It has been more than a decade since the most comprehensive meta-analytic investigations of organizational commitment and culture were published (Jackson et al., 2013; Meyer et al., 2012). These studies drew on Hofstede's (2001), Schwartz's (1992), and GLOBE's (House et al., 2004) cultural taxonomies and documented the moderating role of individualism-collectivism and power distance with respect to strengthening the predictive power of normative commitment.
Since then, cross-cultural organizational research has advanced considerably. For instance, several studies have sought to update or improve Hofstede's original cultural indices (Komisarof & Akaliyski, 2025). Recent work has also examined the nature of collectivism. Vignoles et al. (2016) identified a seven-dimensional model of selfhood (distinct ways of being independent-interdependent) in 33 nations. Similarly, Talhelm (Talhelm et al., under review) introduced the construct of responsibilism emphasizing duties and roles in close relationships but relatively weaker ties in distant ones. Given the centrality of collectivism in shaping workplace bonds, such refinements hold significant promise for advancing commitment research.
Beyond collectivism, other cultural constructs have also been developed and have potential relevance for organizational commitment. For instance, Gelfand et al.'s (2011) concept of cultural tightness-looseness captures the strength of social norms. Another promising construct is relational mobility, which refers to the degree to which individuals in a given society can initiate new relationships or terminate existing ones. In a 39-country study, Thomson et al. (2018) showed that while the United States ranked high and Japan low in relational mobility, the construct only partially overlaps with individualism-collectivism. For example, Germany scored low, whereas Brazil scored high on relational mobility, despite their differing individualism-collectivism profiles.
The aim of this presentation is to synthesize these emerging strands of cross-cultural research in order to advance our understanding of organizational commitment across cultures.