For someone like I who has grown up under one predominant culture and set of motivational standards, it is quite interesting for me to read Matt Palmquist’s article “Managers Need to Understand Their Sales Reps’ Cultural Values”[i], which is published in business+strategy magazine. Palmquist utilizes and analyses a study[ii] of 400 sales reps from 38 countries across 4 continents to represent the differing needs and demands in terms of motivation. The results of the survey showed that, “cultural differences play a subtle and complex role in how people are motivated” making generic reward systems from multinational companies as inefficient and incoherent.
This article connects to our classroom topic of expectancy theory, but more specifically the importance of improving valence in the work place based on cultural needs and differences. Evidence does support this theory that cross-cultural settings are an effective place for implementing expectancy theory.[iii] There is quite a logical process behind the idea that individuals value rewards differently depending on their culture, meaning that multinational companies having different reward systems based on region is an effective action. Taking that idea, a step further, I think that companies should not only go by region but give each office in the company the autonomy to be able to have each employee choose their reward preferences (flexible benefits). This idea may work better for some job positions and cultures better then others but treating each individual in a company as such will boost employee moral, in turn reducing turnover, increasing employee satisfaction, and likely to increase customer satisfaction. Although such benefit plans are often difficult to implement, the possible benefits immensely outweigh those challenges.
[i] Palmquist, M. (2016, September 22). Managers Need to Understand Their Sales Reps’ Cultural Values. Retrieved February 03, 2017, from http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Managers-Need-to-Understand-Their-Sales-Reps-Cultural-Values
[ii] “Motivating Sales Reps for Innovation Selling in Different Cultures,” by Sebastian Hohenberg and Christian Homburg (University of Mannheim), Journal of Marketing, March 2016, vol. 80, no. 2
[iii] K. I. van der Zee, J. N. Zaal, and J. Piekstra, “Validation of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire in the Context of Personnel Selection,” European Journal of Personality 17(2003), pp. S77-S100.
