried considerablv on derrographics. b'ut ill
most cases,lls ml-sht
'llble |. C hriractcristics rnd santplc sizc'' ti)r L'rch
:arllple)'l rllon/tcrnlor! .r \lalc \lern \lcan tt Collegc '/r
ltlarrtc'dlcnure gradlliLtes_,\Llstr'illlilBclgiunrBrrzi IBrr I
gariaf]rnrdaPR ChinaEston i rFrlnccCcrnranyHong KongIndiaI
sraclJapanNcw ZealandPolandRomania.) loven I aSouth AlricaSpai nS
rvedenTaiwanUKUkraineUSA
t3gr85n1165ii9
t0Ir6l6l85
li2159
515l9l169l.t5;188
lt9I80lt0l-1320r219il9
6();06l6.1r-tl053l)6
asq8(r7
7.+
60_t1l
tlS.:
5tt56t855
-1+.(li+.Ei6.5-1I.0
10.6-]lt.6
5t.5-r-+.9
.17.0
16.0+-1.rJ
-19.-i+tJ.f-16. -r
Iu.017.018.0.+3.9
-r9.+
il.51.6
ILr)r l.7I0.-1t1 .l6.-l
I.+.6t5.61.)
r0.9I0.+ll.-s
l-5. It+.lill.8
8..+10.-515. Il0.315.89.19.1
5l+-+
5775+o
+
L{)6l
l9l5iil-19
-50b()
_u-*1
0.+o
6-5
lJl378E57
8878o+
19IJIrr6
1)37965l9lifix
I (X)lJ.+
508-+T1l3l9011836972
be expected, the majority of munagers u cre nrirle, educated.
and rnanied. Since there w,:ie demograplricdifl'erences, we checked
to see if the-v- atiected results. as will be described in the
results secrion.
Measttrei
-i5e questionnaire was ldrninisrcred thlt inclurlcd the
Occupational Stress Indicirtor-2 (OS12: Cooperantl Willianrs.
I99(r). rhe Wrrrk Lrrcu: Lrf Conrrrrl Scalel'WteS fspe.ior, 1988).
the Hofstede (i99'1)\,iriues Survcy. Nlrtlulc lg,lJiVS),i.)-l . and
denrographics. FLrr this studl *'e used onll the threc lvell-bcing
nreasulcs fronr tlre O-sl.
Thc WLCS is a l6 itern, sllnllnirtcd r:iting scrle of \ork LOC.
Half the itenls:tre written ;n lhe extcr-n1l (e.g., 'ge tting the
job
-! oll $ ilni i\ n1(istly a nrattcr oi luc k'.1 at.1 lrrlf in
the internal ( 'prolll(1( i(,ns rLreuiven to employees who pcrfbrrn
we)l on thc job') direction. Six response choices range froln
s/ran.ghrlisu,q,ree to srrongl\ agree. High scores rcpresent
externality and low scores internality. Spector ( I988)reports
intcrnal consisrency (coet-ficient olphr) of0.75 to 0.85 across six
US samples, with all but onein the 0.80s.
TheOs12isag0itenrshorttbrmoilheOsl
lCoopereta/.l98ll)'Well-bcingwasassessc(lwilhthcOSI scale firr.job
satisfaction. ps1'chological strain. and physical strain. Job
satisfaction was assessedwith l2 iterns that asked rcspondents ro
indicate their satisfaction with each item. rvith six
resptlnsechoices ranging liom yt,r'r, nut'h tlissurisJuttion to
t'en'nttt'h stttisfttctittn. Psychological strJin wil\assessed with
I2 items that asked ahttut pslchological distress at work. All
items had six responsechoi:es. but the choices varied acrt,ss
itenrs. For e.ratnple, item tl 'Are thcrc tinles at *ork when
Coprrisht r l00l John \\'il.\'& Sons. Ltd .1. 0rgoni:..
Ilt'hut. 22. 8I5-Ul2 (2(X)I)
L
Copyright r 2(.)01 John wile) !t Sons. Ltd J. Orquni:.. Bahut
22.li l5 8-12 (2001)
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8:2 P E. SPITCTOR Er.1L
yo1 teel \o exaspcrtted rhat voll \it back and think to yoursclf
that 'life is all really jttst t.xl nruchellbrt']" had choices
ranging from tflsr to ofien. Physical strain was assessed with six
items asktn-cabout phvsictl or somatic svmptoms. such as shortness
of brcath or tnuscle trentbling. Therc ucrc 'irrcsponse choices
renging lront rct'r'r to very frequenth. For all three scales.
ttlgl.1ryfgltgli"lgltgiihigh levels r:rf well berng. that is. high
satistaction. low psychological strain. or lorv physical
strain.RijbEtliri-ii;7-jl99bl rcportcd coefficient itpha
ieliabilities lor the ,rri-sin;rl lcnl:th OSI oi 0.8-5.0.8,S. ancl
0.78. respectivell'.
Thc- I-C subscale oi the VSivlgzl was used. [t contains tirur
iterns for which respondents indicateirnporlance. using iile
rcsponse choiccs rrnginq from of |e^ Little or no irrtTtrrtutte lt)
()l ultno\tinrlntrtunte. A slmple item is 'have sutficient timc
lirr vour personal or tirmily lif-e.' High scoresreprescnt an
individualistic orientation. The scorins was done using the
procedure recolrmellded bythe scxle's author (Hofstede. 1994). The
items are cornbincd using differential weights. and a constantis
added ro the total scor.. This oroduces scores at the ecologicitl
level trorn about 0 lo the lou' l(X)s.
I n t e rnol c o n s i s t e nL' t- ond me us u re m e n t e q u
iv o I e n(' e
In eighr samples (Australia, Canada. India. New Zealand, South
Atiica. Sweden. UK and USA) thequestionnaire was ddrninistered in
English. and in l6 samples, the questionnaires were translrted
intothe native language of the nation/territory. Across our 2.1
samples. five of eight Ronen and Shenkar(1985) nation clusters were
represented (Anglo, FarEastern, Germanic. Latin European, and
Nordic),as well as all lbur of the independents (Brazil, India,
Israel, and Japan). Thus a wide range of bothcultures and languages
were represented.
