Cross-cultural Factors Research Articles

Emotional intelligence and service quality: a meta-analysis with initial evidence on cross-cultural factors and future research directions

In an increasingly competitive market economy, retailers are seeking ways to manage customer perceptions of their service quality. Selecting employees who are high on emotional intelligence (EI), and training employees in emotional competencies, may be ways to improve service quality. This meta-analysis tests the claims that EI improves service quality. The findings indicate that EI is significantly and positively related to service quality and that this relationship is stronger (1) for cultures that are short (versus long) term oriented and that are indulgent (versus restrained), and (2) for professional services and service shops than for mass services. The EI–service quality relationship does not differ between cultures that are masculine versus feminine and high versus low in uncertainty avoidance.

Bringing Context to Workplace Coaching: A Theoretical Framework Based on Uncertainty Avoidance and Regulatory Focus

Workplace coaching is increasingly popular as a global learning and development tool for enhancing employees’ professional capabilities. However, little is known about the role of cross-cultural factors in coaching and the relationships between cross-cultural factors and both coaching approach and motivation factors. Accordingly, by drawing on and integrating theories from the research areas of cross-cultural psychology, regulatory focus, and training, we propose a theoretical framework that unravels the effectiveness of different coaching approaches in different cultural and coaching contexts. We propose that chronic regulatory focus is an underlying mechanism that predicts the effectiveness of a chosen coaching approach in specific contexts of societal uncertainty avoidance (i.e., low vs. high uncertainty avoidance). Furthermore, we propose that coaching context elicits coachee situational regulatory focus, and that compatibility between coachee chronic and situational regulatory focus has a significant impact on coachee pre-coaching motivation. We conclude by discussing implications for future research and practice.

OPEN INNOVATIONS: CROSS-CULTURAL FACTORS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

Мета статті полягає у визначені та обґрунтуванні необхідності впровадження крос-культурних факторів при розвитку інновацій в Україні. Методологічною основою дослідження є використання як загальнонаукових, так і соціологічних методів. Теоретичним і методичним підґрунтям роботи є система загальнонаукових і спеціальних методів, а саме: історико-логічний метод – для дослідження еволюції економічної думки щодо визначення крос-культурних факторів та їх видів; теоретичного узагальнення – для визначення функцій інновацій; систематизації – для упорядкування підходів до трактувань поняття відкритих інновацій та крос-культурних факторів. Загальнонаукові методи систематизації та узагальнення, метод порівняльного аналізу дозволили здійсни оцінку впливу крос-культуних факторів на розвиток інновацій в умовах глобалізації. Наукова новизна полягає в обґрунтуванні необхідності розширення крос-культуних факторів при оцінці інноваційного потенціалу як окремого регіону, так й України в цілому в сучасних умовах глобалізації. Висновки. В сучасних умовах Україні потрібно вчитися досвіду зарубіжних країн, зокрема, США. Саме в цій країні з'явилися, спочатку в гаражі або кімнаті студентського гуртожитку, а потім і виросли в глобальних лідерів інноваційні компанії Hewlett Packard, Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, Google і багато інших. Якщо Україна в перспективі хоче бути країною з інноваційною економікою, в країні має стати можливим створення компанії студентами в гаражі і вихід її на світовий ринок за кілька років. Необхідно виховувати нове покоління інноваційно орієнтованої молоді, для якої не будуть існувати крос-культурні обмеження та бар'єри

Organizational justice enactment: An agent-focused review and path forward

Justice enactment reflects the extent to which agents (e.g., supervisors, decision-makers, and others with power to treat others fairly) adhere to or violate justice rules. Despite the soaring interest that this vantage point has received in recent years, the justice literature focusing on the agent has remained rather fragmented. Further, this literature lacks a framework that integrates the recent empirical work, captures the current state of the field, and proposes questions that remain. Our review summarizes the extant findings on justice enactment by addressing two underlying questions: 1) why do agents behave fairly or unfairly? and 2) what helps or impedes agents' ability to adhere to well-established principles of organizational justice? Upon reviewing over forty empirical articles, we propose a path forward to optimize our understanding of justice enactment and its relationship with a host of individual, vocational, and organizational behaviors. We highlight various areas that are particularly well-suited to benefit from further research: 1) investigating additional justice motives, 2) approaching organizational justice enactment as a shared responsibility of targets and agents, 3) assessing justice enactment in agents' and targets' vocational development, 4) exploring the role of justice enactment in individuals' well-being, 5) advancing our understanding of cross-cultural factors in enacting justice, and 6) and nesting justice enactment within the context of contemporary culture and morality.

