The impact of a Paternalistic Style of Management and Delegation of Authority on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Chile and the US

Abstract

Although the use of a paternalistic style of management is widespread in the nonWestern context, it has only recently received attention from Western scholars. In this study, we compare the presence of a paternalistic style of management and delegation practices across two culturally different organizational contexts, namely Chile and the US. We also examine the effects of these management practices on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in both contexts. Results suggest that delegation of authority was more common in the US than in Chile, whereas paternalism was higher in Chile than in the US. Furthermore, delegation and paternalism were positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment in both countries. Unexpectedly, delegation had a stronger effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment than a paternalistic style of management in the Chilean context, whereas the opposite was found in the US sample. Moreover, the effect of a paternalistic management style on both job satisfaction and organizational commitment seemed to be fully mediated by delegation in Chile. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.