Table 2 contains the internal consistencies (coefficient alphas)
ibr each scale in each sample. Spectoret itt. \2001) discusses the
VSM9.I. As crn be seen in the table. the remaining four sclles
(Columns 2-5) maintained aclequate reliabilities in most cases.
There were a handful ofcases in which a
translrtionresultedinanalpharhatwasbelowthe0.T0standard(Nunnally,1978).ThisoccunedfourtimesfbrtheWLCS.
ancl once fbr psychological well-being. We compared the US alpha
(as a standard) with allorhers, using an, ,F-rest ( I -smaller
alph.r,/ l -larger alpha with n- I degiee- of freedbm associated
witheach alpha) provided by van de Vijver and Leung (1997. p. 60).
The reason for choosing the IJS asa standard was that these scales
were developed in Anglo-western nations (UK and USA) where
theycrlrihir grxrl irrrc.rnll conristcrrcies. This comparison ivill
inclicrte the extr-nt to wllich fransportation toother nations and
languages rriight adversely affect internal consistency- There were
48 of92 cases inwhich rhe US alpha was significantly higher than
one of the other samples. 38 of rvhich were rvithtranslations.
These results should not be surprising. as ofien internal
consistency declines with transla-tion (e.g.. DeFrank er a/., 1988:
Iwata and Roberts. 1996; Iwata et ul., 1995).
We also conducted multisample variance/covariance matrix
equality tests for WLCS and the threewell-being scales using
IllSREt-B]Joreskog'dnd Sorbom. 1992). This test has been
recommended fbrevaluation ofscale transportabilitv across
translation (Johnson, 1998: Riordan and Vandenberg.
1994:Schaubroeck and Green. I 989t van de Vijver and Leung. I 997).
and is the most stringent of the tests offactor equivalence.
Because this test is inappropriate fbr small san:ples, we limitc'd
it to only those ninesanrples wirh a sanrpie size of 200 or
grcaler. These sca]cs were developed in the UK and USA. so wechoose
as a standard New Zealand wlrich rvas the largest sxmple thdt was
culturally similar. lt wascompared to Australia. China. Hong Kong.
Japan. Poland. Slovenia. Taiwan. and Ukraine. These eightcountries
represent a wide range of cuitures and languages and should provide
a good snapshot of horvtlansportable rhe scales are. The equality
test shorved very good fit. with six fit indices meering
theiiccepted standard of 0.90 in 87 per cent of cases ior the three
well-being measures. Fit was llmtlstas good ttrr the WLCS. wirh
three-quarters of clse. at 0.iJ5 or higher and a third at 0.90 or
hi,ilher
ITvDIVIDUALISIVIANDwELL-BEINC lJ2.l
llblc L lnternrl consistcncy reliabilities rcoefficient alphas)
fbr work LOC. uell-being, rnd individualisn scalcs
Nation/Territorv \\'LCS Job Psychological'uti\tiction
Iell-being
Physicalrvell-bei ng
lndividualisrl
ALrstrtllaBclgiumBrazilBuigariaCanadaPR
ChinaEstoniaFranceCennanyHong KonglndialsraeiJapanNew
ZealandPolandRomaniaSloveniaSouth
AtricaSpuinSwedenTaiwanUKUkraineUSA
0.8-+0.79'.'0.78i0.7i*0.87t).61t0.67'r'0.800.810.79*0.79+0.820.65*0.8.10.8.10.1'/+0.78
''
0.8811.71'l0.80*0.73r,0.870.67 +0.86
0.9t)0.8i'!r).9
I0.890.900.910.l3'+*0.920.910.920.930.9{)0.9.10.920.u90.880.900.910.9
t0.8;1*0.920.89r).86''0.90
0.870.iJ t*0.78*{).7u*0.870.7-5 *
0.76'!0.16't'0.810.1J.+
0.81+0.80*0.840.860.840.78*0.81*0.850.8?0.8,+0.81+0.75+0.820.rJ6
0.76+0.7 640.830.78*0.71'1'0.75,:,0.70'!'0.7 5*0.75'r.0.76*0.7
5't'0.12*0.73'i'0.79*'0.16+0.78*0.79*0.820.76*0.77+0.820.840.8
t0.{J.1
0. 160.7 I0.160.6I0..18{).480.590.18i).6
I0.7-50.550.6I0.+50.+80.290.;t90.11().i00.190.520.:l
I0.530.700.26
*Alphr is signilicantly lower than the US sarnple xt P <
0.05.
The only comparison that was clearl\, poor was tbr Taiwan- which
also had a poor coefhcient alpha.Additional details on these
analyses crn be fbund in Spector ar a/. (in press)
Procedure
The original plan was to collect representative samples from
each nation/territory. limiting the parti-cipants to managers to
control tirrjob ditterences. The fbrmer criterion rvas lchievecl in
all santples asdata were collected on manasers. The latter \ls
achieved in nrost. but not all, samples. In iile cases(PR China,
Germany, lndia. Romania. UK) data were collected in onc or two
orglnizltions. and in one(Sweden) data were collected tt0m eight.
In the remaining l8 samples, various procedures were usedto achieve
a broad cross-section of manlgers. In some crses, members of
management orgattizrtionswere sampled, such as thc chamber of
commerce o| an institute of managenent (e.g.. Canada. HongKong. Ncw
Zeulrndt ln othcr e rse' qtlc'liunllrrire\ s( re mliled to
rrndr)tll srtttplcs ol ntrnu-scrt inrandomly chosen businesses
(e.g.. Hong Kong and the US). Multiple mctht:tls were used by
stlueresearchers to expand representrtiveness (e.-e.. Hong Kong,
Spain. and the US).
The orglnizers of CISMS put togcrher the En_glish version of the
questionnaile containing the threeinstrulnenls and additjonal
questions (e.g.. age and gender). This was used in eight
samples-tlle scvenEnglish speaking ones lnd Sweden. The rcmaining I
6 versions were translated into thc native languageof thc sample,
and were then independentlv beck-rranslated to assure lan,guage
equivalence. Portionswe--e rctranslrted as necessffy and then
retested uniil equivalent tneanings were achteved
Coplriglrt ( 2001 John Wilev & Sons. Ltd J. Oryuni:.
