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Abstract

The paper investigates whether organisational commitment is culturally bound. Literature was reviewed on the impact of Hofstede’s four dimensions of culture on organisational commitment. Three hypotheses were put forward in relation to the cultural impact on the three components of organisational commitment: affective, normative and continuance commitment. Data was collected from two branches of an American multinational corporation with operations in China and Ireland. The two cultures were chosen as they demonstrate differences as well as similarities on Hofstede’s dimensions, which provided an opportunity to explore the cultural impact. The results supported two of the hypotheses that Chinese employees have higher levels of affective and normative commitment than their Irish counterparts. Such findings reaffirm some extant literature and justified the conclusion that affective and normative commitments are culturally bound. If organisational commitment is culturally bound then it is sufficient to use Hofstede’s cultural scores to compare organisational commitment across cultures. In addition, income was found to be significant in predicting continuance and normative commitment; tenure was a significant factor in understanding affective and normative commitment.

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