A Study on the Culture-based Work Motivation between Indian and Korean Employees

Based on a questionnaire survey of 514 employees in India and Korea, this exploratory study examines how cultural variations affect the motivation of Indian employees of Indian companies in India (INDIAN), Indian employees of Korean companies in India (INDO-KOREAN), and Korean employees of Korean companies in Korea (KOREAN). INDO-KOREAN showed very similar culture to INDIAN, which indicates that employees’ national culture was more influencing than organizational culture initiated by Korean management. Culture played the role of a moderator between the factors of motivation and overall motivation, which explains the similarities among three groups’ of cultural characteristics explained similar responses to compensations and equity at work, but two different cultural dimensions such as Uncertainty Avoidance and Monumentalism showed that the Korean style of a repetitive and continuous feedback can be negatively received and would not be effective in the long run in India, thus should be implemented in different manner. The valuable findings and suggestions regarding the culturally adaptive motivational approach of Korean companies operating in India are not only recommendable to multinational companies in India, but also have contributed to both theory and practice in the field of international human resource management.