Bcltuv.22. Itl-5 8-ll (1001) Copyright r l(X)l .lohn Wiley &
Sorrs. Ltti. J. Orgturi:.. Beltuv. 22. 8 I 5-8ll ( 100 I )
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\It].I P E. SPF-T'TOR Er iL.Results
Dilferenca.s urtrrtg tttttiotts/te rritrtrie.s in vt.ell-being,
I-C, u,tl yr;ork LOCBcibre procceding to tests of hypothcses, we
hrst testetl fbr signihcant clifferences among the
natlons/tcrrltorlcs on thc variables in thc studv. Betbre rve can
claint our variables can bc meaningfully con-sidered at the
national level. we must show thcre are nltion dilterences, and that
there is st>nre ctegreeot consensus (Kozlowski and KIein.
20{)0). as reflected in a measure ofetfect size (Klein ar d1.,
2000).Wc conducted one -war anaivscs of variancc (ANOll\sl witlt
naf ion/tcrritoq/ :ts thc indepcndent vlri_able and each ofthe
threc well-being meilsures, WLCS and l-C as tlependent variables.
R: showed theproportion of variancc attfibutable betwcen rroups.
Well-bein-g resuits were: job satisfaction(fl23,-51i6):17.i0. p
-
,t2lt l, E. SPECTOR ar.\/_.LuO Lu receivcd her Ph.D. from
Orfi;rd University. UK. She is now an Associate Prof'essor
ofP\\'ehol()gv ar the Gra.luate InstitLrte ol Behavioral Sciences.
KaohsiLrng Nledical UnrVersity. Taiwan.Hcr lcselrch focuses on uork
stress and well-being.Karcn Nliller recciyed her MA in
industrial/organizatittnal psvchology frorr the Universitv ofrhc
Witwrtersrand in South Alrica. She is currently on the faculty of
the psychology dcpaltlllentrt thc samc universitl'. Her rescarch
interests are in the ilreas of job stress and organizationalc()nlnt
I It]tent.l-ucio lilalio Renault de r-loraes is a Profcssor itt the
Fcdcrol Universit-v" ol'IVIinas Gerais in Brazil.\lichael
O'Driscoll rece ived his Ph.D. tiorn Flinder Universitv 0f South
Austrlliit. He is Prote:sor olPsrclrglggv at the [.rni\cr\itv oi
Waikatg. Ncrv Zcallnd. His currcnt research interests include
jobstrcss antl burnout. the interface beilveenjob and ofI-the-job
roles and cxperiences. and work attitude\.cspceially job
involvcment and organizrtional conlmttnlent.(iabrielle NI.
Ostrognaf is t social resetrch consultant in Austrllil.Nlilan Pagon
Sc.D. Ph.D. is the Dcan and Associrte Protessor of Police
Administration andN,llrlrqL.nlenr at rhc Collegc ol Police and
Security Studics. Uni';cfsity oi Ljubljana. and AssociatcPrgllssor
of Organizational Behavior tt the Faculty of Organizational
Sciences. University of'lVlarihor. Slovenia.Hgria f). Pitariu is
Protessgr in industrial/organizational psychology at Babes-Bolyai
Llniversity.flLi.; \upgca. R6lnanirL. flc rcccived his Ph.D- in
psychology (197(r) frorrl Babe's-Bolyai Univcrsitr.FIis
tc'aching;rnd rcscrrchc lbcuse\ on personnel selcction and
appraisal, occttpational stress. and sonlearea ttf cogrritive
crronunrics. ile is luthor of sorne trooks in
industrrll/orglnizational psychologl: alea'tlre last being Hunttm
RestLrces Mutl(tgeilPnt: Petfonnunce AppraisaL (20OO)'Steven
Poelmans receivecl his N4A in Organizatronal Psychology (Catholic
Universiry of Leuven),illarketing Management (Vlerick Leuven Gent
Management School), and a Ph.D in Economics/Business Administration
(Univerity of Nltvana). He is currently an Assistant Protessor rt
IESEBpsiness School, University of Navarra in Barcelona. His
research intcrests are work-family contlict'tunrily-friendly
policies, career management, and managerial stress. mostly with a
cross-culturalper\pective.Phani Radhakrishnan is an Assistant
Professor of management at the University of Toronto.Scrn'horough.
Her research interests irre in ethnic relations in the workplace
and cross-culturalpsr chology.1. rs\r'lin:r RussinOrr i\ .i
rr'5curcher with the Bul-,:Jriirtt \ctde ntl' ol-Scicnces.\
lrrlirr;ir S:;hnrator is r rcscirr.'h scicntist l'itr ilte
Ul.iainian Acrdenrl of f'jublic .\clnlini5tt'ation inlr..rr.
Likrrinc. Hir ilil,'iests arc in the ilrcll ol'.iob strcss ancl
cror''nntionill issues.jrsris F. Srlgado reirrl\id liis Ph.D. lronr
Llniversitv of Slntiago tlc Contpostela (Spainl- l-le is
aPr,rlcssrrr ot work rirtl irr-:lnizrtiontl ps;chology in thc
iracultl of Ps,"'chology. University ol'Santiago!ic C611postela.
I{is re,earch focuses on personncl seiection, intt'rnational
validity generalizltirrn.ccanonlc psi choiogy'. and cross-cultirral
hunran rcstlurcc lnanilgement-.fuan I. Sanchez earned his Ph.D. in
industrial/organizational psychology from the University otSouth
Florida. He is currently an Associate Polessor of management and
international business atFl,.rida International []niyersitv. His
interests iie in the analysis of work in today's global
orgrrniza-tir"r..Sltoru shima reccivcd his Ph D fionr Keiogijuku
Universitl'' Japan' He is a Professor of mentalscic.ncc at Toklo
Kei.zai University. His resclrch fbcuses on occupational stress,
and occupatlonxlnrental health.Oi-ling Siu received her Ph.D. trom
The University ol Liverpool. England. She is an AssociatePrtrlcssor
ofpsychology at the Deptrrnrent ot Politics and Socittlogy, Lingnan
University, Hon,e Kong.
