Search

This article presents information on an alternative questionnaire strategy for conducting cross-cultural research on managerial attitudes. Previous studies attempted to link managerial attitudes with levels of industrialization. Support for the position was reported in the developing countries of Argentina, Chile, and India where attitudes clustered despite assumed variations in culture. The limitations of that position can be found in scholar D.S. Pugh's discussion of technology theories of organization. There are difficulties in conducting research with a single questionnaire without specifying exactly how the level of industrialization and the broader domain of culture arc expected to influence the managerial attitudes. Such a research strategy offers little in the way of explanation or prediction. Use of a second questionnaire that focuses on cultural traditions outside the field of business vastly improves the potential for explanation and avoids the paradoxes that have resulted from the single questionnaire research strategy. These studies reported that managers do not have a strong belief in the individual's innate capacity for leadership and initiative, yet they do believe in sharing information and encouraging participation and self-control by subordinates.

Presents a speech by the author on industrial development and the attitude of the industrialists to the world that was delivered at the Golden Jubilee Conference of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London, England on November 16, 1971. Views on the National Institute of Industrial Psychology; Circumstances with which people are confronted in the world today; Factors responsible for affecting industrial development and the attitude of the industrialist to the world; Impact of the change in social structure and in the behavior of men on industrial development.