Feeling undervalued at work: A cross-cultural study of employee appreciation in Germany and the US

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In a recent study at the University of Vienna, communication researchers Ingrid Wahl and Sabine Einwiller explore how employees in Germany and the United States differ in the importance they assign to workplace appreciation, how much they actually receive, and what consequences this has for job satisfaction and organizational identification.
Daniil Komov

Surveying 923 employees across both countries, the study finds that employees in both nations generally feel underappreciated, the sense of being undervalued being more pronounced in the US than in Germany. The research also uncovers meaningful differences in what kinds of appreciation employees seek and who they receive it from.
 

 

by Aline Vianne Barr


Employee appreciation, which is defined as employees' perception of being valued by others through positive signals about their individual characteristics and work-related behaviors, plays a central role in organizational life. Superiors and colleagues are the primary communicators of appreciation, as they are best placed to directly observe employees' daily behaviors and contributions. Research consistently shows that appreciation improves both positive work-related feelings and reduces negative ones. Yet how important appreciation is, and how much appreciation employees actually receive, may vary considerably depending on cultural context and national labor laws.

Germany and the United States represent a particularly interesting cultural comparison. The US is a highly individualistic culture, where personal achievement is emphasized and employees tend to prioritize recognition for individual performance. Germany, by contrast, scores higher on uncertainty avoidance, meaning employees may seek reassurance across a broader range of work-related behaviors and traits to feel secure and effective in their roles. Labor laws also diverge sharply: Germany offers robust employee protections and strong job security, while the US operates under an employment-at-will model that offers considerably less security. These structural differences shape the importance and perception of appreciation. The feeling of appreciation emerges from the difference between importance of appreciation and perceived appreciation, and reflects whether workers feel adequately, insufficiently, or even excessively appreciated.

  • Regardless of the country in which people work, appreciation is very important and should be communicated by both supervisors and colleagues.
    Study author Ingrid Wahl

The data for the survey at hand was collected via an online questionnaire administered in German and English. A German sample of 467 employees was gathered in December 2023, while an US sample of 456 employees was collected in January 2025. All participants worked in organizations with more than 50 employees, where communication structures tend to be more formalized. Participant ages ranged from 18 to 70 years.

To measure felt appreciation, participants rated the importance of receiving appreciation for 24 specific work-related behaviors and traits – such as personal achievement, extraordinary commitment, punctuality, reliability, and flexibility. They then indicated how much appreciation they actually received for each. Participants also rated appreciation from their supervisors and colleagues using established behavior-based items, and indicated their levels of job satisfaction and organizational identification.

Results reveal that employees in both countries feel underappreciated across all 24 behaviors and traits measured. US employees reported a greater degree of underappreciation than their German counterparts. German employees, meanwhile, reported receiving more appreciation overall, from both superiors and colleagues.

Cultural patterns in what employees value also emerged clearly. German employees rated receiving appreciation for a wide range of work-related behaviors and traits as more important than US employees did. One notable exception was individual performance. American employees placed the greatest importance on recognition for their individual achievements, reflecting the US' more individualistic cultural orientation. German employees, consistent with higher uncertainty avoidance, sought appreciation more broadly and received it more broadly as well.

The relationship between felt appreciation and workplace outcomes was positive and consistent in both countries. Greater felt appreciation was associated with higher job satisfaction and stronger organizational identification in both Germany and the US, with no meaningful differences in the strength of these relationships between the two countries. This finding suggests that while cultures differ in what employees want and how much they receive, the fundamental importance of appreciation and its positive effects are universal.

For organizations operating across both cultural contexts, the findings point to a need for tailored approaches to employee appreciation. US employees should receive particular acknowledgment for individual performance, while for German employees a broader range of behaviors and traits should be appreciated. However, the authors caution that these national tendencies should not become rigid templates: individual preferences vary, and applying cultural generalizations too uniformly risks reinforcing stereotypes. Organizations must also be mindful that visibly different appreciation practices across countries within the same multinational firm could create perceptions of unequal treatment.


Study author Ingrid Wahl concludes: Regardless of the country in which people work, appreciation is very important and should be communicated by both supervisors and colleagues.

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