CULTURAL MODERNITY, LEADERSHIP AND JOB SATISFACTION.

In recent year, there has been a growing interest in the area of cross-cultural behavioral research. The evidence regarding the impact of culture on workers' job attitudes has often been meager and contradictory because the research had several common problems that limited the interpretation of the evidence presented. Ajiferuke and Boddewyn (1970a; 1970b), Slocum and Topichak (1972), and Slocum et al. (1973) identified three major problem areas: (1) inadequate delineation of culture and failure to operationally define the term; (2) inadequate data analysis and research instruments, and (3) inadequate control for the possible moderating effects of organizational and interpersonal influences on job attitudes. The present research addressed these methodological problems by examining the influence of modernity, a cultural attribute, on workers' job attitudes while controlling for the possible extraneous effects of work technology, organizational structure and supervisory leadership style. The significant interaction effect on job satisfaction between culture and feedback on performance (Table 1) appears to be consistent with the more tentative finding of Slocum et al. (1973). These researchers concluded that workers in a modern culture were more sensitive to variations in performance feedback skills than were traditional workers. However, the reader should keep in mind that in the present study, the measure of culture did not discriminate job attitudes among countries. Given this limitation and the lack of construct validity of the measure, the theoretical relevance of the interaction between human skills and modernity upon job satisfaction appears to be minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]