©2008 INFORMS Culture and Coworker Relations: Interpersonal Patterns in American, Chinese, German, and Spanish Divisions of a Global Retail Bank

This paper examines coworker networks in the American, Chinese, German, and Spanish divisions of a global retailbank. Because the bank has standardized structure and policies across countries, it is possible to examine how norms rooted in national culture impact on various features of informal ties. We propose that cultures vary in the models on which coworker interaction norms are based, with market, family, law, and friendship relations serving as alternative templates. In elucidating these templates, we generate hypotheses about how each culture’s norms influence the content and structure of employees ’ interactions with coworkers. Results from an egocentric network survey largely support the hypotheses. We discuss implications for organizational behavior research on culture as well as practical implications for multinational firms. Key words: employee relationships; culture; international management History: Published online in Articles in Advance February 11, 2008. In this era of global corporations, an increasingly important question is how employee behavior differs across national cultures. One answer, from classic social theory (Durkheim 1933, 1951; Tonnies 1957; de Tocqueville 1969), is that cultures vary in relational norms, in their prototypical patterns of interpersonal interaction. This answer implies that employees in dif