Foreign cultures and level of comfort – a three countries empirical investigation in multinational firms

Abstract

Level of comfort with foreign cultures (CFC) is one of the critical variables in the ease of working in multicultural work teams. In an increasingly multi-cultural working environment in corporations, the observed and latent behavior influences the working relationship amongst employees and has great weight on individual and team performance. This paper investigates level of comfort among employees, which is influenced by the observed and latent behavior at multinational work places in three countries. A framework has been developed and implemented in Italy, Portugal and India, with a controlled sample design to ensure the cultural diversity. Paper analyses that there is a significant ‘country’ effect on many CFC scales. The Mean score differences based on each of the comfort with foreign culture variables among Portugal, Italy and India are also significant, indicating level of comfort of local cultures with foreign cultures differs from country to country.

Key Words: Inter-cultural comfort; Cross cultural teams; Multicultural work places; Cultural identity