East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet: Work engagement and workaholism across Eastern and Western cultures

Abstract

This article compares the mean levels of work engagement and workaholism across two cultures (East Asia and Western Europe) by using a latent variable approach. Data were collected in Western Europe in the Netherlands (N = 10,162), Spain (N = 3,481), and Finland (N = 3,472) and in East Asia in China (N = 2,977) and in Japan (N =2,520). It was assumed that, based on cultural differences, in individualistic and Christian Europe work is associated with self-enhancement and personal development, whereas in collectivistic and Confucian Asia work is associated with enhancement of the group and self-sacrifice. Following this lead it was hypothesized and found that in Western European employees are more engaged at work than East Asian employees. Support for the second hypothesis that East Asian employees are more work addicted than Western European employees was less convincing since this was only the case for China and not for Japan. Variations in levels of workaholism and work engagement between the countries are discussed in the light of socio-economic differences and cultural differences in work values