Cross-cultural Management Research Research Articles

Global Perspectives in Management: Advancements in Cross-Cultural Management Research

Global Perspectives in Management: Advancements in Cross-Cultural Management Research

Beyond a ‘paradigm cold war’, or: How to explore the new in cross-cultural management research

Beyond a ‘paradigm cold war’, or: How to explore the new in cross-cultural management research

Examining the work–life balance of immigrants in Australia: An anomie theory perspective

Against the backdrop of significant migration changes and the predicted further diversification of the workforce, we present the concept of anomie to explain how different sociological and cultural settings influence migrants’ work and family experiences. Anomie refers to the feeling of disorientation and alienation from society caused by a sense of absence of supporting social systems. This article integrates cross-cultural management research into the migration and work–family interface and presents findings from a study of migrants residing in Australia. Through a qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews and open-ended surveys, our study explored participants’ experiences of social and cultural adaptation orientations and behavioural anomie shifts. The findings and theoretical explanation lend strong support to the understanding that sociological influences and cultural orientation moderate migrants’ experiences. We also present an argument for refining Durkheim’s anomie theory to incorporate strains of social, cultural and behavioural consequences concerning migrants’ work and life experiences across cultures.

Expatriate effectiveness: from conceptualization to operationalization

Expatriate effectiveness has been studied extensively in the expatriate literature. Despite its popularity, the construct has not been well-defined or properly operationalized. Adopting a performance perspective, we conceptualize expatriate effectiveness in terms of task, contextual, and adaptive performance. The relative importance of each type of performance may vary across expatriate jobs and over the course of the expatriate’s tenure. We propose six operational and implementation guidelines for expatriate effectiveness measurement in the contexts of the nature of the expatriate job, the prioritized performance at each stage of adjustment, rater sources and capabilities, rater culture, frequency of evaluation, and the fit between measurement methods and criteria. We contribute to cross-cultural management research by providing a thorough description of the criterion issues in this literature, offering a conceptual framework to differentiate and integrate a variety of constructs that reflect different aspects of cross-cultural effectiveness, and calling attention to the influential role of measurement operations and implementation for the validity of research studies.

Islamic values and human resources management: A qualitative study of grocery stores in the Quebec province

Over the last two decades, the study of the effect of Islamic values on management has been of interest to researchers. However, the study of the impact of these values on human resources management remains limited. The objective of this article is to shed light on the human resource management practices of Muslim immigrants settled in Quebec City. To achieve this objective, we conducted a qualitative study of the impact of the Muslim religion on human resources management in grocery stores located in the national capital. The results show that the values of the Muslim religion influence the behavior of grocery store owners, which in turn influences human resource management practices. This research contributes to the development of cross-cultural management research by showing how Islamic values influence human resource management practices in a different cultural context.

Historical Narratives and the Process of Next Generation Engagement in Family Firms

There is growing interest in family business on next-generation engagement, the processes by which older family members persuade younger individuals to commit to the family firm rather than pursue outside career opportunities. Recent research on the “Uses of the Past” and historical narratives. To date little has been written about how family firms use historical narratives in next-generation engagement. We address this gap by drawing on the ecological approach to family narratives and shed fresh light on the patterns that demonstrate how rhetorical history is used to persuade younger members of families to commit to careers within the family firm and to behave in ways that the older family members deem to be important. In our paper we identify two types of rhetorical history that are used in next-generation engagement: identity-enrolment rhetorical history, which is used to get the younger person to identify strongly with the family firm, and performative rhetorical history, which is meant to get the individual who has already committed to the family firm to behave in a particular fashion. Our analysis is informed by social-identity theory and cross-cultural management research so that gender and national culture are recognized as important moderators in our analysis.

The influence of cross-cultural stable and dynamic competencies on expatriate adaptation and outcomes: the case of Taiwan

PurposeThis study investigates the influence of cross-cultural stable and dynamic competencies on expatriate adaptation and outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThis study surveys 10 expatriates in Taiwan and conducts qualitative analysis based on the newly collected original data.FindingsThe study's results confirm that cross-cultural stable and dynamic competencies improve expatriates' cross-cultural adaptation, enhancing expatriate outcomes in cross-cultural environments.Originality/valueThis study contributes to cross-cultural management research by clarifying the characteristics and action mechanisms of cross-cultural stable competencies (including cultural empathy, emotional stability, social initiative, open-mindedness and flexibility) and cross-cultural dynamic competencies (including relational skills, general self-efficacy and non-ethnocentrism) in the international business context. The study's findings suggest future research directions in the empirical investigation of the antecedents, characteristics and results of cross-cultural competencies, cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate outcomes.

