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Научни трудове на Съюза на учените в България-Пловдив, Серия A. Обществени науки, изкуство и култура том III, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print) ; ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017, Scientific works of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria-Plovdiv, seriesA. Public sciences, art and culture, Vol. III, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print); ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017.
ВЗАИМОВРЪЗКИ МЕЖДУ НИВАТА НА ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННА ПОДКРЕПА, МУЛТИКУЛТУРАЛИЗЪМ И АКУЛТУРАЦИЯ В СЪВРЕМЕННИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ Стоянка Христова СУ „Св. Климент Охридски"
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEVELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT, MULTICULTURALISM AND ACCULTURATION IN CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS Stoyanka Hristova SU "St. Kliment Ohridski"
Abstract: This paper presents empirical study on levels of perceived organizational support, multiculturalism and acculturation in organization, and the relationship between them. The results obtained when applying correlation analysis indicated that all of the three phenomena studied correlated to each other and completely verified the hypothesis formulated.
Keywords: Organizational support, Multiculturalism, Acculturation
The dynamic trends of globalization, migration and transnationalization of business and industry in the today's world pose new and complex challenges to both modern organizations and people working in them, regarding work stress and its moderating factors, such as perceived organizational support which has the effect of buffer in terms of relationship between stressors and perceived stress in the workplace satisfying the social-emotional needs and reducing the tension of negative psychological and psychosomatic effects of stressors, providing material and emotional support when individuals have to deal with the high demands of workplace (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002).
Palmer, et al. (2001, 2004) considered culture as one of the main categories of potential stressors. Therefore, certain cultural factors in organizations, such as the ever increasing cultural diversity of workforce, may be a prerequisite for raising the level of experienced work stress and place the need of updating techniques for providing organizational support and adapting them to new cultural characteristics of the workplace. That raises the necessity of reviewing theoretical notions on organizational support in the context of cultural phenomena such as multiculturalism and acculturation within the organization.
Multiculturalism is manifested in overcoming racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination in the workplace and mutual respect and acceptance of cultural differences. Depending on the level of multiculturalism in literature are considered three main types of organization: monocultural (monolithic), transitional (plural) and multicultural organization (Cox, 1991; Holvino, 2008).
Culturally diverse working environment, in turn, puts employees on the need to constantly adapt to different cultural values, beliefs and norms on individual, group and organizational level, defined as a process of acculturation (Berry, 2006a). During this process is possible the occurrence of moderately pathological and destructive individual states and behaviors defined as
acculturative stress. In his model, Berry included multicultural attitudes to the factors affecting the experience of acculturative stress (Berry, 2006b).
These theoretical concepts justify the assumption, underlying this study, that there are correlations between the levels of perceived organizational support, multiculturalism and acculturation in organizations. In this regard, the objective of this study was to determine empirically if there were such relationships between the variables observed.
In the hypothesis formulated it was assumed that the higher levels of perceived organizational support related to higher levels of multiculturalism and acculturation in organization, as well as higher levels of multiculturalism in organization related to higher levels of organizational acculturation.
The main tasks of the empirical study included: defining the mean values of the variables studied and finding statistically significant correlations between them.
The research tools comprised: the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS; Eisenberger, et al., 1986) measuring the possible perceptions and attitudes towards forms of support provided by organizations; Organizational Acculturation Scale, subscale of the Organizational Assimilation Index (Gailliard, et al., 2010) measuring the degree of acceptance and utilization of organizational norms and standards; and Multiculturalism Scale (Berry & Kalin, 1995), measuring multicultural attitudes and trends for recognition and acceptance of cultural diversity. All three instruments demonstrated good reliability in this sample (a = 0.90 for SPOS; a = 0.86 for Organizational Acculturation Scale; and a = 0.75 for Multiculturalism Scale). When applying factor analysis method of the main components was established the existence of a general factor that explained over 50% of the total variation regarding each of the three tools and confirmed their validity (57.92% for SPOS; 63.79% for Organizational Acculturation Scale; and 54.29% for Multiculturalism Scale).