Humanistic burden of chronic pruritus in patients with inflammatory dermatoses: Results of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Network on Assessment of Severity and Burden of Pruritus (PruNet) cross-sectional trial

Chronic pruritus is a multifactorial, challenging symptom of global relevance. The European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Network on Assessment of Severity and Burden of Pruritus (PruNet) investigation aimed to analyze the severity and humanistic burden of chronic pruritus in patients suffering from inflammatory dermatoses across Europe. Prospectively collected routine data on 552 patients (with atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, prurigo nodularis, psoriasis vulgaris, lichen planus, or mycosis fungoides [pruritus numeric rating scale score ≥3]) from 9 European centers (in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey) were analyzed by univariate and multivariate variance analyses of various itch characteristics and quality of life (as measured by the Dermatology Life Quality Index and the ItchyQoL). Duration, frequency, and intensity of pruritus (according to a numeric rating scale and visual analog scale) and related impairment of quality of life differed between European centers and dermatologic diagnoses (P<.05). The country in which the center was located had a greater impact on how patients evaluated pruritus intensity and quality of life than diagnosis did (P<.001). One center per country was included. The humanistic burden of chronic pruritus in patients with inflammatory dermatoses is high. European cross-cultural factors may have a stronger influence than a specific dermatologic diagnosis on how patients rate intensity of pruritus and quality of life.

Irritable bowel syndrome in Asia: Pathogenesis, natural history, epidemiology, and management.

Historically, the epidemiology of gastrointestinal diseases in Asia was different from that in Western countries. Early studies suggested a low prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in Asia. As the diagnosis of IBS is symptom-based and as symptom perception, expression, and interpretation are influenced by sociocultural perspectives including language, the presentation of IBS is expected to vary in different communities. Furthermore, the pathogenesis is multifactorial with psychosocial (stress, illness, behavior, and diet) and biological (infection, gut microbiota, and immune activation) variables interacting, and so, the present study can anticipate that the development of IBS will vary in different environments. In recognition of this aspect of functional gastrointestinal disorders, the recently published Rome IV documents have provided greater focus on cross-cultural factors. In this review, the present study seeks to highlight Asian perspectives by identifying historical trends and recent publications from the region and comparing these with the observations from Western societies.

Status Quo and Prospect of Felt Obligation Research

Felt obligation is a new concept in the research of organizational behavior. This research has stated the definition of felt obligation perception and combed the measurement method of felt obligation, which provides some new perspectives for the research of organizational behavior theory. The research summarizes five aspects in the latest progress of studies on perception of felt obligation at home and abroad: background of felt obligation; definition and measurement of felt obligation; difference and relation among perception of felt obligation, role identity, self-efficacy and organizational-based self-esteem; mechanism of felt obligation; factors and effects of felt obligation. In the end, the research has proposed to pay more attention to enrich research method, develop the measures of prevention and conduct the research of cross-cultural factors in the further study on the basis of analyzing the existing problems in researches of felt obligation

Cognition and the self: Attempt of an independent close replication of the effects of self-construal priming on spatial memory recall

Do different modes of thinking about the self lead to differences in performance on a contextual memory task? We conducted a pre-registered replication of the study of self-construal priming on spatial memory by Kühnen and Oyserman (2002; Study 2), simultaneously evaluating the role of task-compliance, operationalization specificity, and cross-cultural robustness. In the original study, participants either circled first-person plural (interdependent condition) or singular pronouns (independent condition) when reading a passage and subsequently memorized and recalled a set of objects presented on a visual-spatial grid. When employing a digital version of the original procedure, we were able to replicate the original findings, with better recall of objects in their original location in the interdependent (vs. independent) condition. Notably, the effect of self-construal priming on spatial memory was strongest when screening out participants who did not comply with instructions on the pronoun task and absent when including non-compliant participants. Moreover, in contrast to the original study, effects of priming were not specific to object-&-location operationalization of spatial memory recall, and also present for location-independent object recall and object-independent spatial placement recall. Additionally, condition effects were robust across observed cultural differences: Though white participants performing less successfully compared to non-white participants, both groups were comparably susceptible to priming effects. We discuss the present results and insights learned from the replication process in light of the on-going debate about the replicability of psychological experiments, highlighting the notion of task-compliance, methodological transparency and cross-cultural factors for further advancement of psychological science.

