Ideological shift and employees’ relationships: evidence from Ukraine

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the employees’ identities shift in Ukraine based on the relational model theory. The paper concentrates on the role which culture and history play in the use of relational models in firms on different organizational levels. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypotheses were tested by multivariate analysis of variance and covariance tests with the data from 99 surveys of Ukrainian firms describing 219 intraorganizational relationships. Findings The results showed that culture and history play a significant role for the preference of a certain relational model. Position in the organization and gender influence the choice of the relational model. Research limitations/implications The sample of only Ukrainian employees restricts generalizability of the results. This study applies relational models theory in business domain and provides an alternative explanation of employees’ identities shift due to cultural differences and ideological past. Relational models are investigated on different organizational levels shedding light on models of relationships employees prefer in different settings. Practical implications Managers working in international settings should pay more attention to patterns of relationships in the target country since they are not freely chosen but partially predestined by the cultural background and the historical and ideological past. Relationships in firms are path dependent, whereby employees inherit models from their peers to apply them to their subordinates. Ukrainian female and male employees have different preferences concerning relational models. Originality/value This study is unique in that it applies an anthropological theory to relationships on different organizational levels and tests it in a business domain of a country in an ideological transition.