Is Calling Conceptualized Equivalently across Cultures? A Comparative Study across Six Countries

The concept of work as a calling is deeply rooted in Western culture, but scholarly interest in this topic in other cultures is increasing exponentially. This interest is important for the ongoing development of research on calling, but it is unclear whether calling is conceptualised equivalently across cultures. In this study, we investigate whether an integrated multi-dimensional model of calling is generalizable across three Western (Italy, the United States, and the Netherlands) and three non-Western (India, Türkiye [Turkey], and China) countries (N = 2491). Our results show that the multi-dimensional structure and the relative importance (i.e., loadings) of seven internally- and externally-focused facets of calling in defining the construct are equivalent across cultures and that the overall level of calling is higher in non-Western countries. We also observed small cross-cultural differences in the intensity with which people from different countries approach their calling domain. These results suggest that calling may be a human endeavour that transcends culture, but that culture may influence the intensity with which it is experienced.