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Resistance to Authority 1 Running head: RESISTANCE TO AUTHORITY Resistance to deficient organizational authority: The impact of culture and connectedness in the workplace Wilhelmina Wosinska, Arizona State University West Robert B. Cialdini, Arizona State University Petia Petrova, Dartmouth College Vladas Griskevicius, Arizona State University Daniel W. Barrett, University of Pennsylvania Malgorzata Gornik-Durose, University of Silesia, Poland Jonathan Butner, University of Utah
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  • Resistance to Authority 1

    Running head: RESISTANCE TO AUTHORITY

    Resistance to deficient organizational authority:

    The impact of culture and connectedness in the workplace

    Wilhelmina Wosinska, Arizona State University West

    Robert B. Cialdini, Arizona State University

    Petia Petrova, Dartmouth College

    Vladas Griskevicius, Arizona State University

    Daniel W. Barrett, University of Pennsylvania

    Malgorzata Gornik-Durose, University of Silesia, Poland

    Jonathan Butner, University of Utah

  • Resistance to Authority 2

    Abstract We investigated resistance to a request made by a manager who lacked a key

    leadership attribute - expertise or relationality - in countries that differed in traditional

    individualistic versus collectivistic orientation (the U.S. and Poland). An experiment

    examined how resistance to a deficient authority is affected by degree of employee

    connectedness at the workplace. Results were consistent with cultural differences in the

    key preferred attribute of leaders in the two nations. That is, participants in each country

    were more resistant to a manager who lacked the attribute that is more valued in that

    particular culture: Americans were more noncompliant with managers lacking in expertise,

    whereas Poles were more noncompliant with managers lacking in relational skills.

    However, this culturally-valued-leadership-deficiency effect occurred only under

    conditions of well-established workplace relationships, suggesting that connectedness to

    the group creates a tendency to behave in line with predominant cultural norms. Practical

    implications of the effect and its preconditions are discussed.

  • Resistance to Authority 3

    There is a long and rich history of theory and research regarding effective social

    influence approaches within organizations (Emans, Munduate, Klaver, & van de Vliert,

    2003; Hirokawa & Wagner, 2004; Koslowsky, Schwartzwald, & Ashuri, 2001; Kramer &

    Neale, 1998; Lord, 1977; Rahim & Buntzman, 1988; Raven, 1965, 1992, 1993; Raven,

    Schwartzwald, & Koslowsky, 1998; Schwartzwald, Koslowsky, & Agassi, 2001; Yukl,

    1994; Yukl, & Falbe, 1991). However, even though rapid globalization and the

    accompanying growth of international business have helped fuel an interest in cross-

    cultural organizational research, almost all of these studies have investigated effective

    organizational influence as it occurred in a single nation.

    In an attempt to help redress this imbalance, we sought to investigate one

    fundamental source of organizational influence - managerial authority - in a pair of

    cultures (Poland and the U.S.) whose members were likely to value different types of

    authority (Fakouri & Mehryar, 1972; Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987; Wojciszke, 1997).

    Moreover, we sought not to examine compliance with properly exercised managerial

    authority but to study noncompliance with deficiently exercised authority. More

    specifically, we set out to build on the emerging research on resistance to authority

    (Sachau, Houlihan, & Gilbertson, 1999; Sagarin, Cialdini, Rice, & Serna, 2002) by looking

    at how a deficiency in a supervisor’s managerial approach could lead to employee

    resistance to that manager’s request.

    Expert and relational authorities in a cross-cultural perspective.

    Before describing our investigation in detail, it is necessary to explicate two crucial

    distinctions pertaining to authority and culture. The first refers to types of authority and

    specifically to the difference between expert versus relational leaders. The second

  • Resistance to Authority 4

    considers cultural differences with regard to an individualistic versus collectivistic value

    orientation.

    The distinction between expert and relational leaders dates back to Bales’ (1958)

    classic research looking at the influence of task-oriented (that is, using expertise to achieve

    success) versus socio-emotional (that is, requiring relational skills for success) managers.

