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Hi there,

I would like to disagree ;) I do not think that the for organizations in
each country do have the same. You wouldn't expect different individuals
in a sample to be the same in order to represent the population.

Thus, the four may differ. The more important issue is: do their average
represents the average of the population of organizations and is that
equal for both cultures. It would not make sense to compare a 4 randomly
drawn organizations with a set of industry-specific organizations.

I would concur, however, that some statistics of *association* (e.g.,
regression coefficients) should be not-statistically different across
the four organizations in each country. Otherwise, you have a case
of population heterogeneity (see Muthen, 1989).


Muthén, B. (1989). Latent variable modeling in heterogeneous populations.
Psychometrika, 54 (4), 557-585.

___________________________________________________
Dr. Holger Steinmetz
University of Giessen
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Human Resource Management
Licher Str. 66
35394 Giessen
Phone: +49 641 99 22103
Fax: +49 641 99 22109

Holger.Steinmetz@psychol.uni-giessen.de
http://wiwi.uni-giessen.de/home/personal

And:
Department of Work and Organizational Psychology
Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10F
35394 Giessen/Germany
www.uni-giessen.biz
___________________________________________________
 


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv
> [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] Im Auftrag von Eva Cools
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 10. September 2009 20:36
> An: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Betreff: Re: [OB-LIST] comparing cross-cultural data sets
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> I think you should first check whether you find significant differences
> between your organizations within each country before comparing the two
> countries.
>
>
>
> Of course, it also depends on the kind of data/scales that you are
> measuring. E.g., does the organizational context play a role in the
> variables that you measure? Or do you measure individual differences
> that might be unrelated to the organizational context?
>
>
>
> Good luck!
>
>
>
> Eva
>
>
>
>
> Eva Cools, PhD
> Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
> Reep 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium
> 0032 (0)9 210 97 78
> Eva.Cools@vlerick.be
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv on behalf of Shung Jae
> Shin
> Sent: Wed 09/09/2009 00:42
> To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: [OB-LIST] comparing cross-cultural data sets
>
>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> I'm doing a cross-cultural comparative study: I have data sets from two
> countries. But, the problem is the data sets were collected from
> different companies: 4 (A, B, C, and D) companies from one country, and
> 3 (E, F, and G) companies from the other country. I'd really
> appreciate if you let me know how to deal with this non-comparability
> issue (i.e., at the organizational-level) for a national-level
> comparative study.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Shung jae
>
> _____________________________
>
> Shung Jae Shin, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of Management
>
> College of Business
>
> Washington State University
>
> Phone: 509-372-7331
>
>

Dear Shung,

You are dealing with several issues in the process of making inferences from individuals and organizations to cultures and countries. It's important to consider not only to external validity, but also to internal validity. In other words, it's important to consider not only design (e.g., comparability of samples across countries) but also measurement issues (i.e., meaning of items, translation) and, lastly, data analysis issues.

For a discussion of some of these issues, see (available in pdf at http://mypage.iu.edu/~haguinis/):

Aguinis, H., & Henle, C.A. (2003). The search for universals in cross-cultural organizational behavior. In J. Greenberg (Ed.), Organizational behavior: The state of the science (2nd ed.) (pp. 373-411). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

I hope this helps and best of luck with your research.

Regards,

--Herman.
*****************************************************
Herman Aguinis, Ph.D.
Dean's Research Professor &
Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Department of Management and Entrepreneurship
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
http://mypage.iu.edu/~haguinis/
****************************************************


> >
> > From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv on behalf of Shung
> Jae
> > Shin
> > Sent: Wed 09/09/2009 00:42
> > To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> > Subject: [OB-LIST] comparing cross-cultural data sets
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm doing a cross-cultural comparative study: I have data sets from
> two
> > countries. But, the problem is the data sets were collected from
> > different companies: 4 (A, B, C, and D) companies from one country,
> and
> > 3 (E, F, and G) companies from the other country. I'd really
> > appreciate if you let me know how to deal with this non-comparability
> > issue (i.e., at the organizational-level) for a national-level
> > comparative study.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Shung jae
> >
> > _____________________________
> >
> > Shung Jae Shin, Ph.D.
> >
> > Associate Professor of Management
> >
> > College of Business
> >
> > Washington State University
> >
> > Phone: 509-372-7331
> >
> >