Assume the following case. A large multinational organization decides to implement a
pay for performance system, complete with forced distribution rankings and large merit pay
increase differences across performance categories as part of its effort to build a “performancebased
culture.” Resident cross-cultural experts warn against such an approach because they
argue that in collectivist cultures such as China, individualistic-based HR practices such as this
simply will not work, and in fact may actually result in lower, rather than higher performance.
Such warning shows great consistency with what Hofstede wrote when he stated: