Commitment across cultures: A meta-analytical approach

The present study reports two sets of meta-analyses of employee commitment across cultures. First, using three-level hierarchical linear modeling, differences in mean levels of commitment were investigated. We examined the effects of individualism-collectivism and power distance values and practices (Hofstede, GLOBE) while controlling for study and industry effects. The findings showed that affective commitment (across 48 countries), continuance commitment (31 countries) and normative commitment (30 countries) were influenced by country-level individualism and power distance. Greater collectivism was associated with higher normative commitment, and greater power distance was associated with higher continuance and normative commitment. Economic variables were found to exert a strong influence on affective and normative commitment means. Second, relationships between affective commitment and turnover intentions (across 26 countries) were found to be somewhat stronger in individualistic settings, whereas the normative commitment-turnover intentions relationships (across 10 countries) were stronger in collectivistic settings. Overall, absolute cross-cultural differences in all analyses were relatively small compared with differences due to study and industry effects, but country-level predictors accounted for substantive proportions of the variance between countries. Implications for commitment and cross-cultural research are discussed, and particular attention is drawn to the need to explore the meaning of commitment across cultural and economic contexts. Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40, 1339-1358. doi: 10.1057/jibs.2009.14