The influence of cultural differences on the relationship between employee and supervisor, and employee attitudes and behavior

Abstract

Today's organizations increasingly employ employees and supervisors with different cultural backgrounds. Cultural differences can have an effect on the relationship between an employee and her/his supervisor and through that on employee attitudes and work behavior. Therefore, this study examined the influence of cultural similarity between supervisor and employee and the cultural intelligence of the supervisor on the employees' perception of the relationship between supervisor and employee. In addition, the relationship between the perception of the relationship on the one hand and employee engagement, absenteeism and intention to quit on the other hand was assessed. In a sample of 798 employees of a multinational company in the logistics sector, it was found that cultural similarity and cultural intelligence were associated with the perception of the relationship between supervisor and employee. The perception of the relationship was found to be associated with the level of engagement and the intention to quit. However, there were no substantial differences between groups of supervisors and employees with different versus the same nationality, or with small versus large country culture differences. The implications of these results for managing cross-cultural differences and ambidexterity are discussed.