Understanding Attractive Work in a Globalized World

Book excerpt: This book discusses organizational values and their implications for perceived attractiveness and effectiveness of the workplace through cross-cultural research in India and Sweden. The authors provide information on how organizational values are conceptualized, presented and perceived by manager-level employees through cases from manufacturing, information technology (IT), healthcare, and education sectors in a developing and fast-growing economy like India versus a developed and stabilized economy like Sweden. Comparative results from these two very different countries provide knowledge that can be applied to make the workplace attractive in the context of globalized business processes. The authors present corporate social responsibility (CSR) and equal opportunities for men and women in the organization (EO) as important values in making the workplace attractive, where attractiveness is conceived in terms of organizational commitment and employees’ intention to leave. The two selected values are particularly important as India is the first country in the world to come up with a mandatory CSR law, whereas Sweden has a long history of CSR and EO. The book demonstrates how work organizations in both countries are promoting these values to meet the challenges of attraction and retention of employees. The findings in this book are based on data gathered from various sources and sample groups in India and Sweden. The book generates insight and valuable information for researchers of organizational psychology, human resource management, cross-cultural management, as well as for work managers and HR professionals.