TALKING HEADS
T
What constitutes career success for you?
I
Anders Dysvik
Business leaders
must understand
the cultural
variations in what
motivates workers.
n the modern workplace,
where the proportion of
contingent workers is
increasing and flexible
working is becoming more common,
people are expected to be more
proactive in managing their own careers.
This is associated with career success
— which makes perfect sense: if you are
more proactive in your efforts to
progress in your career, you are more
likely to achieve your goals. But what do
you consider success?
One person might view a pay rise as
a great indicator of their success, while,
for another, it’s the ability to achieve
work-life balance. Such variations in how
we perceive success may be down to
cultural differences.
My global research into this found
that, overall, workers are more likely to
be proactive in seeking financial success
than work-life balance. However, the
relative significance varied according
to cultural attitudes.
Those cultures that placed a stronger
emphasis on financial success tended to
be more tolerant of uncertainty, meaning
that they are better at accepting change
and more willing to take risks; they
included countries in Latin America
and Eastern Europe, including Brazil
and Georgia.
An emphasis on financial success
was also noted in countries with distinct
“Organisations with
an international
workforce cannot
assume that all
their workers
measure success
in identical ways”
power differentials (those that accept
that there is an unequal distribution of
authority and power), such as Japan and
China. These cultures are characterised
by strong hierarchies and limited
social mobility.
Meanwhile, achieving work-life
balance was given a higher priority in
countries (including the UK, Turkey,
Australia and Zimbabwe) that placed a
strong emphasis on human factors such
as wellbeing and equality.
A tendency to prioritise teamwork,
collaboration and common goals would
seem to indicate that a culture prioritises
work-life balance, and that workers
in these countries would perceive a
strong pursuit of financial success to
be selfish. In actual fact, they also put
an emphasis on financial success. This
might be because people believe that
individuals will use their financial success
to benefit others. In collectivist countries
such as China, India and Nigeria, a poor
work-life balance is often considered
to be the inevitable cost of providing
for your family.
All this shows that culture affects how
individuals decide which career goals
to focus on. People tend to engage
in behaviour that they consider the
norm; if others from the same culture
prioritise financial success, they will tend
to prioritise it too.
With the world growing ever-more
connected, understanding how to work
with different cultures is increasing in
relevance. For example, organisations
with an international workforce cannot
assume that all their workers prioritise
the same things or measure success
in identical ways.
People feel more satisfied and
experience enhanced wellbeing
when they perceive themselves to be
successful, so it is vital to understand how
workers from different cultures prioritise
different career goals. Business leaders
must realise this if their organisations
are to thrive in today’s interconnected,
global marketplace.
A n d e r s D y sv i k i s p rof e s s o r of
organisational behaviour at
BI Norwegian Business School.
February – May 2020 // 61