    This important dichotomy appears in numerous conceptualizations under various labels for

    authority, such as facilitative versus supportive (Bowers & Seashore, 1966), production-

    centered versus employee-centered (Likert, 1967), administratively-skilled versus

    relations-skilled (Mann, 1965), or goal-achievement versus group-maintenance oriented

    leaders (Cartwright & Zander, 1968). More recently, Tyler (1997) has proposed a similar

    taxonomy of types of organizational authorities, including instrumental (stemming from

    the skillful management of resources) and relational (resulting from efficient interactions

    with others).

    This expert versus relational distinction has also been examined cross-culturally in

    nations and individuals that differ in their individualistic and collectivistic value systems

    (Adler, Campbell, & Laurent, 1989; De Bruin & Van Lange, 2000; Fakouri & Mehryar,

    1972; Schwartz, 1999; Wojciszke, 1997). This research has shown that both individuals

    and cultures that tend to prefer either an individualistic or a collectivistic value system can

    also be expected to show preferences for expert versus relational leaders, respectively. For

    example, persons with individualistic value orientations tend to search primarily for

    competence information when forming impressions of others (De Bruin & Van Lange,

    2000), whereas people with collectivistic value orientations tend to focus primarily on

    information concerning relationality and morality (Schwartz, 1999; Wojciszke, 1997).

    Since people in individualistic and collectivistic cultures differ in the extent to which they

  • Resistance to Authority 5

    value different attributes in an authority, we might expect that in both cultures employees

    would be more resistant to an authority deficient in the culturally valued characteristic.

    However, we believe there may be an additional, complicating factor: employee

    connectedness within their workgroups.

    Employee connectedness in the workgroup and compliance.

    Considerable research demonstrates that when people receive requests from a

    legitimately constituted authority, they often comply, even in a direction they would not

    prefer (Blass, 1999; Hofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple, Graves, & Pierce, 1966; Krackow &

    Blass, 1995; Milgram, 1974). One factor that has been shown to affect organizational

    leaders’ effectiveness is the quality of the relationships between employees and the

    manager (see Gerstner & Day, 1997, for a review). However, none of these studies nor

    any other that we are aware of examined how employees’ relationships with co-workers

    impact their resistance to an organizational authority. To the extent that one feels

    connected to a group, influences from within the group may be powerful enough to

    counteract tendencies toward deference to authority (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, &

    Wetherell, 1987; van Knippenberg, 2000).

    According to Social Categorization Theory (Turner et al., 1987; Terry, Hogg, &

    White, 2000), the effect of group membership is to render behavior more congruent with

    the likely norms and prototypical behavioral characteristics of the group. Support for this

    contention comes from evidence that group membership leads members to respond as a

    prototypical group member would (Levine & Moreland, 1998; Kashima & Lewis, 2000;

    van Knippenberg, 2000). Thus, if group membership activates conformity with the likely

    group norms and ideals, culturally prototypical responding in the workplace should occur

    principally when workgroup connectedness is high.

  • Resistance to Authority 6

    Research Overview

    In order to examine resistance to managerial authority, we constructed an

    experiment in which university students in Poland and in the U.S. indicated the extent to

    which they would comply with a supervisor’s request to support an initiative that they felt

    would be wrongheaded. It might be argued that the aggressive entrance of a market

    economy and Western customs into Poland would blunt effects attributable to national

    differences in individualistic versus collectivistic value orientation. However, Reykowski

    and his colleagues (Reykowski, 1994; Reykowski & Smolenska, 1993) have argued that

    these influences have produced only superficial changes that have not much affected deep-

    seated traditional collectivistic values. Consequently, Poland still scores in the low to

    average range on measures of individualism (Nasierowski & Mikula, 1998).

    We varied whether the supervisor was deficient in expert or relational qualities.

    Moreover, we manipulated whether participants had a high or low degree of connectedness

    with their workplace colleagues. That is, participants were either told to suppose that they

    had many or few personal relationships and contacts with their workmates. We considered

    two possible outcomes.

    Possible Outcome #1: Resistance would be greater in Poland to a manager who is

    deficient in relational (versus expert) qualities of leadership; but, resistance would be

    greater in the U.S. to a manager who is deficient in expert (versus relational) qualities

    of leadership.

