Event management and work team effectiveness in Japan, Britain and USA

Rated effectiveness of work teams in four closely similar electronics assembly plants is compared with which of five sources of guidance were used in managing both routine and non-routine events. No support was found for uniform ‘culture-free’ effects. However, eight significant interaction effects were detected, indicating that country or organization-specific factors were more important than uniformities. In Japan, relatively frequent reference to supervisors was associated with work quality, while relatively frequent reliance on manuals predicted productiveness and group cooperation. Supervisors of teams in the UK and USA differentiated more between preferred ways of handling routine and non-routine events. The results are discussed in terms of Western managers' greater propensity to differentiate situationally appropriate responses.