Going beyond Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples and problems in organizational research

• Main Authors: PITESA, Marko, GELFAND, Michele J.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Organizational Behavior and Theory; Organization Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7157; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/8156/viewcontent/Weird_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The goal of organizational research is to make inferences about a target population based on samples studied. Most target populations referred to in theories of organizational behavior, whether explicitly or implicitly, tend to be the entire populations of workers or managers, or even the entire human population. A typical sample, however, is convenient, being located where most researchers are, and thus also predominantly from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic countries (WEIRD; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010).