| During the past fifteen years American business corporations have been seriously challenged by international rivals and their favorable competitive position has eroded. Practitioners and researchers in searching for causes have pointed to a current and projected lack of appropriately motivated American managers. Recent research has indicated that one strategy to overcome this shortage might be to recruit highly motivated managers and potential managers from other nations.;A literature search indicated that the study was a valuable extension cross-cultural managerial motivation research, Data was collected using The Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form H (MSCS) a measure of managerial motivation and the Cross-Cultural Background Questionnaire (CCBQ) a measure of cultural variables. Both instruments were equivalently translated into Spanish, pilot tested and administered to two samples of Mexican potential managers: one preparing for managerial careers at Mexican universities and another derived from Mexican foreign students of business at over twenty-three universities in the United States. Data were also collected from a matched sample of Americans.;The results indicate that Mexicans were significantly higher in managerial motivation than Americans and that the Mexican samples were not significantly different. Managerial motivation did have the same meaning across cultures and exposure to American culture had no effect on the motivation levels of the international students. The cultural variables found to be most related to managerial motivation levels, other than nationality, were being from a close family, being married, and being less well-traveled. Religiousness also was found to have some effect.;The results confirm the hypothesis that careful recruitment of international talent is a way to overcome the shortage of highly motivated American potential managers. Additionally, the results, have pointed to cultural variables, other than nationality, which are somewhat related to managerial motivation level.;This study sought to begin the international search for highly motivated managerial talent. Another purpose was to test further recent research findings that managerial motivation means the same thing across cultures and is not affected by exposure to American culture. Additionally, the study continued the search for cultural variables related to higher levels of managerial motivation. |