    Such a potential outcome would support the assumption that traditional differences

    in individualistic versus collectivistic orientations of the two countries (Nasierowski &

    Mikula, 1998) would incline Polish participants to be more resistant to managers who

    violated the cultural value for relationality and would incline U.S. participants to be more

  • Resistance to Authority 7

    resistant to managers who failed to meet the cultural value for expertise. Hence, the

    outcome would manifest itself as a 2-way interaction between nation and type of

    managerial deficiency. According to this set of assumptions, degree of connectedness with

    one’s workgroup should not affect the expected pattern.

    Possible Outcome #2: Poles should show greater resistance to a relationally-deficient

    manager, whereas Americans should show greater resistance to an expertise-deficient

    manager; but, this pattern should occur principally among employees who have a high

    degree of workgroup connectedness.

    If this pattern of results occurred, it would support the assumption that high

    workgroup connectedness should stimulate tendencies to conform to the most likely group

    norms and ideals relevant to the culture. In a traditionally collectivistic country such as

    Poland, these norms and ideals would favor relationality, generating greater resistance to a

    leader who was deficient in this regard. In a largely individualistic nation such as the U.S.,

    however, these norms and ideals would favor expertise, generating greater resistance to a

    leader who was deficient in this respect. This outcome would manifest itself as a 3-way

    interaction of nation, type of managerial deficiency, and degree of workgroup

    connectedness.

    Method

    Participants and procedure.

    Our participants consisted of undergraduate psychology majors from two countries:

    160 from Poland (42 males and 118 females) and 162 from the US (46 males and 117

    females). The Polish translation of the American version of the material was re-translated

    back to English by a bilingual speaker and matched for adequacy, which did not require

    any substantial adjustments.

  • Resistance to Authority 8

    To test the amount of reported resistance in response to a manager’s request, we

    used a typical arrangement employed in previous research on compliance in organizations

    (e.g., Koslowsky, Schwartzwald, & Ashuri, 2001; Raven, Schwartzwald, & Koslowsky,

    1998). Participants were first presented with a specific organizational situation that

    concludes with a manager making a request which conflicts with the employee’s personal

    opinion. Participants were then asked to indicate their likelihood of compliance with the

    manager’s request.

    To test our hypotheses we employed a 2 x 2 x 2 design with nation (US and

    Poland), type of managerial deficiency (expertise-deficient vs. relationally-deficient), and

    degree of workgroup connectedness (high vs. low) as between-subjects factors. Our key

    dependent variable was the reported willingness to comply with the manager’s request.

    To manipulate these factors, we used the following scenario, where brackets and

    italics denote phrasing in two different conditions:

    Imagine that 2-3 months ago you started working for a firm in a lower management

    position. [Low Degree of Connectedness: Because you are new, you haven’t yet

    established] [High Degree of Connectedness: Even though you are new, you have already

    established] very many personal relationships and contacts in the workplace with other

    employees.

    Your firm is considering a new program of managerial training for many current

    managers, including you. As is traditional for your firm, whenever a change of this sort is

    proposed, those managers who will be directly affected are asked to give their opinions

    about the proposed program. This program will be quite time consuming and, in your

    opinion, it would not be worth the effort it will require. You will be asked to give your

    vote on this matter anonymously so that no one can know how you voted. Your immediate

  • Resistance to Authority 9

    boss, Mr. Keller, has made it clear in a departmental memo that he would like this new

    training program to go forward. Thus, he has asked you and your fellow managers to

    support it in your votes.

    [Expertise-Deficient Manager: When making this decision, take into account that

    your boss is concerned with his employees’ well-being and with maintaining harmonious

    relationships with them; however, he has limited expertise in his field and is not that good

    at achieving organizational goals.][Relationally-Deficient Manager: When making this

    decision, take into account that your boss has high expertise in his field and is good at

    achieving organizational goals; however, he is not that concerned with his employees’

    well-being or with maintaining harmonious relationships with them.]

