Headnote
ABSTRACT Recent economic developments and changes in international trade relations are increasing thepopulation of multinational firms. This trend calls for a greater understanding of how work values differ across national borders. Existing writings have devoted little attention to the comparative work values ofPacific Rim countries, focusing instead on how broad dimensions of national culture differ in that region. Thus, drawing from an array of literature on national cultures and business environments in the Pacific Rim, we develop a set of propositions suggesting how US, Chinese, and Mexican workers compare with respect to fivework values: job activity preference, attitude toward earnings, attitude toward promotion, co-worker involvement preference, and vertical job involvement preference. We then extend our discussion of work values to develop propositions about the relative effectiveness of HRM practices-including decentralised decision making, individual financial incentives, merit-based promotions, and social gatherings-in the US,China, and Mexico.