Testing the Research Questions

Research Question One

1. Which one of the three dimensions has most impact on Mongolians in cases they cooperate with Chinese managers whose cultural background is radically different from theirs?

Hypothesis (H0). From a Mongolian employee’s perspective, there is no difference between HPD, MAS and LTO in terms of impact.

On each of the 18 statements, participants were asked to respond to a forced choice item to indicate how they would feel in those hypothetical situations. As aforementioned, each six statements of a total of 18 represent characteristics of high power distance society, high masculine or long term oriented society. To examine the first research question, thus, three

overall mean level of satisfaction for each dimension, i.e. the mean of the means in table 7, 8 and 9 were calculated. Then one way analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare amount of variance between HPD, MAS and LTO.

Table 11: Means and ANOVA Summary Table a sample of 47 Mongolian employees

Descriptives Dissatisfaction values

N Mean Std.

Deviation

Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Minimum Maximum Lower Bound Upper Bound

HPD 47 4.3298 1.04863 .15296 4.0219 4.6377 1.83 6.00

MAS 47 4.1170 1.23794 .18057 3.7535 4.4805 1.33 6.33

LTO 47 3.5461 .88649 .12931 3.2858 3.8064 1.00 5.50

Total 141 3.9976 1.11055 .09353 3.8127 4.1825 1.00 6.33

ANOVA Dissatisfactiononvalues

Sum of Squares

df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 15.438 2 7.719 6.775 .002

Within Groups 157.228 138 1.139

Total 172.666 140

Mean scores of three cultural characteristics differed from each other to some degree, for instance, the sample means for three cultural characteristics were: HPD- 4.32, MAS- 4.11 and LTO-3.54. Results of the one way ANOVA indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between three cultural characteristics from the sample of 47 Mongolian employees’

perspectives from the facts that the calculated F was 6.775, and p-value of 0.02 is less than alpha 0.05. It can be concluded that at least two of the means are different and this conclusion will be right 95 times out of 100. Thus, the hypothesis was rejected and Post hoc procedures were carried out to determine exactly where the differences in mean scores occurred.

Table 12: Comparisons between HPD, MAS and LTO

Tukey and Scheffe’s tests were executed to find out where the differences exist among HPD, MAS and LTO. Both of the tests showed a difference between MAS and LTO as well as HPD and LTO. Yet any statistical difference was not found between MAS and HPD. Even though Scheffe’s test is considered to be one of the most conservative owing to its requirement of a greater difference between the means (Lunenburg & Irby, 2008), differences between HPD and LTO as well as between MAS and LTO were able to be found. According to Tukey’s test, p value is 0.01, which is less than the alpha of 0.05, when comparing HPD with LTO from the sample of 47 Mongolian employees’ perspectives whereas Scheffe’s test proved a difference between HPD and LTO at the 0.02 level. As to a difference between MAS and LTO, the latter found a difference at the significant level of 0.03, but the former did it at the 0.02 level.

F (6.775) = .002. < .05.

Multiple Comparisons Dependent Variable: Satisfactiononvalues

(I) Values (J) Values Mean Difference (I-J)

Std. Error Sig. 95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound Upper Bound

*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.

Research question Two

1. To what extent do differences of power distance, masculinity and long-term orientation predicted by Hofstede really exist in the workplace in Mongolia?

Checklist or Multiple Choice Multiple-Response Scale was chosen to investigate which characteristics of the three dimensions occur most frequently in the workplace as perceived by Mongolian employees. This time participants are asked to check all statements with which the participants had encountered in the workplace.

Table.13: frequencies of HPD descriptions

Responses N Percent Power in the organisation is centralised 15 19.5%

The organization's structure is hierarchical 22 28.6%

There is a wide salary range between top and bottom of

the organization 12 15.6%

There are more supervisory personnel 8 10.4%

Managers rely on superiors and on formal rules 7 9.1%

Managers tell exactly what to do instead of consulting 13 16.9%

Total 77 100.0%

Table.14: frequencies of MAS descriptions

Responses N Percent Conflicts are resolved by letting the most powerful win. 9 15.5%

The management is decisive and aggressive in the

organization. 5 8.6%

Employees in the organization live in order to work. 10 17.2%

Rewards are based on equity. 8 13.8%

More money is preferred over leisure time. 13 22.4%

Careers are compulsory for men but optional for women. 13 22.4%

Total 58 100.0%

Table.15:frequencies of LTO descriptions

Responses N Percent Management expects from you certain work values such as honesty,

accountability, and self-discipline. 17 23.6%

Your boss willingly delays worker's material or social success or even

short-term emotional gratification to prepare for the future. 8 11.1%

Profits 10 years from now are more important than today’s fulfillment. 10 13.9%

From boss's viewpoint leisure time is not important. 23 31.9%

Managers and workers share the same aspirations. 11 15.3%

Wide social and economic differences are undesirable. 3 4.2%

Total 72 100.0%

Tables 13, 14 and 15 show the frequencies of 18 variables chosen by the respondents.

Firstly, each statement was discussed per se and then the statements were looked at as a set of one particular cultural dimension. In other words, 18 statements were individually observed by counting how many times each statement has been voted by the respondents; afterwards, every six statements representing one cultural value were looked at as one holistic cultural value such as HPD, MAS and LTO. By using multiple response format, the statements of the second research question could receive only responses for each item relating to actual

experienced situations, regardless of the number of the participants. Participants had to tick variables on the condition that they had encountered them before in the workplace. If a participant thinks that he or she has no experience of the situation, the participant does not have to respond to the statements. As a result, the individual statements for the second research question had fewer responses than the number of the respondents.

The least chosen statement was ‘Wide social and economic differences are undesirable’

from LTO with 4.2%. In contrast, the statement also from LTO ‘From boss's viewpoint leisure time is not important’ became the most selected statement by 31.9%. The second most chosen statement was ‘The organization's structure is hierarchical’ representing HPD with 28.6%. This was followed by ‘Management expects from you certain work values such as honesty, accountability, and self-discipline’ with 23.6%. The statement represents LTO as well.

To look data in terms of cultural dimensions, the tables demonstrate that the participants mostly responded to HPD and secondly responded to LTO. Thus, it suggests that from the perspective of Mongolian employees working for Chinese employers, the situations about HPD and LTO may occur in the workplace mostly compared to the representative situations of MAS.

4.4 Summary

This chapter began with an introduction to give an overview of the analysis and statistical tests that were to be discussed throughout the chapter. This was followed by a descriptive statistics of the 18 independent variables. Then Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to validate interval consistency of the statements. The results of one way ANOVA between HPD, MAS and LTO and a descriptive statistics for the second research questions were shown respectively. In the following chapter, summary, practical implications, limitations of this study and suggestions for a succeeding research will be discussed in detail.