HYPOTHESES

The concept of crossvergence that was introduced in the Ralston et al. study [1993] contrasted three countries. Since only one country could possibly fall on the crossvergence continuum between the two countries representing the polar extremes in their study,the researchers could not assess the relative degree to which national culture and economic ideology might influence the new set of values. However, when all four cells of the matrix in Figure 1 are represented (as in the present study), there are two diverse countries that could fall in a crossvergenmt annero n the continuum.Therefore the respective contribution of national culture and economic ideology may be more evident. Thus, we will develop the crossvergence hypothesis in a manner that considers the relative dominance of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work values. Also, the hypothetical alternatives for the Individualism-Collectivism continuum will be presented in terms of Individualism, since the literature suggests that if values change, the expected direction is toward the values of Western capitalism, as epitomized by the Individualism construct

Convergence. Three conditions must be met for the findings of this study to be interpreted as convergence. First, the means cores on the Individualism measures for the U.S. and Japan- who share the same economic ideology - cannot differ significantly. Similarly, the mean scoresf or Russia and China cannot differ significantly. Third, the mean scores on Individualism for the U.S. and Japan must be significantly higher than those for Russia and China.

Divergence. First, the mean scores on the Individualism measures for the U.S. and Russia - who share a common Western culture - cannot differ significantly. Similarly, the mean scores for Japan and China cannot differ significantly. Third, the mean Individualism scores for the U.S. and Russia must be significantly higher than those for Japan and China.

Crossvergence. The mean scores for the four countries should be significantly different from one another, with the mean scores for the U.S. highest on the Individualism measures and the means scores for China lowest. The scores for Japan and Russia would fall between those of the U.S. and China, and their order would depend on whether economic ideology or national culture was dominant.

Economic ideology-dominant crossvergence means that economic ideology is the stronger influence, and thus, the Individualisms cores for Japan will be higher than those for Russia. That is, capitalistic Japan will be closer to the U.S. on the Individualism-Collectivism continuum, while socialistic Russia will be closer to China.

National culture-dominant croossvergence means that national culture is the stronger influence, and thus, the Individualism scores for Russia will be higher than those for Japan. That is, Western-culture Russia will be closer to the U.S. on the Individualism-Collectivism continuum, while Eastern-culture Japan will be closer to China.

Thus, we can summarize these arguments with one global hypothesis. Hypothesis: The relationships among the U.S., Russia, Japan, and China will indicate crossvergence with a national culture-dominant effect for the three dimensional measures of Individualism and their related subdimensional measures.

METHOD