Nations differ on work commitment

If you are concerned your staff are not particularly committed to your business, there may be little you can do about it. Researchers from Cass Business School, City of London, have found that levels of commitment and employee engagement vary enormously between nations and cultures and are closely linked to the overall happiness of a population.

Dr Garry Gelade studied national differences in organisational commitment in a sample of 49 countries, and looked at whether the economy, national personality or cultural values had the most impact.

Brazil, Israel and Cyprus ranked as the countries with the most committed employees, and at the other end of the scale, Russia, Japan and Hong Kong had the lowest. The UK was ranked 34th, preceded by Estonia and followed by Taiwan.

Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland ranked as the happiest, while Latvia, Bulgaria the Russian Federation were the least happy.

Dr Gelade found that commitment is high in countries where the population is extravert, and low in countries where the population is neurotic, that is, more prone to negative tendencies, such as anxiety. As a result, commitment is also high in countries where the population is happy.

Socio-economic conditions have a marginal influence on commitment, which is slightly higher in countries with lower unemployment and economically robust, but is unrelated to per capita national income.

Few studies have attempted to account for national differences in commitment levels. At the organisational level, a highly committed workforce is associated with high company performance. At a national level, however, this is not the case; countries with the highest levels of commitment are not necessarily the most economically successful.

Dr Gelade comments: “With an increase in corporate employment in many parts of the world, many corporations operate cross-nationally and employ an international workforce. This study will have practical implications for organisations seeking to maximise commitment levels among a global workforce.

An aside on Dr Gelade

If you are a betting person, you may also be interested in another piece of research from Dr Gelade. He is the author of research that shows the strength of a nation’s football team depends on the number of men who regularly play football, the length of its football tradition, the wealth of its population, the percentage of expatriate players in the national team, and climatic conditions. These factors explain 70 percent of the variance in international team ratings.

References

Gelade, G.A., Dobson, P., & Gilbert, P. (2006). National Differences in Organizational Commitment: Effect of Economy, Product of Personality, or Consequence of Culture? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 37, 542-556.

Gelade, G.A., & Dobson, P. (2007). Predicting the Comparative Strengths of National Football Teams. Social Science Quarterly, vol. 88, 244-258.

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