Claudio Vaz Torres

How Distinctive Are Indigenous Ways of Achieving Influence? A Comparative Study of Guanxi, Wasta, Jeitinho, and "Pulling Strings"

The purpose of the study was to investigate the cultural specificity of guanxi, wasta, and jeitinho, each of which has been identified as an indigenous process of informal influence. Students in Brazil, China, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom were presented with three scenarios derived from each of the nations sampled. They rated the extent to which each scenario was representative of the locally indigenous process, the typicality for their culture of the events portrayed in the scenarios, and the extent to which these interpersonal exchanges were perceived positively. While each type of scenario was perceived as representative and typical in its culture of origin, each was also perceived as somewhat typical by respondents in additional locations. Informal influence processes may vary between cultures more in frequency than in quality. Rated scenario positivity was significantly predicted by respondents’ values. The United Kingdom–based process of “pulling strings” was rated as typical in all locations and was more positively evaluated than the other influence processes by all respondents. It is concluded that in addition to the pragmatic value of these concepts locally, their comparative testing can contribute to the development of culture-general models of social influence processes.

Are indigenous approaches to achieving influence in business organizations distinctive? A comparative study of guanxi, wasta, jeitinho, svyazi and pulling strings

Managers in five nations rated scenarios exemplifying indigenous forms of informal influence whose cultural origins were concealed. Locally generated scenarios illustrated episodes of guanxi, wasta, jeitinho, svyazi and pulling strings. Local scenarios were judged representative of local influence processes but so too were some scenarios derived from other contexts. Furthermore, many scenarios were rated as more typical in non-local contexts. While these influence processes are found to be widely disseminated, they occur more frequently in contexts characterized by high self-enhancement values, low self-transcendence values and high endorsement of business corruptibility. Implications for a fuller understanding of local business practices are discussed.

Regressão múltipla stepwise e hierárquica em Psicologia Organizacional: aplicações, problemas e soluções

Este artigo discute algumas aplicacoes das tecnicas de analise de regressao multipla stepwise e hierarquica, as quais sao muito utilizadas em pesquisas da area de Psicologia Organizacional. Sao discutidas algumas estrategias de identificacao e de solucao de problemas relativos a ocorrencia de erros do Tipo I e II e aos fenomenos de supressao, complementaridade e redundância nas equacoes de regressao multipla. Sao apresentados alguns exemplos de pesquisas nas quais esses padroes de associacao entre variaveis estiveram presentes e descritas as estrategias utilizadas pelos pesquisadores para interpreta-los. Sao discutidas as aplicacoes dessas analises no estudo de interacao entre variaveis e na realizacao de testes para avaliacao da linearidade do relacionamento entre variaveis. Finalmente, sao apresentadas sugestoes para lidar com as limitacoes das analises de regressao multipla (stepwise e hierarquica).

Felicidade no Trabalho: Relações com Suporte Organizacional e Suporte Social

The objective of the present study was to test the impact of organizational and social support on well-being at work. To achieve this, the well-being construct included the concepts of affect, accomplishment experience and work-related personal experience. A total of 403 employees of a public organization in the Brazilian Federal District responded to the Work Well-Being Scale, and to the Perceived Organizational Support Scale. The former evaluates the positive and negative emotions towards at work, as well as the personal accomplishment at work. The latter includes a social support factor and four other factors relating to organizational support: performance management, workload, material support, and work growth, promotion and salary. Data were analyzed with the use of multiple regression, and the results indicated that organizational support and social support have a direct impact on well-being. Performance management was the main predictor for positive affect, and for accomplishment at work. Workload was the main predictor of negative work affect. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Personal Values and Political Activism: A Cross-National Study

Using data from 28 countries in four continents, the present research addresses the question of how basic values may account for political activism. Study 1 (N = 35,116) analyses data from representative samples in 20 countries that responded to the 21-item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-21) in the European Social Survey. Study 2 (N = 7,773) analyses data from adult samples in six of the same countries (Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland, and United Kingdom) and eight other countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United States) that completed the full 40-item PVQ. Across both studies, political activism relates positively to self-transcendence and openness to change values, especially to universalism and autonomy of thought, a subtype of self-direction. Political activism relates negatively to conservation values, especially to conformity and personal security. National differences in the strength of the associations between individual values and political activism are linked to level of democratization.

Desired emotions across cultures: A value-based account

Values reflect how people want to experience the world; emotions reflect how people actually experience the world. Therefore, we propose that across cultures people desire emotions that are consistent with their values. Whereas prior research focused on the desirability of specific affective states or 1 or 2 target emotions, we offer a broader account of desired emotions. After reporting initial evidence for the potential causal effects of values on desired emotions in a preliminary study (N = 200), we tested the predictions of our proposed model in 8 samples (N = 2,328) from distinct world cultural regions. Across cultural samples, we found that people who endorsed values of self-transcendence (e.g., benevolence) wanted to feel more empathy and compassion, people who endorsed values of self-enhancement (e.g., power) wanted to feel more anger and pride, people who endorsed values of openness to change (e.g., self-direction) wanted to feel more interest and excitement, and people who endorsed values of conservation (e.g., tradition) wanted to feel more calmness and less fear. These patterns were independent of differences in emotional experience. We discuss the implications of our value-based account of desired emotions for understanding emotion regulation, culture, and other individual differences. (PsycINFO Database Record

Valores Humanos e Escolha do Consumidor na Austrália e Brasil

The present study aimed to determine the effect of cultural differences on consumer behavior. A total of 793 participants (both Brazilians and Australians) were exposed to the Values Scale, the Meaning and Judgment Scale, and measures of car attributes and consumer behavior. There was a main effect of country on cultural patterns such that Australians scored higher on individualism than on collectivism. Australians preferred piecemeal judgment and placed more importance on the products tangible attributes, whereas Brazilians preferred affective judgment. As predicted, the direct route was stronger for Brazilians than for Australians, who preferred the indirect route. Results are discussed in terms of the ethic validity of the model for individuals who endorse cultural values other than individualism.

Be Careful Where You Smile: Culture Shapes Judgments of Intelligence and Honesty of Smiling Individuals

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions.

Are Guanxi-Type Supervisor–Subordinate Relationships Culture-General? An Eight-Nation Test of Measurement Invariance

Three dimensions of subordinate–supervisor relations (affective attachment, deference to supervisor, and personal-life inclusion) that had been found by Y. Chen, Friedman, Yu, Fang, and Lu to be characteristic of a guanxi relationship between subordinates and their supervisors in China were surveyed in Taiwan, Singapore, and six non-Chinese cultural contexts. The Affective Attachment and Deference subscales demonstrated full metric invariance whereas the Personal-Life Inclusion subscale was found to have partial metric invariance across all eight samples. Structural equation modeling revealed that the affective attachment dimension had a cross-nationally invariant positive relationship to affective organizational commitment and a negative relationship to turnover intention. The deference to the supervisor dimension had invariant positive relationships with both affective and normative organizational commitment. The personal-life inclusion dimension was unrelated to all outcomes. These results indicate the relevance of aspects of guanxi to superior–subordinate relations in non-Chinese cultures. Studies of indigenous concepts can contribute to a broader understanding of organizational behavior.

Avanços teóricos e metodológicos em valores humanos e gestão: uma introdução ao fórum

Introduction - Special Thematic Issue Management and Human Values ??: Theoretical and Methodological Advances