INDIViDt I,\I-IS!I AND WI]LL-BEINC IJ29
Hcr research fircuses on occupirtional stress rnd ivell-being.
organizational clinrate. and orglnizltionalc0rnrnitrneni.Kate
Sparks received her Ph.D fiom University ofNlanchester Institute
ofScience and Technology.IJMIST. UK. She is a Research Associate in
Or-sanisational and Health Psychologl, at NlanchesterSchool of
Nlana_qement. UMIST. Her research arels include workplace stress.
working hours andcnrplovee well-being and perlbrmance, and health
services managenrent.Paul E. Spector receivecl his Ph.D. in
industrirl/or-canizational psvchology tiorn the University ofSouth
Florida. He is a Protcssor and I/O pro,::rammc director at the same
university. His research inter-csts invoive thc well-being of
emplol-,ees, including cross-nalionll issucs,.iob satistaction. job
stress.and counterproductive work behavior.Jean Ileniamin Stora
rcce ived his Ph.D in Lrrw and Economics from the University of
Plris as wellas his protessional degree in Clinical Psychologl'. He
is also a Pslchoanalyst and a Psvchosrrmrti-cian. tirrnrer
Chairnran of the lnstitute of Psvchosomatics in Paris. He is a
Protcssor of StrategicVlilnagement and a Protessor of Clinical
Psychology. GROUPE HEC, Paris. His research fbcuseson stress
rnanagement, psychology of top managers. lnd cross-culturul
psycnology. He rs a consultant of psychosomatics at the hospital
'La pitii-Salptriire' in the field of stress and cardio-vascular
disease. Reiired from HEC in January 2000. he is Honorary Dean of
the Facuity andResearch of Groupe HEC.Nlare Teichn.rann is a
researcher at the Tallinn Technical University in Estonia.Tiires
Theorell MD, Ph.D. is a Protcssor of psychosocial medicine at the
Karolinska Institure inStockholnr. He is also the Direck)r of the
Nrtirrnal Institute for Psychosocial Facturs in Stockholnr.Thcorell
has published mainly in the lleld of stress and psychosomatic
medicine. specializing on cri-tical lif'e events and work
environment in relation to cardiovascular illness as well as
functional gas-trointestinal and musculoskeletal disorders.Peter
Vlerick is Assistant Prof'essor in econonric ps1'chology at thc
Faculty ofPsycholo,ey and Educa-tional Sciences. University of
Ghent. Belgiunr. He received his Ph.D. tiom the same University.
Hisresearch tbcuses on occupational stress, burnout and consumer
behavi,r.Mina lVestman received her Ph.D in Organizirtional
Behavior from the faculty of Management, TelAviv University. She is
senior lecturer and researcher rt the Graduate school of Business
Administra-tion, Tel Aviv. Her current research interests xre work
and family stress, job insecurity. respite, andcrossover of stress
and strain.Nlarirr \Vidcrsz:rl-Baz;'l Ph.D is a research scientist
tbr the Centfal Institute for Labour Prorection.Wrrsuw. Poiand. Her
work deals u,ith organizlrional stress as a risk factor in
occupational envlron-nrent. rclatiorrs bct\yeen itress at'rork and
hcalth. indir idual dilferencc: in strcss reactions anil
cultlralditterences in stress pnrccss.Plul T. P. \trong received
his Ph.D. in PslchtrLo-u1,iiom the Univer'sity of Toronto.
Currectly. he isResealch Dir.'ctor. Craduate CounselJing
Pslch,,lLrg1. Trinitl Wpstern University. BC, Canada.Shanfa Yu is
ir Prolcssorol Occr"rpltiolui \'lc.:rrlnc and Dircetorof
Occupatiorul Health in the Henanlnstitute of Occupationai
lvledicine. Dl Yu has published nrore than -[0 papers on
occupational stressand occupational health.
References
Bae K. Chung C. 1997. Cultural values and rvork attitudes of
Korean industrial workers in comparison with thoscof thc United
Strtes arrd Jrpan. !/or* unJ Otr ttl,tttions 2{: iJO 96.
./. (lr,quni:. Befutv 22. lt I 5 lt3l (l(X) I )
TL
Copyright t l00l John Wiley & Sons, Ltd J. Orgutti:.
Ilelutv. 22. lJ l5-812 (2001 .)
-
ilof forcrilmplc cermanr' indrrt. Isrrre l. swcden. and the US
all rendecl to be reiatiVcly high across alln)clsurcs llong K,n-g
and thc trK b'lh rcnded t,r tr" ,.triiu.tu Iou,. Esr.nia rvas
relatiuelv-hrgh on job:iii]i',;i'ii:Lii ;X';,';o'il';J';
n".h'r'gicrl werr-bein-s. "n,1 i,, rhc;,;ri;,;;;;,;.,i*.ir u.ing
r,lronr rpprorirnatalr,rh" n,i,l,l'tt"
mclns are relutive to one anothcr' anri that in all cases means
rverer,eins ind 2r rbr phr.sicat o-;ii;: ;:;H:ff#".::llror job
satistaction and psvchological well-
The biggest effict size ior
m*lX;j: j::t;**l[:,T:lt);:ti;ili.:,Ti:i;i:Jlit Jl],n: Tt"l,?i;
tlti,nsiderecran indi,iiruar
,.,..;;:i;J,J;:,i;::l;fi::T:Jlillii,,llii'..lilHlJ;:Jli^:""i_.lHl;r
' c.nsidered a culture variablc lt rnay bc rhat w.rk r-oi:ir'.
rneaningfui cuiture variable and reilects,r important diticrence in
belicls u..,,r, nationr/curiu.* Lif"ru this rellects how thc
woxprace,,1)erutes. rvith more autonomy rnd inclividuai control
bein,g glvcn to etlplovees in somc nations/r' I rlt,rrl('s LhJn
r)lhcr\. Thc ,llpro_,ees enloy
nigre.iev"llilg.]l;,:,,i':i'ri;i.lffii'liilii
;:,1",i:#1:H;HJ:ili;:,,1i:l:
: i:tT:r.'_"il1i","#rll ". (Ho and chiu, lee.r), antl has been
closciv tinked to it conceptuanv
('onsistent with Our seconcl':er rhose
nution,rt..,iru.i"',lli;:::1;,h:.ffil:i:iJ-iifi"il"r1ff[
r.?"r;:'i"","".""i";:.'i
' rrtrol hcljels. Thir muker rcn:',, e d w i rh i nri i v i,ru
ar i s n,,,
"
J ;:ifi ;:illH] i:THIili[ ::i:iJ'il:.1,11T:T]:$::il1;';'! rnore
concerned with group harnt.ny. and typically inclivrduals
subordinate their own control to the'
'r k group or to the supervisor. Thcrelbre, p""pl" n"ri"r"
irr"], nou" l"r. direct control over career andI l,.:i Y:.i"I-t
because they really haue less direcr conrrol;r ar leiisr are less
likel1,.ro exerr conrrot.lll:::^li.:,:lt" s:ro.nisupport lirr,ur
rhird hypothesis in rhar a' rhree well_being measures were'\'lated
wlth work Loc at the ec,r,gicar lever. Inte,nar sampres were high
on well-being relati'e\lcrnals.'mples
Again'thisttlrtkesscnseasinclividualswhoarebetterabletocontrolthe,rwork'rrtnnlenf
should be in a bettcr Posilio. to control their well-being. They
rvould be expected to take" itssertive action to change the
workplace to rheir own tiking. o. to change jobs that mlght be. r
scly affecting well_being.
