Acculturative Stress: Importance of Social Support in Multicultural Workplace

Organisational dynamics are changing due to cultural variability among employees. However scant research focus emphasis upon the ways organizations attempt to adapt to multicultural issues such as cultural stereotyping, language problems, acculturation attempt by the employees etc. The present study is a sincere attempt towards that end. The study explores differences in employee perceptions of social support received from sources in a multicultural organization. In addition, the study explores the relationship between Non-Punjabi employees' acculturative stress and social support they perceive receiving from organizational sources. These employees reported receiving more social support from their Non-Punjabi coworkers than Punjabis reported receiving from that source. No differences were found in either group's perception of the amount of social support received from Punjabi coworkers and supervisors. Social support received from Punjabi coworkers was found to be significantly related to Non-Punjabi employees' acculturative stress. Praise and help with personal problems emerged as the most significant type of social support contributing towards acculturative stress. The findings have been discussed in terms of related literature along with future implications.