A contrarian view: Culture and participative management

Managers from fourteen countries describe the level of subordinate participation they would employ in thirty decision-making situations. Culture differences exist in the level of autocratic/democratic behavior managers display. However, within-country (person) differences exceed between-county (culture) differences. Importantly, systematic within-person differences also exist and indicate that managers are more similar in their participative behavior than they are different. The over-attribution of behavior to cultural causes is discussed.