Overcoming challenges in leadership roles – managing large projects with multi or cross culture teams

PurposeManaging the triple constraints of time, cost and scope of the work, to ensure the quality desired by the stake holders, is a daunting task for any project manager. When the teams involved are for accomplishing large-scale projects, spread over different geographic regions and drawn from multi- or cross-cultural background, the task of the project manager becomes even more complicated and complex (Lothar, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to examine some of those challenges as well as the socio-cultural factors’ influence on the outcome of projects.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive investigative survey in these complex aspects has been undertaken, spanning both in China and in India.FindingsSome solutions to the leadership role have been found through the intense study and data analysis.Research limitations/implicationsThe scope of multicultural and cross-cultural factors and the number of socio-cultural factors affecting such teams spread in diverse parts of the globe is stupendous. However, the study restricted itself to examining only three important socio-cultural factors out of the several, impacting the outcome of multi- or cross-cultural team executed projects.Practical implicationsThe study reveals the causal effect of poor performance outcome for large projects when the team comprises multi- or cross cultural personnel. The limitations for the team leader heading such diverse teams are brought out.Social implicationsThe study will help the future compositions of cross- or multicultural team projects, to know in advance the sensitive areas where they have to focus to ensure seamless execution of large projects with the help of virtual platforms for face-to-face interactions between the team members and their leader.Originality/valueThe literature available on generic behavioural aspects of multi- or cross-cultural teams is plenty. However, very few empirical studies are available in evaluating the influence of socio-cultural factors affecting such large project teams. This study extensively covers both China and India, which is a unique investigative study of its kind.

Leadership challenges at Fritz Publishing

Subject area Human Resource Management Study level/applicability Postgraduate business students, particularly MBA students. Case overview This case examines the working environment of Fritz Publishing, a small independent South African publishing company. Fritz Publishing was established in 1960 by Nick Fritz. After his retirement, ownership passed to his son, Martin. In 2011, Martin Fritz decided to sell the company to the Prys Group, an international publishing house headquartered in Germany. February 2011 saw the arrival of a newly appointed CEO for Fritz Publishing, Vadim Arshavin, who had already experienced excellent financial results as the head of another publishing house. In the wake of his arrival, the company experienced several changes. The case highlights the challenges at Fritz Publishing that have resulted in a growing sense of dissatisfaction. After Martin Fritz sold Fritz Publishing, the organisational culture shifted quite drastically which created challenges for managers, employees and customers alike. Employees, including some members of management, are de-motivated, disengaged and frustrated because of the leadership style and behaviour of the new CEO Vadim Arshavin and consider their psychological contracts to have been breached. The case explores factors that have helped create this situation. It considers challenges to the sustainability of the organisation given recent events including an internal employee engagement survey and feedback from key customers. The case further examines the potential dangers that toxic leadership creates within organisations and encourages discussion on ways this form of destructive leadership can be handled. Expected learning outcomes The learning objectives to be drawn from the case are: to assess the impact of leadership on organisational culture; to analyse how leadership impacts the psychological contract; to identify the cross-cultural factors at play in an emerging market organisation and to understand the way a toxic leadership style can detrimentally affect a high-performance workplace. In addition, there are further learning objectives that can be explored. These are: to examine the change process and associated challenges with the introduction of new leadership into a family-type organisational culture; to understand how breach can be avoided and/or how the psychological contract can be reconstructed. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Cross-cultural issues in M&As: experiences and future agenda from Asia-Pacific deals

In the era of global competition, enterprises have adopted a strategic route on Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for growth. This has been more profound since the liberalisation and openness programme adopted by many countries. Research literature on M&As has attributed failure of deals primarily to cross-cultural factors. Hence, researchers remained interested in understanding the nuances of cross cultural issues for the success of integration. Further, literature on cultural issues suggests that due to the complexity, uniqueness and largely tacit nature of organisational culture, it is difficult to imitate and adopt any specific organisational culture. This becomes even more difficult in the international settings where organisations forced to merge with different nationalities, background, and languages. This study examines the cross-cultural issues associated with Indian cross border deals in the Asia-Pacific region in order to find out the key research dimensions. It attempts to seek answers to these issues based on the Indian evidence which may aid successful cultural integration.

