This Is AuburnElectronic Theses and Dissertations

The Impact of National Culture on the Relationships among Organizational Culture, Psychological Contract, and Subjective Well-Being in the Hotel Industry

Date

2013-07-16

Author

Park, Seul Gi

Type of Degree

dissertation

Department

Nutrition and Food Science

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among organizational culture, psychological contract, and subjective well-being. Specifically, it aims to identify the mediating effect of psychological contract in the relationship between organizational culture and subjective well-being. Additional aim is to examine the moderating effect of national culture in the relationship among these three variables. Organizational culture is defined as the combination of basic assumptions and beliefs that members of an organization share in common, which consists of six factors; teamwork, morale, information flow, involvement, supervision, meetings. Psychological contract is defined as an individual’s beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding the terms of an exchange agreement between the individual and his or her organization, which consists of two factors; employee’s feeling about employers’ obligation of pay and support. Subjective well-being is defined as people’s emotional and cognitive evaluations of their lives, that is, overall life satisfaction. A total of 462 responses were collected from employees at hotels in the U.S. (n=208) and South Korea (n=254). To achieve the purposes of this research, seven hypotheses were developed, and Structural Equation Modeling was conducted to examine them. The findings are as follows. Hypothesis 1, the relationship between organizational culture and psychological contract was partially supported. Four of the six organizational culture factors, morale, involvement, supervision and meetings, were associated with psychological contract. Hypothesis 2, the relationship between organizational culture and subjective well-being was partially supported. Out of the six organizational culture factors, involvement and meetings, significantly positively influenced subjective well-being. Hypothesis 3, the relationship between psychological contract and subjective well-being, was partially supported. Pay, one of the psychological contract factors, had a significantly positive influence on subjective well-being. Hypothesis 4 was also partially supported where pay was found to mediate the relationship between three factors of organizational culture; morale, involvement, and meetings and subjective well-being. Finally, the role of national culture as a moderator was confirmed in four relationships: the relationships between supervision and pay, between meetings and support, between morale and subjective well-being, and between supervision and subjective well-being. First, in the relationship between supervision and pay, supervision had significantly positive effects on pay in the US, but had a significantly negative effect in South Korea. Second, in the relationship between meetings and support, meetings had a greater significantly positive impact on support in South Korea than in the US. Third, in the relationship between morale and subjective well-being, morale had a significantly negative influence on subjective well-being in the US, but had a significantly positive influence in South Korea. Fourth, in the relationship between supervision and subjective well-being, supervision had a significantly negative influence on subjective well-being in the US. In contrast, supervision had significantly positive influence on subjective well-being in South Korea. Consequently, hypothesis 5, the relationship between organizational culture and psychological contract is moderated by national culture, and hypothesis 6, the relationship between organizational culture and subjective well-being is moderated by national culture, were partially supported; however, hypothesis 7; the relationship between psychological contract and subjective well-being is moderated by national culture, was not supported. This research contributes to existing theoretical studies. It also suggests managerial recommendations for hotel managers in the development of desirable organizational culture and directions for them to improve employees’ subjective well-being, thus leading to employee productivity, which in turn impacts organizational outcome.