    All participants were asked to indicate their willingness to comply by responding to

    the following scale:

    The likelihood that you will follow your boss’s wish and vote in favor of this new

    program is:

    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

    very low moderate very high

    likelihood likelihood likelihood

    Results

    Our preliminary analyses indicated a significant main effect of gender, F(1, 306) =

    9.180, p = .003, with males showing a higher likelihood of complying. Because gender did

    not interact with any other variables, we included gender as a covariate in the analyses.

    Additionally, we observed a marginal main effect of nation, F(1, 306) = 3.625, p = .058,

    showing that Polish participants indicated a somewhat higher level of overall compliance.

  • Resistance to Authority 10

    Support for Possible Outcome #1. The first possible outcome was that resistance in

    each country would be greater to the type of manager who lacked the more culturally-

    valued leadership attribute of that nation. Statistical support for this outcome would occur

    as a 2-way interaction between nation and type of managerial deficiency across the two

    workgroup connectedness conditions. However, our results showed that this interaction

    was not significant, F(1, 306) = .810, p = .369.

    Support for Possible Outcome #2. The second possible outcome was that the

    phenomenon of greater resistance to the manager who lacked the culturally-valued

    leadership attribute would appear principally when the employees had a high degree of

    workgroup connectedness. Statistical support for this outcome would be indicated by the

    joint presence of a 3-way interaction among nation, type of managerial deficiency, and

    workgroup connectedness, and a 2-way interaction between nation and type of managerial

    deficiency in the established workgroup connectedness condition. Both of these

    interactions proved significant, F(2, 306) = 4.982, p = .007, and F(1, 151) = 7.348, p =

    .007, respectively (see Figure 1).

    [INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE.]

    As would be expected, analyses of simple effects in the high workgroup

    connectedness condition indicated that the U.S. participants showed more resistance to an

    expertise-deficient authority than to a relationally-deficient manager, F(1,75) = 3.998, p =

    .049, whereas in Poland, participants indicated marginally more resistance to a relationally-

    deficient authority than to an expertise-deficient manager, F(1, 76) = 3.368, p = .070. In

    the low connectedness condition, on the other hand, there was a marginally significant 2-

    way interaction between nation and type of managerial deficiency displaying a pattern

    opposite to the one in the high connectedness condition, F(1,555) = 2.855, p = .093. The

  • Resistance to Authority 11

    simple effects of the type of managerial deficiency in this condition, however, were not

    significant for either the U.S., F(1,79) = 1.440, p = .234, or Poland, F(1,76) = 1.419, p =

    .237.

    Discussion

    This study examined employee resistance to expertise- and relationally-deficient

    authorities in the predominantly individualistic U.S. culture and the more collectivistic

    culture of Poland. After reviewing the relevant literature, we had reason to believe that two

    different outcomes were viable. First, because collectivists tend to value relationality while

    for individualists expertise and competence take priority, one possibility was that these

    cultural preferences would stimulate different patterns of resistance to deficient authorities

    in the U.S. and Poland. Second, it was also plausible that this relative difference in

    noncompliance would be qualified by the degree of employees’ connectedness within their

    workgroup, such that high group connectedness would increase the salience and impact of

    dominant cultural norms.

    Our results indicated that Poles and Americans did indeed differ in their levels of

    projected noncompliance with authorities deficient in expertise or relationality. As could

    be predicted from cultural preferences related to prevailing value orientations, Poles felt

    more resistance to a manager who was deficient in relationality, whereas Americans felt

    more resistant to a manager who lacked expertise. In other words, people in each country

    felt less willing to comply with a request from an authority who lacked the attributes that

    are considered more important for leaders in that culture. However, this cultural difference

    was only found in the context of well-established connections with other workgroup

    members. That is, employees were more resistant to an authority who lacked the culturally-

    valued trait only when they perceived many established connections to other workgroup

  • Resistance to Authority 12

    members. Without a context of well-established connections to other workgroup members,

    participants showed no differences in their relative resistance to either type of authority in

    either country.