t !' rrvevr" there was no support lirr our tirst hypothesrs rn
that I-C did not relrte to well-being at the,
::lji:;],|.Ti,jrlil;ll;. *",.t.,ngr), i.i";;;;;k LoC. it was nor
rerated to werr_being
,,,, ,,t ,,! (re!)51 q61y ,,,,,
llllllll,lll,il.Trrl::,il'irlilll]l..li;]i]il;::,f ;;T:i:.,1;:.,,i'
ts quite unlikely b1' clrrLrcc, s. ir seems ,""ronribr" to concrude
thar there is a verv srrarlr' I I,rr indiriJurlisnr r.
trc,rsr,r.i,,.., -,;; ,-;. '"-1- :: "':' "-' .rs 1 vcr.
rtr(.r.e u,ere ficrors tendirl llssociitted with job
satistacfion. As we explained in the introt.luc-
rr'ists have in"."0""r,,,* ro cnhrnce well_being for both
collectivists and indiviclualists.
. rvhereas inclividualisrs,-tc of enhanced social support
(llola, 1990: Sinha and Verma.
, hcing (Reykowski ;;l; ffi,i1.:1iJ:il":J fiylHJ:n,fi'::,:::.:l
:l.J.Jlil":T,ii, lfi:i l:,,ff1,i.",t;": 'n,"i1 t"nd"n.y i",
i".r'"rirrr''rs to have hisher wetr-being. ar leasr' .rc sonrc
linritarions thrrr should be kept in ntirrtl in interpretin.t
thr_\r rcsults. Respunsc biasesr' r)cres can'ary among
'irri()r)s/eulrurcs 1T.anJis. rggi, v"n de vijver and I-eung,
lggT). and'' r(count lor observed tlilterctrces in joh
satisfactir)rr rnd lvell-beir-{. For example, Spcct'r,],ltj.U
results acr.ss.iob satistaction facets lbr,*o or,"n srmples (Hong
Kong and
" ) lll comparison to rh!'LiS. .\lrhough overa)l job
satislactioD was the same, there was't r''l'iability in
f'lcct.rc'.ns rithin thc US sampre. consistent rvith rhc.rnotlestv
bias.
P E, SPECTOR ET,lI
I\l)fVll)tri\t.tS L\Nt)\\'trt_t_ fltrt\(i ll|j(smilh s1
'11 ' I 995 )' the Asians tended to ar.id indicating that therr
leelings werc extremcrv posrri'erlulrtlr, l,1/.. l()il\, {rr
rrr.Iir(t\a
Tllc context in whrch orlr data wcrc collecred should be
considcred in interyreting rcsults. perhapsItlost inlporllnllv'
this stuiif ivrs lirnitc'd ft).ranagcrs. lnd it is possibre tl.r"t
n,rn-,,.,"n,ira.il1 crlrplovccsurrrrlti vicld Jiirerent rrrrJin:.
orrr.srr.rrrLr.rr.rr hc lruriurrs in
".n"rr'tir,n.,,n,,'.-,,,'.,,rn,r,a. nn,rncluded in our studv'
espcciallv those thrt are \erv dillerent culturllly ti,nr those we
rnclucled.Fin:rll\. rlllr,'lrih rhc,,ri:rnlrJ J'lJn \\ir. l.1,,,5.,
ic1,r.r.:c,nrrtirc \rrnll(,_ ln rll rir.c\. in .r1 r;1np11.1(noted
in ottr ptocedurc scction) dlt.t collection ,rcciurred in a limited
nunrber of organizaiions. andit is p.ssible resuits lirr th.se
crunrrics rvould be t.rifrercnr h,,,r.tiii;.;,,,;;;:,;;;,;,,;;;,
ror rvpes ororqanlzations) bcen srntplcd.
There are ais. some welknesses in the vS\'19'1 nreasure ol I-c.
As we discuss elscrvhere uslng diitalr"nrCISI\lS. tlrc intcrnrl
!,,n\t\tcnL\ ,,1 lltrs nrr.usurc rrrrispeck';rt'r
ut.'2001).Arrhoush rve uscd rhe scare herc
",r1TtJ..:,,,T'::li:l:iT:iJi:j:::i:Jil.il:ithe 'ndividual
iterns dtl not relatc'wcll to one another. and perhaps resuJts
would have been trifiercnthad we used a ntelsure witIn sum,nar\',
,,u. ,",u,,,ffi, i:;il;:i':"1:"til[iii,ii;,," dir.rerences in
wer-Lreing. and rn,)scdiifcrences are rinked to diff'erences in
pcopJe s conrroi belier.s. o'the other hand. r-t was appar_cnfly
not rerated to *'eil-being (or \\ils ver) slightrv). so rncfe rs
apparentlv nothing inherent inindividualism thrl lcails to
well-bcins. ile.spitJ the strong corrclatron bc.trveen I-C anci
workLoC Howcver' cultures in *hich pcople tend r. perceive they
ha!c control tend to be assocraredwith befter well-being The
ecologicai levcl tindings rriror hndings tiom the inclivir]ual
parricipanrlevel lspector et (1l..in press.a) that belief\ and
ierc.ptrons ofcontrol at work can h"u. rotrt".yetl-eds. and this
ma1' occur universallv. although ...,"inty rhe way in *hi.h
.;;;.;i;p;.r,"r
.rn o"culturally deterntined.