The sample consisted of 219 respondents, collected at random: women (73.5%; N = 161) and men (26.5%; N = 58), aged between 18 and 67 years (M = 34.32) living and working in Bulgaria (78.6%; N = 172) or abroad (21.4%; N = 47).
The hypothesis raised was verified through descriptive and correlation analyses of empirical data obtained. They outlined the following results:
1. Relatively high levels of perceived organizational support (M = 27.15; SD = 6.72) which indicated the presence of rather positive perceptions of support, care and assistance provided by organizations.
2. Moderately high levels of multiculturalism in organizations (M = 33.11; SD = 4.07) typical of plural type of organization characterized by tolerance of cultural diversity and action against discrimination and prejudice at the workplace.
3. High levels of organizational acculturation (M = 19.8; SD = 3.29), indicating the good understanding, perception and utilization of organizational cultural values and practices. Expected result, given the rather multicultural orientation of respondents involved in this study. The majority of respondents chose the most effective and minimizing acculturative stress strategy to adapt to the values and practices of the organization in which they work.
4. Statistically significant positive correlation (at p<0.01) between the levels of perceived organizational support and multiculturalism in organizations (r = 0.363; p = 0.000). The relationship between these two variables proved to be directly proportional, which means that high levels of multiculturalism in organizations were associated with high degree of positively perceived organizational support. And vice versa - monocultural orientation of employees in a given organization implied more negative perceptions of its recognition, respect and support towards people working in it. The typical for multicultural orientation tolerance, acceptance and recognition of individuals with different cultural background, promoted their feeling of being valued and respected by the organization (Table 1).
5. Statistically significant positive correlation (at p<0.01) between the levels of perceived organizational support and organizational acculturation (r = 0.428; p = 0.000). Its positive sign indicated the existence of directly proportional increase or decrease of the degrees of acculturation and positive perception of organizational support. Consequently, positive perceptions of support provided by organization occur along with high levels of acculturation associated with more in-depth knowledge and utilization of both formal and informal norms, values, practices and standards of organization, which inevitably lead to greater socialization in organization which, in turn, increases the subjective feeling of importance and evaluation (Table 1).
Table 1. Correlations of perceived organizational support with multiculturalism and organizational acculturation.
Pearson's correlation (r) Perceived organizational support
r p
Multiculturalism in organization .363** .000
Organizational acculturation .428** .000
** The correlation is statistically significant at the level of p<0.01.
6. Statistically significant correlation (at p<0.01) with a positive sign between the levels of acculturation and multiculturalism in organizations (r = 0.215; p = 0.002). Apparently, the degree of acculturation to organizational values, norms, rules and practices increases with the degree of multiculturalism in organization. This is a good sign for modern organizations for the positive effect of moving towards multicultural approach manifested in perception and evaluation of the growing cultural diversity of today's workforce (Table 2).
Table 2. Correlations between organizational acculturation and multiculturalism in organization.
Pearson's correlation (r) Organizational acculturation
r p
Multiculturalism in organization .215** .002
** The correlation is statistically significant at the level of p<0.01.
In conclusion, the results obtained from correlation analysis proved that all the three variables correlated directly proportionally with each other and completely verified the hypothesis raised in terms of the phenomena studied. The higher levels of perceived organizational support related to higher levels of multiculturalism and acculturation in organizations. Likewise, the higher levels of multiculturalism in organization related to higher levels of organizational acculturation. Therefore, today's organizations should aim at achieving multicultural attitudes towards workforce along with pursuit of both positive perceptions of organizational support and increasing levels of acculturation. That, in turn, will result in reduce of communication problems and conflicts, decreased turnover and more effective performance.
Cultural diversity of workforce is a great challenge for today's organizations operating in a growing dynamics between globalization and localization processes that put working people in continuous interaction with different cultures in one form or another, even in the workplace. That requires the recognition of cultural differences and respect for them in determining the line of behavior in modern organizations and their movement towards multiculturalism.
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