    Theoretical implications. Despite the rapid shifts toward a market economy in

    Eastern European countries, including Poland, numerous researchers have indicated that

    such changes are so far having a relatively limited impact on traditional collectivistic

    values (Nasierowski & Mikula, 1998; Reykowski, 1994, 1998; Schwartz & Bardi, 1997;

    Szabo, Jarmuz, Maczynski, & Reber, 1997; Skipietrow, 1992). For instance, many Poles

    still consider personal success to be a “sin” (Skarzynska, 1999; Wojciszke, 1999) and in

    difficult situations they tend to seek support within family instead of managing on their

    own (Reykowski, 1994; Reykowski, & Smolenska, 1993).

    Our results support the notion that Poland still retains some core aspects of its

    collectivistic identity, but our study also points out that these traditional values may not

    manifest themselves under all circumstances. That is, while we did find the predicted

    difference between the U.S. and Poland in terms of resisting deficient authorities, this

    difference only appeared when group and cultural norms were made salient by the high

    level of workplace connectedness. When these group bonds and salient norms were

    relatively absent, Poles and Americans did not show any significant differences. These

    findings fit well with evidence that group and cultural norms have little direct impact on

    behavior unless they are salient in consciousness (Cialdini, Kallgren, & Reno, 1999;

    Kallgren, Reno, & Cialdini, 2000).

    It is also noteworthy to mention that while the two-way interaction in the low

    connectedness condition was not conventionally significant (p = .093), the observed

    pattern of results in this condition is exactly the opposite of the results in the high

  • Resistance to Authority 13

    connectedness condition (see Figure 1). This reverse pattern may suggest that when

    employees feel separated from the group, they may be more likely to act in the opposite

    direction of the prototypical norms of the group. However, this speculation needs to be

    examined in future studies.

    Our data also highlight two important theoretical points regarding factors that can

    lead to resistant behavior in organizations. First, it may be mistaken to think that cultural

    differences in leadership preferences would not affect resistance to deficient authorities.

    Much research has already found that leader prototypes for different cultures are related to

    cultural values (e.g., House & Hanges, 1999; Brodbeck et al., 2000; Aycan, Kanungo,

    Mendonca, Yu, Deller, Stahl & Kurshid, 2000; Smith, Wang, & Leung, 1997). Our

    research expands on this idea by pointing out that these preferences are also important

    when considering resistance to deficient authorities. In fact, we specifically found that

    when a manager lacked an attribute that is preferably valued in that particular culture, our

    participants became more resistant to the manager. We labeled this tendency the culturally-

    valued-leadership-deficiency effect, and it is likely that this phenomenon is also relevant

    beyond the organizational arena. For example, this effect would likely manifest itself in

    any universal situation where an authority who is lacking in expertise or relationality may

    be trying to influence a target, such as when a teacher attempts to gain the compliance of a

    student. The applicability and magnitude of the culturally-valued-leadership-deficiency

    effect across different types of social situations would be an interesting topic to examine in

    further studies.

    Second, it may be equally mistaken to think that group members’ level of

    connectedness will not affect how people will resist a deficient authority. Our results

    highlight that a connected workplace environment—one where people feel that they have

  • Resistance to Authority 14

    many established relationships with their co-workers—is likely to make people more

    inclined to act in accord with cultural norms. As before, this effect probably extends into

    other social arenas beyond the organizational realm.

    The current project also adds insight to the sparse literature on resistance to

    authority. While some research on resistance in organizations has thus far examined

    person-related characteristics, such as employees’ sex, age, and tenure (Sachau, Holihan, &

    Gilbertson, 1999; Hong, 1999), our study points out that situational factors also play an

    important role in resisting authority. More specifically, we found that the degree of

    employee connectedness at the workplace may be a key factor in how employees react to

    managerial requests. Undoubtedly, further research will need to examine how this

    condition, intertwined with other situational factors, affects resistance to organizational

    authorities.

    Practical implications. Other researchers have noted that rapid globalization creates

    a strong need for managers working in multi-national and international organizations to be

    familiar with and to match their style to local cultural values (Cartwright & Cooper, 1993,

    1996; Hanges, Lord, & Dickson, 2000). Our research supports these recommendations by

    showing that cultural values do affect resistance to managerial directions and initiatives.