Author biographies
Peggy Bernin received her lvlD fiom Karolinska Institute in
Srockholm. Sweden. rvhere sne .s eorn-pletrne her Ph D She is
curentiy $orkin-9 on several health-related projects ut IpIVI-The
NationalInstitute fbr Psychosociai Fxctors and Health.'\ndre
Biissing receir"c'd a unirc'rrirr riipronra in marh!,nr:ltjcs and
psychoio_ey and a ph.D. trom theRWTI{
"\acrrcn ancr did a habiriraritrn in rlslchorogr. H.'eu,-renrry
holds rhe chair.f ps-vchologv ar theTechnical Universitv of
NItinchen.. Ge.rnaqv. Hc ii trire cring *r."..r, p"r;..i in',rr"
,o1,.'o-i or"*o.tin-u and telecooperltion' work and
()f,r.niz;tional psvcholJly in health care. as rvell as on
transitionsfrom knowlcdge to behaviour at rvork. Prot'essor
eLissing se-rves on the editorial boartj of a nunrber ofscientitic
iournais stlch ls l)rrr,{iirr.rlirrr. l/rrrA .t srrz.r.i.
2eit.stltrili liir Artteir.stt,i.y.strt.sL.lnli.His publicatrons
rnciLrde l8 books anti orer 100 articlcs in journals antl
books.Car-y 1,. Cooper is BLIPr\ protessor. ol' Organi;ret!onll
psvcl6l6gy ancl Health and Deputy ViceChancell.r of the uni'ersit1,
.f \.[a'cheste. rnstjture o| scrcrrcc & Techn.logv. England. He
wasrcccntJl awrrded rhe CBE {Conrnranrlcr of rhe Order ol.the
Britrsh En.rpire) in ifr" 01..":. tsirthdavHonours List firr his
contriburion to hcalth and srtetr."t _orL.Philip Derve rcccived his
ph D llorr rhc Lr'ntrrn Seho,,r ,,f Economrcs rn Ba,sr.nd. Hc is an
A.nivcr-sary Reacler in orglnizatiollitl. Psvc'hokr-uv in rhe
Dcpartnrent of or-sanizrtionli psvchoioey atBirkbcck coliege'
uni'ersit' of London. His rcscarch fircuses o' work stress and
copi,*.Peter Hart is r sOcial rcserr!.h e{)lt\ull.int
ln.{ustriijiit.
l00l John Wiley & Son\. Ltd J. Or.qLuti:. IJtluu.22.
BI5_8-ll C(X)l)
-
ItJ0 P E. SPECTOR E.7,-11-Bhagat RS. Kcrlia BL. Crawibnl SE.
Kaplan jlIR. 1990. Cross_crenergent lrends and directims iur
reserrch in rha JQQn" ,1t"1t|ti:t in orgrnizationai pslchologyeme
rge nt lre nds and dire ctions iirr reserrch i" ir.", rs9;;.
;'",1':' l'l'i:t tn t 'rgrntzati' rnri p:,r e
hoi.gy:Or.qonitttiortttl Ptttlktltryt 19.)o ('att."ar D^r.,-.,..-
ra.,-, ,tt,ttrt.ttLt.l.ttrthtI R.ttt\ t,l liltlt\!ttLu
41.!?;:?l:ll;ll"llf;:,i!1"!;'i.y r.7a1
,ii';;i-'R#.;,i:,"'i'r'1lu,ii,,'liii'#iii'i:'['f;;:1i,11;1;gChao
GT. 1000. Muliilr,\el ir.ru.r, . -......,. r r rcosr. Jonr] wrley:
Chichcsre r:
-59_99.U|g(o1l.u/i()i'|.'frntnltttitllt's''.;:,::]j:l,:''i.lill:s.::l]..1i"'In',NIu1t'il,leliht,,g;ltn:ln,
!t:;::l';t,''" e'''"u'i",,'-,,,1,,ii),i'i',:,,,,,',i,i,
'il,;;"i1.'il,ii:;t,"{ii:"iJlJi"'l,it:.'1,1;1',i
ciroper cL' willirrns S l996 ottupuri.tt.l stft'.\s ltklit,k)r
vcrsiou ).0.NFER-Nclson: windsr,r. tr11a.'rlfi::i.fl:r" sJ,
wiiiianrs s 'rgss o,i,,,/;, i,,;,;;;'i;,":, rrtrtituror
,vttrtu!ettten/ 6rrrrta NFEp Nelson:I)cFmnk RS. Irrnc$.ich J\1.
Schrvei-gcr DM. l9l.]lJ. Job srrcsr.
diitcrenccs 'n"'ng ,\n'":,,.:un- Japrrr:se.
"na rnJiun ,;;,,";-;;,r.
}j],i,,|;l;l]:'fi1i.l1,,:"1'.I';1i,;ii"rrirics rnclj
,:':r,llli,::l:,,);,:::;i);,i"#;ll,:::l j;;:;q;;'-,-;,;"" r,
riork: dil,ere.nc., ;,;;;; Ens, and wcs,t"li;i;,,?:r,:;'llii,,),1",
l,e8e Curtror irr -,i,. *,,rtpr**, ,rn ./n.tcrn.ur.trtttut Revittr
,1. )ntu.r/riu! un!(iud'kunsr wB. I998.
,n4,,i.'/.l3..Stlt'p"'',cL',Robenson IT (ecls) John wir."
Ct".1,..i.r,'i-,.-tru
..
rrt.lrcrttttti,ttttt r,,,,,,,,r
,,i'i,l,lii,i,li,'li,;;:):,;ll.;lr]#. ,1.j.0".,,,., .n
.,.u,un,.,,,un, ln int^*ru.,iunllircknran JR. Oidham GR. 197
. .
rtrttl llrrttttttt pt,rfitrrnut.e , ol ;L;j;";t" tn'ough the
design of work; le st of { theo ry. orgttni;utiottul Reht^,i.r
l:''ii[',i1,1!11,i:.iilliiiXll:;,,?:,li!!:::l,;:11;, sociar
cnci,,,nrers orchinese and New zcarand
srudcnrs"'i,1.11,:,1:',i;,;:i.ii,';il?:l';;i,li,:;);;l,ili,llli:ii_:;:;:li;;,]"1)',,,,d..oc,,,,rrrni/J,i,,,,:.n;r,.,.,i,,r,,,nin,,r.d't.
