¶ … employee's cultural background has a direct influence on attitudes and job satisfaction. Research on cross-cultural organizational and human resource issues help management better understand and guide practice. The most cited cross-cultural work on employee attitudes is that of Hofstede (1980, 1985). Within the Native American community there is a well-known tradition of respect for the importance of family and honoring of elders. In To Build a Bridge: Working with American Indian Communities, authors John Poupart and John Red Horse affirm that cultural values have been seen as a personal source of power within Indian cultures for years. Today, they say that the former traditional values are being rediscovered. This manifests in the form of restorative justice, leadership practices, alternate methods to resolve disputes, and community development programs on the reservation (Holmes, 2013).
Working...
This means that things will happen when they are supposed to - and no sooner. When I began working and supervising Native American employees in Indian country, I learned the origin of the phrase "Indian time." I came to understand that traditionally Indian people were very good students of nature. They studied the seasons and the animals to learn how to live well in their environments. Given this, they learned that it is important to be patient and to act when circumstances were "ripe" rather than to try and force things to happen when circumstances did not support them. I have also come to understand that it is a Western idea that we can control most circumstances, and that we should run our lives by the clock and the calendar.
When applying this to a work setting in a…
