Structures Affective et Descriptive du Management: Etude Interculturelle

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Abstract
Managerial thinking is studied along a semantic differential methodology in two different cultural settings having the same language. Questions are raised concerning 1) the role of the universal affective EPA meaning structure in the meaning structure of management concepts; 2) other possible culture‐specific or speciesspecific dimensions (factors) along which management concepts are judged; 3) the influence of the universal affective meaning components on specific components of the meaning of management concepts. The instrument is composed of 22 concepts and 30 bipolar adjectival scales, nine of which are pan‐cultural, the remaining 21 resulting from a genuine elicitation procedure from the field of management. The instrument was applied to 48 Belgian French‐speaking Ss and 50 French Canadian Ss, both samples consisting of male Ss, managers and non‐managers, working in two production enterprises located in Belgium and in Québec (Canada). One management‐specific factor, common to both samples, was identified as Control. For the remaining, the universal EPA structure, or parts of it, is found unchanged in the meaning structure of management concepts, but does not influence massively this domain. When this very same component of meaning is neutralized by a mathematical operation of partializing the nine affective scales out of the 30 elicited scales intercorrelations, subsequent factor analysis of the 21 remaining scales intercorrelations yields three factors, easily identifiable as Control, Precision, and Creativity, common to both samples, and apparently composed of mere descriptive scales. Thus, in each of both types of analyses, whether partializing the affective scales or not, Control appears to dominate in managerial thinking, instead of the usual EPA structure; consequences of this finding are considered.