Relational Maintenance Strategies among Mexican Coworkers

Abstract

This study sought to expand our understanding of the communication behaviors between Mexican coworkers. This involved examining the relational maintenance behaviors that take place between coworkers in Mexican organizations and the impact these behaviors had on the workers job satisfaction, communication satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Since Mexico is considered to be a collectivistic country it was also assessed in order to examine its possible influence on coworkers. The findings indicated that culture played a significant role in Mexican employees’ use of relational maintenance behaviors and their satisfaction and commitment. Additionally, it appeared that Mexican employees engaged in relational maintenance behaviors as a result of their collectivistic culture to fulfill interpersonal needs. Further, significant relationships were found between the coworker relational maintenance behaviors and communication and job satisfaction and organizational commitment. A detailed discussion was also provided highlighting the implications of these findings to organizational communication scholars and business professionals alike.

Keywords: Relational Maintenance Strategies; Communication Satisfaction; Job Satisfaction; Intercultural Communication; Organizational Commitment

Submission date: 2011-10-16
Acceptance date: 2011-10-24