COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WORK VALUES IN ASEAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

The impact of macro-cultural and micro-cultural factors on the formation of work values in Asean people was examined using the Survey of Work Values. The sample was obtained from five subsidiaries of a Japanese multinational electronic company in each of the five Asean countries (508 respondents), and two subsidiaries of an American multinational electronic company in two of the Asean countries (146 respondents). Interviews were also conducted with some of the employees from the above two companies. Six different scales of work values were compared across groups using Mann-Whitney O test and one-way ANOVA. The results indicated that macro-culture did assume an important role in the formation of work values and religions could be used to explain the differences existed between work values of Asean people to a large extent. The impact of the company culture on work values was also observed amongst the employees in Japanese and American companies. The employees in the Japanese company differed significantly from the employees in the American company on the work values of Job Involvement and Attitude Toward Earning.