Opening the mind: Effect of culture mixing on acceptance of organizational change

Drawing on the literature on cultural priming and open-mindedness, we proposed that priming individuals with culture mixing would promote acceptance of new organizational policies and reduce adherence to the status quo more than priming them with local culture. In two studies using samples of Chinese supervisors, we showed that respondents who were primed with culture mixing were more willing to accept a hypothetical drastic drop in the percentage of the guaranteed component of their salary than those primed with Chinese culture, whereas there was no difference between those primed with Western culture and those in the neutral condition. We further showed that this pattern emerged only among participants with low need for cognitive closure, suggesting that such enhanced change acceptance might be motivated by open-mindedness. We also assessed alternative accounts driven by need for cognition or global-mindedness and both measures did not moderate the culture mixing effect. The implications for cultural mixing and change management are discussed.