Comparing the Effects of Individual Cultural Values on the Person-Environment Fit of Filipino Remote Workers in Philippine-based Call Center and Advertising Companies

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the majority of organizations to shift from a traditional, office working setup into a virtual, remote working one. Even if the world is in the post-pandemic era now, remote working is still considered to be one of the preferred methods of employees and businesses, especially here in the Philippines. With that, this research study aims to explore the relationship between the individual cultural values and person-environment fit of remote call center and advertising company employees. Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and the Person-Environment Fit Theory, the study employed a causal-comparative research design by surveying 100 participants divided equally into the two company groups. Results show that person-job fit can be predicted by different cultural values—individualism-collectivism (r = 0.32, p = 0.03) and masculinity-femininity (r = 0.36, p = 0.01) for remote call center employees; and uncertainty avoidance (r = 0.31, p = 0.03), individualism-collectivism (r = 0.32, p - 0.02), and long-term orientation (r = 0.48, p < 0.01) for remote advertising employees. In addition, the person-supervisor fit of remote call center employees has a monotonic relationship with their uncertainty avoidance (r = 0.30, p = 0.03) and individualism-collectivism (r = 0.34, p = 0.02) cultural values. Moreover, it is found that the all five cultural dimensions tested showed the opposite of Hofstede's national cultural indices, suggesting that remote work environments may create unique cultural value systems that transcend national culture. Recommendations for future research include applying the framework to other industries and relating the cultural values and person-environment fit levels to more tangible workplace outcomes.