Srgt': Th,'u:rntlo"ir.c,q, r.,l rso.
ttt*'r.\"lhtlt'\l rttllt'ltli,,/fi,/rf-Kinr ut.(//rl()r\rc(lc(r'
l(ll{+ Theculturrl'elativilv,ofthequalityoflif'econcept.
Acutretnt,oJMunugeaertRet,iett,g-.jg9_39g.,t,lilili
l. +i:*r.Hlil:i^,et. Mottute tset riu,,,u,t,t in,,,t,,t. ru,
Research on 1nt.,.ultu,oi.coop.,aribn:llrr,i ('ll. l9li2. Locus
ol.controi; u review ol.cross_cultural reRt ltrtiorrs 6:
-101-12-1. rrvrcw trr cross-cultutal research ful(/lt.lliortul
Jountul .l !ntett.ulturql
I ljl,ltt,L,,,:rllii'i",i,I;;,."?,,',i;,Ili
;'i,?:,i;ll.fr1..'l..r"l incrividuarism-corectivisrn and.job
satisfaction.ll,il.r I \l le,rd. Culrure rrnJ hculrh. In A1,ptir,L
C):,,.rr.C,i)),n,t t()rrks. CA; ZZg-ffti,- ttt ^/)l)Itea
Lft)t't-cttllufttl Pstcholog:. Brislin RW (ed.). Sa-"e.
I.housand"":l:l I ,ll'ililll.l,illill.l;:: ll*rcnces amons Japanese
on the center ror epidemiorogic srudies depressionr*,,r,,,r
.ruu,,,ri'i,i:ffiHit_iiii."l.iiil??i;"tfi::::f,;,^" tr,ritirt, rr,
eo7-ei+'. "'"''
"::,i,ilr,ilrffiriii:rffiiii,{{i*t*:riijr"",:"::,."" _,.T,:,
r \\ rr 'r
']\ ' I lrrc \uc \ [ E5rrh r' K. Hiro H. Nrizouc T. Mishirna N,
Nagata.s. I ggg. Can positive aff_ect itcms bc used,,,1i.,,1) il
,il]li,l:lf iil.ffi:: in the Japrncrc p,,p,,i"ii,;;;p;;,, tosrcut
,vettk.ine 28:
r.5.j_r5s.||.1ll|lll\'rJ|'',;|*;;,,..;,;*)'j]]:],;lj;,,):j,:.;l,,,,:,,,::),;,,,i.:,',i,;::1;.],];)lli:,T.lr'lrrl\ilrl
ll) l')'rs Appro'rch''s to.equivalencc i"."nr-a"iirari'"id
cross-n.tionar research. tn Cro.y.y-c.urturttr.
\utt(\ I't!ti\'ul(rrc.r. Hrrkness la^Ga.l zurnr,a,,-u1""#i_,
b.._."u, ,_ur,,,,.\ki,:, K.; s,,1[,,,,, n t(/(), /t\R6L ,ji u
C,i,'i),,",,'i',i,iiii,tr,tr,,,rcsrillc. lN. '111. ^ uttla? Io ilte
rropratil ond Appliuttions. Scicntific Software:\'l'rl{lhl\i( lv't1
'lcritierl'rppraisalolindividualismanclcollectivisrn
l.ttlndivitluqlistntntlcouecti,isrn.
u 11',.1'u '(.",',,'',.,i:! l.'.:!,il:111,-i1. IrT L' ;;,;f
(.,r.; ;;;i,ir,nu."n,, oaks. CA: .52_6.5"
I r,,',,,,,,,,,. , s ,,,.,'r,ii],'l;li"l;]'lLl':1;:'" Iatitude'
and mentll strain: i,,,prl-tio,,, rbr job redesi.en"'] 'l');'
lllit^, l'D.K'zl,qrrli s\\J.nirn*rL.irrt..{i;rrinMB,Critdnl\tA
H,,ri,,:,,,nn\
r.._.!it[i')dli:r;llll;;mli;itl]friffi;;i.jl--'-:l::1ii""i.,iil]:;l.i,,,tlrl'11
^ i::iril ,liill,li*
_ily":1:1,-rL'sey,Ba.s: s,,,i e,,,.,,.,, ;i;,:,{;:::.,-',
Eveilsion.,. ,tnd Nirtt Dire.i.*s.
,, l, ), ,'ill,lil l]""t l')\l
ll;rr,ljttr'srrrrr'lir,:,irh:rpro'pr.irivr.\^t\l\.Jt,ttnl,tl,ttt,,,,,,,t,tlirt,rt,t5.rtrt/
INDIVII)U,\LISj\,IANDWELL.tsEIN(; 8.]I
Kozlorvski slVJ' Klein KJ :(r)0 A,'dtrleveJ rppr.ach ro 1h",,;.,
,t rcscarch in organizrrions:
contexrLrrr.Fq;ilT,'ffff;,?:H;I:li:i'i'*l{:lii*:llll;,,,',,,.q,:,t,,'r",t,t,i,^;,;';;,;;,i;:';';,,,
n,u,tu,i,,,,,
Leung K. Boncl MrJ. ie8s. on
rhe.rpi*riia.",i,i*;:1,'r;r,1,:::],]:'sv-Brss; San Francisc.:
i-90..
ttf Cntts-Culrurul Psvltrlo,qr l0: ljl l_;1. 'llllelslors
lorcross-cultural conparisons.././,r/rkl1Lircoln JR' Hanada M'
o't":j; l'j-1lt:it-urai orienrations and,intJividuai reactions rn
organizrrjrns: a sru
-
IJ
P L. \PtCIrrR ET \lJrturrru! rtl 0rguni:tttittnuI IJt'Ittt
trtrJ. Orgtttri:.. Behtn 22.li-ll-ltl7 (l00lrDOI: 10. 1002/job. I 1
5
SpectorPE.CrlrlperCL.SanchezJl.O.DriscrlllN|,SparksK.Be'rninP.Bi,issingA.DcwcPHartP.LuL.NlillerK.Renaulr
de \krraes L Or,rog".y-Cvi
-p"-sn; M pitu'iu H' Poelmans i R'tlhtktithn'n P Russinova
V'Salanrtov V. Saigado: sr,,*u'!'lio OLi iu"' JB Tcichmann i\!'