    Furthermore, in order to overcome resistance from their employees, managers need to do

    more than take into account the specific values of the culture; they also need to be aware of

    the relationships among their subordinates. For instance, when dealing with a new

    employee, even a deficient manager may experience little resistance and be lulled into a

    false sense of security and efficiency. However, this lack of resistance might not be

    indicative of the manager’s supervisory skills or actions. Indeed, noncompliance may

  • Resistance to Authority 15

    increase as the employee establishes relationships at the workplace even if the manager’s

    behavior has not changed, leaving the supervisor bewildered as to the cause.

    Moreover, the increase in resistance due to employee connectedness will be

    different across cultures. More specifically, resistance in a given culture will be sensitive to

    the manager’s leadership style. In the United States, a manager who does not demonstrate

    expertise may find increasing resistance from employees who become more connected to

    other workers. In contrast, in more collectivistic cultures, such as Poland, employees may

    become more resistant to a manager who does not have strong relational qualities.

    Finally, these findings suggest that leaders who wish to obtain high levels of compliance

    from their subordinates regarding initiatives and directives should consider different

    influence strategies depending on the local culture. In more individualistic cultures, people

    should be less likely to resist when the request or task is presented as one that would serve

    effectiveness goals. In collectivistic cultures, subordinates should be less likely to resist

    when a task is presented as one that would serve relational goals. It is important to note

    that this culturally-valued-leadership-deficiency effect and the strategies to overcome it

    should not be limited to business settings. As suggested previously, the same principles

    should apply in any organization with a semblance of a leadership hierarchy, such as

    political and health care organizations, non-profit agencies, and educational settings.

    Moreover, although our specific findings relate only to Poland, we believe that similar

    effects are also likely to be exhibited in other Eastern European nations and other cultures

    with a stronger collectivistic orientation (Bond & Hewstone, 1988; Kagitcibasi, 1997).

    Study limitations. A limitation of this study is one that is true of many cross-

    cultural investigations. The effects we attributed to variations in the individualistic versus

    collectivistic value orientations of our American and Polish participants could have been

  • Resistance to Authority 16

    due to other differences between the two countries. Nonetheless, we can think of no other

    previously recorded difference between Poland and the U. S. that could explain the pattern

    of results we found. Perhaps the best candidate in this regard would be that of power

    distance, which has been found to differ between the two nations, with Poles showing

    higher levels of the construct (Hofstede, 2001; Nasierowski, & Mikula, 1998). However,

    based on variations in power distance, one would only expect differences in the amount of

    resistance to authority, not the more complex differences in resistance to specifically

    deficient authorities that would be expected from variations in individualism/collectivism.

    A second limitation of this research is that the results are based on a scenario

    design. However, this methodology has been shown to be effective in similar research

    (Koslowsky, Schwartzwald, & Ashuri, 2001; Raven, Schwartzwald, & Koslowsky, 1998).

    Another limitation is related to using students as subjects. We believe, though, that this

    study provides a pioneering step toward better understanding resistance to deficient

    authorities in a cross-cultural setting. Nonetheless, future research should examine these

    phenomena in field settings and in other cross-cultural contexts.

  • Resistance to Authority 17

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  • Resistance to Authority 24

    Figure Caption

    Figure 1: US and Polish participants' level of resistance as a function of type of managerial

    deficiency and degree of workplace connectedness. (Responses were on a scale ranging

    from 0 to 8, with lower numbers indicating greater resistance.)

  • Resistance to Authority 25

    Figure 1.

    U.S. Poland

    DEGREE OF CONNECTEDNESS

    MEAN COMPLIANCE

    2.8

    3.2

    3.6

    4.0

    4.4

    TYPE OF MANAGERIAL DEFICIENCY

    LOW

    Expertise-Deficient

    Relationally-Deficient

    2.8

    3.2

    3.6

    4.0

    4.4

    3.91

    3.43

    2.95

    3.84 3.88

    4.37

    4.17

    3.33

    HIGH

    U.S. Poland

    Research Overview Results


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