Finding unity in diversity: feelings of cultural dissimilarity in a multinational organization

Abstract

Business has gone global and multiple companies set up regional offices around the globe. These regional offices often have both local and foreign employees who constantly interact with each other in order to achieve organizational goals. Past studies have shown that employees of multinational companies with multicultural settings find multiple ways to adapt to their work setting to fulfil their organizational role requirements. Such employees associate themselves to cultural change as a coping mechanism for Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity. However, there haven't been studies that show the relationship between Intercultural Interaction Skills and Willingness to Cooperate among employees in a multinational setting. Moreover, there aren't any known studies about Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity and how it moderates such relationship. This research determines the role of Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity as a moderating variable of the relationship between Intercultural Interaction Skills and Willingness to Cooperate among local employees of a multinational organization. All Filipino employees of Company X were selected to create a census. Data on the levels of their Intercultural Interaction Skills, Willingness to Cooperate, and Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity were collected using a survey instrument with a Likert Summated-like Rating Scale for correlation. In correlating the relationship between Intercultural Interaction Skills and Willingness to Cooperate, results show that there is a moderate relationship between the two variables. Likewise, Intercultural Interaction Skills is a significant predictor for Willingness to Cooperate. On the other hand, Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity do not moderate the relationship of Intercultural Interaction Skills and Willingness to Cooperate as proven through multiple regression statistical testing that showed that the interaction of Intercultural Interaction Skills and Feelings of Cultural Dissimilarity is not a significant regressor for Willingness to Cooperate.