Title: A cross-cultural comparison of problem solving beliefs and behaviours: helping managers understand country differences

Authors: Cheryl Van Deusen, Carolyn B. Mueller, Gordon Jones, Harris Friedman

Addresses: Dept. of Management, Marketing & Logistics, College of Business Administration, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA. Dept. of Management, Unit 8398, School of Business Administration, Stetson University, Deland, FL 32720, USA. Hawaii Pacific University, 1188 Fort Street Mall, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, USA. Saybrook Graduate School & Research Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

Abstract: This research looked at employee beliefs and behaviours about different problem solving approaches and their effectiveness. A large-scale survey was conducted on employees of 26 organisations located in seven countries Australia, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, and the USA. While significant differences were found among different employee levels in how organisational problems are solved and the quality of those solutions, national culture, or country, appears to be the principal explanatory measure for these differences. The most important findings appear to be that organisations in individualistic nations are moving toward more collectivist approaches to problem solving, employees at all levels in their organisations are involved in problem solving, and problems appear to re-occur most often in US firms and least often in South Korean organisations.

Keywords: problem solving; decision quality; cultural differences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2002.001227

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2002 Vol.3 No.1, pp.52-66

Published online: 01 Jul 2003 *

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