Comparing the attitudes toward money, material possessions andsavings of overseas Chinese vis-a-vis Chinese in China: convergence,divergence or cross-vergence, vis-a-vis 'one size fits all' humanresource management policies and practices

摘要

Data on attitudes toward money, material possessions and savings were collected from692 respondents in Australia, Canada and China in 2008. On the basis of ethnicity, thesample was divided into five sub-groups: Caucasians in Australia; Chinese in Australia;Caucasians in Canada; Chinese in Canada; and Chinese in China. Results of bivariateand multivariate analyses of variance revealed that the savings rate and attitudes towardmoney/material possessions of Chinese who were born and raised in Australia andCanada were more similar to their counterparts in China than to the Caucasians inAustralia and Canada. This finding shows convergence on the basis of ethnicity, thussuggesting that infra-national diversity can be as salient as cross-national differencesand highlights the need to examine the effectiveness of 'one size fits all' humanresource management policies and practices within a domestic context.