A Study on Cross-cultural Risk Factors for Overseas Entry of Korean Companies

A Study on Cross-cultural Risk Factors for Overseas Entry of Korean Companies

Applying Multilevel Modeling to Understand Individual and Cross-Cultural Variations in Attitudes Toward Homosexual People Across 28 European Countries

Individual and cross-cultural factors associated with attitudes toward homosexual people were examined in this study. Using cross-sectional data from the sixth biennial European Social Survey, which represents 36,959 individuals nested within 28 European countries, successive nested models were tested using multilevel modeling (MLM). Results found that attitudes varied cross-culturally as a function of people’s country of residence—this clustering effect was controlled for in all subsequent models. Individual-level predictors (Level 1) of male gender, older age, less education, being an immigrant to one’s residing country, conservative political affiliation, high religiosity, perceptions that politics in one’s country were unfair, low openness to change values, low self-transcendence values, high conservation values, and high self-enhancement values were significantly linked with anti-homosexuality attitudes. At the country level (Level 2), a high emphasis on social conservatism and fewer civil rights for homosexuals was connected with more unfavorable attitudes. Findings indicate main effects of predictors at both levels; however, country-level variables tended to yield stronger coefficients than individual-level factors, highlighting the contributions of macro- and microfactors in simultaneously shaping attitudes toward homosexuality. Beyond these effects, interactions of country- and individual-level variables show political affiliation, religiosity, self-enhancement values as stronger predictors in liberal countries, but openness to change values, younger age, and higher education as stronger predictors in conservative countries. Implications are discussed for understanding the wide continuum of views toward homosexuality across people and countries.

Multicultural Aspects in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (FGIDs)

Cross-cultural factors are important in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). In the setting of FGIDs, the aims of this review were to: 1) engender interest in global aspects; 2) gain a clearer understanding of culture, race and ethnicity and their effect on patient care and research; 3) facilitate cross-cultural clinical and research competency; and 4) improve and foster the quality and conduct of cross-cultural, multinational research. Cultural variables are inevitably present in the physician-patient context. Food and diets, which differ among cultural groups, are perceived globally as related to or blamed for symptoms. From an individual perspective, biological aspects, such as genetics, the microbiome, environmental hygiene, cytokines and the nervous system, which are affected by cultural differences, are all relevant. Of equal importance are issues related to gender, symptom reporting and interpretation, and family systems. From the physician's viewpoint, understanding the patient's explanatory model of illness, especially in a cultural context, affects patient care and patient education in a multicultural environment. Differences in the definition and use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and other issues related to healthcare services for the FGIDs are also a relevant cross-cultural issue. This paper highlights the importance of cross-cultural competence in clinical medicine and research.

A retrospective critic Re-Debate on Stakeholders’ resistance checklist in software project management within multi-cultural, multi-ethnical and cosmopolitan society context: The Malaysian experience

AbstractRisks stemming from software projects were extensively studied. However, software project risk management has rarely researched organizational risks within multi-cultural and multi-ethnical atmospheres. The fact of the matter is that problems occur when the stakeholders’ cultural and ethnical aspects are not addressed, especially in multi-cultural, multi-ethnical, and cosmopolitan society such as Malaysia. To avoid analyzing something that has already been studied in detail, this study conducted based on in-depth literature review considering key word search in subject-specific databases. Journal articles published in reputed journals were reviewed. By employing Rumelt’s resistance to change checklist and culture gap tool source, this paper develops an organizational risk framework considering cross-cultural and cross-ethnical critical factors in order to show how can risks be better comprehended and managed. The significance of bio-cultural dimensions was scrutinized as vital criteria which shoul...

CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF METAPHORICAL FRAMING IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article examines cross-cultural aspects of metaphorical framing in political discourse. The author notes the importance of conceptual metaphor in framing the conceptual domain of politics, political discourse as a whole, its perception as well as political reality itself. The author shares an opinion that the metaphorical structure of basic concepts of a nation always correlates with its fundamental cultural values. However, the examination of political discourse from the cross-cultural perspective reveals the cases of metaphor uses that don't meet the requirements of cultural coherence and may lead to negative cognitive and communicative consequences. Along with admitting a wide discrepancy between metaphorical models in western and oriental political discourse, the author gives some examples of metaphorical coherence as well as its violation in a number of basic metaphors in American, British and Russian political discourse. To illustrate how cross-cultural factors determine the specific character of metaphorical framing, the article analyses the dynamic character of metaphorical models that can realize diverse scenarios in different national varieties of political discourse. An observation is made about the dependence of metaphoric scenarios in different national varieties of political discourse on the cultural, historical, social and political components of the national cultural cognitive map. The latter is heterogeneous as it is structured by the objectified individual, group, and national verbal and nonverbal experience. This explains, for instance, why there are examples of similarity as well as discrepancy between metaphorical framing in ideologically different party varieties of political discourse within the national political discourse as well as in the rhetoric of politicians belonging to different generations. The observations are illustrated by cross-linguistic data proving the dynamic character of metaphorical models, their variability and potential for conveying new meaning nuances that reflect culture-specific characteristics of the political situation in discourse.

