Work Values & Commitments Of Chinese And American Young Generation

This thesis endeavors to explore cross-cultural similarities and differences in cognitive, affective, and instrumental work values between Chinese and American young generation. The configurations of work commitments in these two cultures are also investigated. On the basis of Chinese and American cultural dimensions, the author has proposed hypotheses about the cross-cultural pattern in the young generation, aiming to examine the underlying cultural attributes.Schwartz's Value Inventory and cultural dimensions serve as the theoretical framework of this research, which touches upon the role of cultural dimensions such as embeddedness- autonomy, hierarchy-egalitarianism, and mastery-harmony in shaping work values and commitments. In view of Elizur's facet analysis of work value domain and Meyer and Allen's definition of organizational commitment, the cross-cultural study is conducted.In order to examine the relative importance of work values and commitments across cultures, the author modified Super's Work Value Inventory and designed the on-line survey in Chinese and English, and collected the data from Chinese and American respondents in an effective way. After data processing, it is found that there are considerable similarities in work values between Chinese and American young generation. For instance, job interest, advancement, pay, contribution to society, and helping others are all ranked quite highly in two cultural settings. However, there are also cross-cultural differences, e.g. adding beauty to the world through work gets more recognition in Chinese young generation than that in American setting. In addition, affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment are differentially related to the organizational behaviors of Chinese young generation while affective commitment is the major type of commitment related to the organizational behaviors of American young generation. At the end of the thesis, some implications are provided for MNCs in China to motivate and retain local talents effectively.