Theorell T' Vlerick P \\tstman
\1'
Widerszat-Bazyl lvl.\!irngPvuS.inp'""r"t Al4nation/tenito'1
"''i).ll',":'i1 l::l'),t.::-:::i"rnrerqrontowell-being at work: how
generriizablc arc western findings l Acralcttti tll rtLtnLtqtDlcnt
J('ut nttt'
Specmr PE. Cooper CL. Sp"rt, f'-e"tnin P Biissing A' Dewe P- Lu
L \lillcr K Renauit tlc Nloraes L'
o,Driscoil !1. prgon lt. t,,tanu u. prrelmans S. Riclhakrishnan
P. Russinora V. Saianatov V. Salgado J'
Sanchez JI. Shima S. Siu Or-. stt,,lA. T;ithmann Nl' TheorellT'
Vlcrick P wcstrnan \l Widerszal-Bazyl M'Wong P Yu S.2(X)1.
An,n,.,";;;;;i *iudy of the ps-vchometric propenics ol
the.Hofstede^Values SurvevNlodule 199.1: a comparison,ri"i"Ji"il"ir
and nation/prouince level results. ApplietL Pstthopnv:
An
l nr e rntn iotul Rrr ier 50; 169-113
1TobacykJJ'TrlbaclikZS'luvz.CorrrprrisonsoIbelief'basedpersonali|yconstfuc!sinPolislranelAtltericrn
uniicrsitl sludcnts. -/ottnirrl ,,J Cn'si-Cultutu[ Psrtlto/ogr
23: ]l I--l15Triandis HC. lr)()1. Culttrre ttttl Sot ial
Befutt'ittr' McCraw-Hill: Ncw York'Triandis HC. 1995. Itttlit
idtutli srn & Collec rivi sn Westview: Boulcler'Van de Viiver
F, Leung K. t'lCl .*!,1")ti''''t'
""tl Dtua Artetlvsis Jttr Crost'Culturttl Rcseurch sage:
Thousand
Oaks. CA.
The concepturlization and ps)'chometric properties ot. the
Maslach Bumout lnventor)'iful"ril.f,
"i'O Jackson. 1981) were examined by this study A new structure
of hve bumout
factors was identihecl using a sanllle of 480 Ausiralian law
enforccment manilgers An exam-
;;;i;; ;i;r;h ii.m. "ton!
*ittt singie and confirmatorv factor analvses supported both
emo-tional exhaustion and rhe lrck ot pirsonrl accomplishment
factors splitting
into. tso tactors
*nir" 0"p..-"^irr.,ion remained'a single-factor' Th,t ":*
!-]:-]h:j"r structure rncorporatespsychological lnd somatrc
*'otn
"ptti"oi ttotional exhaustiol', and two aspects oi the lack
of personul accomplrshnlent' nameiy seli and others This
expanded frctor structure cltrifies
rhe multi-dimensional nature or tn; N{BI Funh"""t"""h directions
are discussed Copyrighti 200i John WileY & Sons, Ltd'
Re-thinking burnout
IAIN L. DENSTEN+Urirt'ruin oiNrr Soar/r llir/es
"lararrlitr
SummarY
lntroduction
Cunently,theMaslachBumoutlnventory(lvlBl)isthemostwidelyusedbumoutinstrumentwhosedevelopment
has significanrly contribure; to research of the phenomenon.
The MBI has enabled the
multi-dimensionalaspectsofbu.nouttobemeasuredwhichhasfurtherdistinguishedburnoutfromrelatedconceptssuchasdepression,dissatisfaction.tension,conflict,pressure'andparticularlystress.ThedistinctionbetweenburnoutandStressisinrportanttoundcrstandbecauseoftheirinter-relation-ship.Briefly,specificstressors(eg'roleconflict'ambiguity'andover-stimulation)causcstressrnlneshort
ternr, rvhile in the long tcrnr-these stres\!)r\ can ira'e an
rccumulating ellect
whicit cltuses burn-
out (Brill. l9g4: caltlwcil ,,,,,,-;,,,ii;s. l99l: (ir'cicn.
tt)!)-l: flold rnd Ilorh. 19L131 Whilc rhe lvlBI
isrecognizeclasarobustinstfull]ent.itl-strucrurlii.'liiclityisn()tbc\Ondquestion(Scheuf.e1iera1..L993)'
Mas]achantiJackson(193])estlblislre.lrlrrcc|tcrors0l.bulnoutthltnlc:]'.ureemotionllexhaustlon'depersonalization.
an,t teettng..-oir.J,,..,r pcrsonal rcconrplrshment.
Horvever. several studies (Firth
etal.,l985;lrvllticktandScll\\rb'l9Sl:PoscisrtltlGore'198(r)tbundthattheMBlnreasurestburtnctors,
wlrile others (Brookrngs ct rr1 ' 1985: Dignam et ai ' 1986; Green
et al" 19911
mainllined that
the MBI measures only t*o fa.:tors. Recently. strrlies using
confirrnarcry tactor analyses (Byrne' 1993;
Gold er 41., 19891 Lee ono o'itt*t'' 1990: Sch'rtrfeli and Van
Dierendonck' 1993) have identified the
original three-flctor model ^r:;;.;;", ro severtrl rlrernarive
models. However, Schaufeli et al' (1993)
;;a"** ,,,: Dr lrrn L- Derr\ten school ol- Ectrnonlics rnd
shilrgcment Uni'rerslty r)f Nclv South wales Austrllrrn
9",.n.e 5,,rcc \urJern1. ( rnhurrr \'T ihrilr' \u'lrJlrrrE mril:
i-dcnsten@lrdfr'oz du
RettiYatl l6 liurch l99i:/?elircrl I'i I'ottnlrcr 1993
At(ePtKl 20 Augrr'rr 2()01Puhli.slrcd otlint' l7 Ot tthar
2001]C
Itt
Copyright (' l00l John Wiley & Sons.
\J. Orgtuti:. Bthav. 22.8 l -5-812 (100 I )
opyrigiii ( 2001 lohn Wilcv & Sitns Lttl