The bicaudate index inversely associates with performance in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in older adults living in rural Ecuador. The Atahualpa project.

Assessment of cognitive impairment in rural areas of developing countries is complicated by illiteracy and cross-cultural factors. A better way to estimate the usefulness of cognitive screening instruments is to evaluate their correlation with imaging biomarkers. The bicaudate index (a marker of central atrophy) correlates with cognitive performance. We assessed the relationship of the bicaudate index with the MoCA to estimate the usefulness of this test to detect individuals with cognitive decline in these regions. Atahualpa residents aged ≥60 years identified during door-to-door surveys were evaluated with the MoCA and invited to undergo brain MRI. Using generalized linear models, we estimated whether the bicaudate index correlates with MoCA scores, after adjusting for demographics and relevant clinical and neuroimaging confounders. Out of 385 eligible persons, 290 (75%) were enrolled. Mean bicaudate index was 0.14 ± 0.03, and mean total MoCA score was 19 ± 5 points. Locally weighted scatterplot smoothing showed a nearly linear inverse relationship between the bicaudate index and the total MoCA score. In the fully adjusted generalized linear model, the bicaudate index was inversely associated with the total MoCA score (p < 0.001), which dropped by 5.3% (95% C.I.: 1.7%-8.8%) for every standard deviation of the bicaudate index. In addition, most domain-specific MoCA scores were inversely associated with the bicaudate index. The inverse relationship between the bicaudate index and the MoCA score provides evidence that the MoCA is reliable to detect structural brain damage and useful to assess cognitive performance in less educated individuals. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organizational cross-cultural differences in the context of innovation-oriented partnerships

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine organizational cross-culture differences in public-private research-oriented relationships. More precisely, it focusses on the analysis university-industry collaborations partnering for research agreements with the aim of fostering the transfer of knowledge and innovation. It analyzes the key organizational cross-cultural differences that could hinder the successful performance of these agreements from a relationship marketing (RM) perspective.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a comprehensive literature review of organizational culture and RM, a quantitative study was carried out and a structural equation model was proposed and tested.Findings– Cross-cultural organizational differences in private-public sectors are proved to negatively influence relationship performance. Market orientation difference appears as the most significant barrier to relationship performance, followed by time orientation difference and to a lesser extent flexibility difference.Originality/value– By integrating organizational culture and RM literatures, the main contribution of this paper is the cross-cultural analysis of private-public relationships (in this case university-industry relationships) from the perspective of RM. Hence, this research will inform management seeking to develop successful public-private collaborations by enhancing their understanding of cross-cultural factors underlying relationship success and failure.

Cross-cultural differences in caregiving: The relevance to community care in India

Deinstitutionalization movement in the West brought about community care movement of mentally ill. Because of this, caring for the mentally ill became an important aspect. In resource-rich countries, caregiving is done by trained persons and in resource-poor country (like India), caregiving was done by untrained family members. Cross-cultural factors such as interdependence and greater family involvement in care have contributed for family members' decision-making in caregiving in India. Nevertheless, cross-cultural similarities in caregiving are more striking than differences. Genuine caregiving of mentally ill will make significant difference to the recipient. In India, majority of the persons with mental illness are cared by family members. Family members lack knowledge about the nature of the illness, have little support and advice by the medical professional, and have difficulties in understanding illness-related behavior. Hence, in India, there is need to develop effective, user-friendly, educational modules in all languages; to increase the knowledge of the carers about the mental illness, and help in decreasing their distress.

Challenges of Technological Entrepreneurship in Africa: The Case of Tunisia

Technology parks are a strategic tool to spill over knowledge and skills. The rise of technology parks around the world and especially in developing countries, has addressed concerns on the technopreneurial activity and its impact on developing locations and regions, especially in developing countries in Africa, where private and public sector are joining efforts to create a sustainable ecosystem for technology entrepreneurs. Hence, numbers of challenges are facing Africa, particularly the cross-cultural factors and the ICT infrastructure. This research was conducted on Technology Park El Ghazala in Tunisia. We will try to assess the impact of cross-cultural variables such as age, communication and social networks influence on prospective technology entrepreneurs.