**1. Introduction**

In recent years organizations have increased the usage of teams that are becoming the primary work units. The growing interdependence between tasks [1], the flattening of organizations, the diffusion of the technology's use has contributed to the increasing of teamwork. As consequence, the research, developed in last years, has focused on bonus based, that is, on the performance of the employed group and on the mechanisms, which influence the collective motivation of team members [2]. A bonus is a reward given after the individual has achieved

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

his or her target. For example, if a target is achieved or if a deadline is met, the team can be rewarded with a bonus. A reward can be monetary or nonmonetary. It can be given as either a bonus or an incentive. These terms are different. In fact, a monetary reward is a financial benefit given to an individual or a team. A nonmonetary reward can be measured in nonfinancial terms, and it can even be a simple appreciation or gift. The bonus is considered as an "integral integrating mechanism" through which it's possible to achieve an organization's strategic objectives" and it derives by a "deliberate utilization of the pay system" [3]. It is a monetary managerial tool that contributes to achieve high levels of performance [4] by group behavior [5]. The research shows that frequently incentive systems each have different effects (positive or negative) on team members [6]. Several are advantageous, improving communication skills, increasing the involvement of employees, promoting cooperation among employees, intensifying stronger bonds among the workers, developing a friendlier climate at the workplace, which improves efficiency personnel. In most cases in a group, it is possible to exchange ideas creating a synergism that contributes to motivate the employees' to strive toward the common goal. This is the consequence of the fact that cooperation helps to achieve tasks for workers who could not perform individually, even if sometimes the outcome is quite different. It's possible, in fact, that they lose the sense of how each and every one of them is contributing to reaching the goal causing competition instead of cooperation.

Team-based bonuses are the best way to encourage cooperation [13] and "are likely to enhance members' pro-social behaviors and as a result, boost members' capabilities, flexibility, respon-

Impact of National Culture on the Bonus' Use for Teamwork

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75909

173

The choice of planning a bonus for teamwork depends on differences reflected in cultural diversity [15]. In actual fact, the mental attitudes of management can be influenced by the

A short literature review has identified several arguments in postulating the nature of the relationships among cultural dimensions. Cultural differences, as Hofstede affirms in his study, reflect different values: rituals, heroes, symbols, and practices represent factors which involve different levels—national and individual—and, influencing bonus strategies, they can lead the generating competitive advantage for the firm [16]. In fact, several researchers have explored the relationship between national culture and its role while designing bonus, highlighting that a mismatch between compensation strategies and cultural characteristics can have important consequences. For example, in 1998 Hampel [17] showed how national cultural values of Hofstede's model influence the choice of different social benefits. In addition, Schuler and Rogovsky [18] have explored the relationship between the cultural dimensions suggested by Hofstede and compensation practices based on status performance. Researchers have noted that "Whether employees like team incentives … depends on whether the reward system is congruent with the other management systems and the philosophy and culture of the organization" [19]. National culture is important because it provides employees a shared

In fact, different styles and contents allow us to understand because in some organizations team incentive systems are present and if they are good tools to motivate employees. For example, members with highly collectivistic values contributed to their group's performance [20], on the contrary individualists are more motivated by personal gain and their contribution to a team is driven only by personal interest. In a highly individualistic organizational culture, the introduction of bonus for teams is likely to be faced with considerable resistance whereas team-based rewards are more likely to be embraced in organizations with collectiv-

Cultural values may be important to the success of team-based rewards because team goals and expectations must be communicated to employees, achievements must be recognized, and feedback must be shared [22]. Research on individualistic/collectivistic is more observed

There are numerous studies about culture [24–38], but most of the literature, especially that one that focuses on a collective approach, is based on studies carried out by Hofstede [29, 39]. Hofstede's survey was conducted twice around 1968 and 1972 producing more than 116.000 questionnaires. The people interviewed were employees of IBM in more than 50 countries and 3 regions. In the first analysis, he analyzed four cultural dimensions (Hofstede's classic model): power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Later, he

added a fifth dimension related to Confucian countries: long-term orientation.

siveness, and productivity" [14].

istic cultures [21].

context, which, in turn, may be planned with intention.

understanding of the behaviors that will be valued by the organization .

in small than large group and when they can be identified [23].

For this reason, incentives are critical to the functioning of the team [7–9].

Thanks to team-based incentives, companies can motive personnel to be self-going [10] and as well as ultimately lead to organizational effectiveness. They are able to develop a sharing knowledge if the bonus is delivered when everybody has the same level of knowledge.

So, organizations are using group-based bonus plans to initiate changes in organizational culture, and supporting such changes [11].

Our results make two important contributions to the literature. First, our paper contributes to the discussion of the impact of cultural identity in organizations. The results show that cultural dimensions can have different effects on incentive schemes. Secondly, our research shows that 'cultural' factors critically affect how incentives are distributed and as a result, when organizations are more likely to use them and when not.

The chapter proceeds as follows: a short literature review is presented in Section 2 and the methodological design is described in Section 3. Section 4 discusses results of the research questions based on a logit model that illustrates the different effects Hofstede's [12] cultural dimensions can have on incentives' use. Section 5 presents conclusions.
