Sense of Competence: A Cross-Cultural Analysis for Managerial Application

Abstract

This study focuses on developing a simple model of human behavior at work with a sense-of-competence concept. A sample of 545 white-collar employees in service organizations in the United States and 1,123 white- collar employees of banks in India indicates that the experienced mean ingfulness of jobs is the single most important contributor to a sense of competence for employees in both cultures. Because sense of competence has been highly correlated to job performance and the quality of work life, this finding has practical implications for organizations and calls for a redirection of managerial efforts.