Empowerment and continuous improvement in the United States, Mexico, Poland, and India: Predicting fit on the basis of the dimensions of power distance and individualism

Although variations in national cultures predominate as explanations for th e belief that universal approaches to management do not exist, there have b een few reports of systematic studies. Data from employees of a single firm with operations in the United States, Mexico, Poland, and India were used to test the fit of empowerment and continuous improvement practices with na tional culture. Using the theoretical constructs of individualism-collectiv ism and power distance, the authors predicted that the practices would be m ore congruent in some cultures than in others and that value congruence wou ld result in job satisfaction. Using structural equations modeling, the aut hors found that empowerment was negatively associated with satisfaction in India but positively associated in the other 3 samples. Continuous improvem ent was positively associated with satisfaction in all samples. Substantive , theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.