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Keywords Psychology, Work ethic, National cultures, Factor analysis
Abstract This study compared people's endorsement of the money ethic across three countries: Taiwan, the USA and the UK. Exploratory factor analysis results for the whole sample suggested that the six-item money ethic scale had three independent factors, low cross-loading, and low inter-factor correlations. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed for the whole sample and for each group. There was a good fit between the six-item MES model and the data for the US sample and a poor fit for the Chinese sample, the UK sample, and the whole sample. For the whole sample, regression results showed that those who scored high on factor budget tended to have high self-esteem, display organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)-altruism, have low strain, and are female. Factor evil was positively related to OCB-compliance and negatively related to OCB-altruism. American men considered money as their success, British men considered money as evil British women claimed that they budget their money carefully. Results are discussed in light of cultural differences and the rapidly expanding literature on the psychology of money beliefs and behaviors.
Received October 1999
Revised August 2000
Accepted April 2002
Money is the instrument of commerce and the measure of value (Smith, 1937). Managers use money to attract, retain, and motivate employees. Money has a significant impact on people's behavior, performance, and effectiveness in organizations. Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase of interest in money and pay in the USA and around the world (e.g. Chiu et al., 2001; Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 1992; Furnham, 1984; Heneman, 1992; Milkovich and Newman, 2002; Opsahl and Dunnette, 1966; Rynes and Gerhart, 2000; Tang, 1992; Tang et al, 2000a, b; Whyte, 1955).
There is a spirited debate: on the one hand, "people do work for money - but they work even more for meaning in their lives" (Pfeffer, 1998, p. 112). Money is a hygiene factor and not a motivator (Herzberg, 1987). On the other hand, "no other incentive or motivational technique comes even close to money" (Locke et aL, 1980, p. 381; see also Gupta and Shaw, 1998; Kohn, 1993, 1998). Some of these differences emerge from long-standing sources of disagreement, such as differences in personal values, experiences, constituencies,...
