Eastern and western happiness in work behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to clarify what motivates East Asian work behavior. The research question is: How can a Western manager better understand work behavior and motivation in East Asian cultures? Knowledge about national culture, motivation and the concept of happiness are connected via deductive and comparative methods, while pointing out their new connections and relations. We argue that work motivation in East Asian cultures can be explained using the self-concept-based motivation meta-theory as it corresponds to the East Asian concept of face and that the East Asian self-concept originates with the Eastern concept of happiness.

Keywords

• eastern culture
• western culture
• work behavior
• motivation
• happiness