Developing a measurement scale for organizational learning capabilities in China

Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop a measurement instrument for organizational learning capability (OLC) in a Chinese management context. Previous research has indicated a need for measurement instruments with proven ecological validity in China, because the learning capability of organizations is influenced by the organization’s external environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed a consequent inductive procedure from item sampling through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and nomological validation. The initial part sampled relevant descriptors from a diverse sample of 159 employees from heterogeneous backgrounds in China. After sorting by an expert panel, EFA of data from a sample of 161 executive students yielded a three-dimensional construct comprising knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization. These three constructs were again tested in CFA using a sample of 357 employees from five companies. Findings The findings across the three samples resulted in a three-dimensional measurement scale that is called as the organizational learning capability questionnaire (OLCQ). The OLCQ displayed high internal consistency, reliability and nomological validity. Research limitations/implications This focus of this study has only been to establish a measurement instrument that allows indigenous research on organizational learning in China. The approach was statistically driven grounded approach, not a theoretical assumption of learning mechanisms special to the Chinese culture. Further research is needed to estimate how this approach yields results that are different from other cultures or the extent to which our findings can be explained by features of the Chinese culture or business environment. Practical implications This study offers a practical measurement instrument to assess practical and scientific problems of organizational learning in China. Social implications The work here emphasizes the necessity of a knowledge sharing community for organizational learning to appear. It addresses a call for more indigenous Chinese management research. Originality/value The authors provide a measurement instrument for OLC with proven ecological validity and with promising consequences for research and practice in China. The instrument is empirically grounded in the practices and behaviors of Chinese managers, avoiding biases that stem from previously identified shortcomings in cross-cultural management research. To the knowledge, it is the first of its kind and a contribution to a call for indigenous management theories with contextual validity.

Learning from multi-paradigmatic sensitivity in cross-cultural management? Empirical and theoretical considerations

Paradigms are basic assumptions about how social reality is perceived, understood and explained. Whereas most research is based on a single paradigm, few empirical papers show the advantages of using multiple paradigms within a study. This article pleads for multi-paradigm studies in cross-cultural management research in order to reach a more multifaceted representation of cultural phenomena. This is particularly consistent with the field of cross-cultural management, because it would be ethnocentric to consider intercultural situations only from one perspective, usually that of one’s own culture. The argument corresponds to the ambition of cross-cultural management to respect and adopt multiple (cultural) perspectives and, analogously, to achieve a ‘paradigmatic ethnorelativism’. Based on an intercultural situation, and therefore going beyond meta-theoretical reasoning, this article demonstrates multi-paradigmatic sensitivity in terms of the functionalist, interpretive and critical paradigms. The use of these theoretical concepts leads to multiple angles and a less ‘ethnocentric’ position, and hence to more nuanced knowledge creation with regard to the intercultural situation. The ‘blind spots’ of each paradigm, but also their complementarities, are discussed. Consequently, this article raises theoretical and practical implications for cross-cultural management by offering a way to a richer understanding of intercultural situations through openness to different paradigms.

Homogeneity or Heterogeneity? An Insight into the Dilemma that exists in Cross-Cultural Management Research

Homogeneity or Heterogeneity? An Insight into the Dilemma that exists in Cross-Cultural Management Research

The lacuna model: A new approach to cross-cultural management research

This paper presents the lacuna model—an innovative investigational tool for the study of cross-cultural differences in a broader context. Originally developed and still widely used as a linguistic instrument, the lacuna theory also applies to empirical investigations in the field of cross-cultural management. Using several examples from the business world to illustrate the taxonomy, the authors demonstrate how lacuna analysis can be carried out. By comparing the lacuna model with Hofstede’s framework, the paper presents the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and concludes with a discussion of the potential offered by the lacuna model for cross-cultural management research and suggestions for its further development.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND WORK ENGAGEMENT OF EXPATRIATES: MODERATING ROLE OF SUPPORTING PRACTICES

Cultural intelligence (CQ) has gained significant role in research on expatriates. However, few studies include aspects as work engagement and supporting practices in cross-cultural management research. The growing number of multinationals and international assignments lead both expatriates and host country nationals to experience complex cultural, racial, and religious diversity that pose greater challenges to human resource managers. This study aims to examine the relationship between CQ of HCNs and their impact on expatriates’ work engagement, with the presence of supporting practices as a moderating factor. The results indicate that high level of HCNs’ CQ is related to an increase in employee involvement. Furthermore, it is found that two facets of ESP, financial and career ESP, had a negatively moderating effect on the positive relationship between two variables.

Exploring culture as a paradox: complementary QUEUE analysis of cultural values and practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the proposition that culture in international management has been dominated by a “Western dualism to measuring culture” (Caprar et al., 2015, p. 1024), which has resulted in severe problems and persistent limitations. The suggestion is that cultural research can be more productively conceived as a paradox involving a duality between two contrasting yet co-determined spheres or domains.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides an outline of culture as a paradox and an outline of a research approach to address the dualities of culture.FindingsA cultural duality is described, which involves a paradoxical “yin-yang” relationship between two contrasting yet mutually constituted aspects of the collective mind. One domain, which involves conscious cognitive elements has dominated research characterized by positivism and empirical cross-cultural explorations of phenomenological cultural values. The second, more recondite domain, involves unconscious and embodied cultural phenomena, which are more tacit and hidden in indirect expression through communicative interaction, exchanges of symbolic representations and embodied behaviour in context.Research limitations/implicationsA methodological duality of qualitative and quantitative mixing in order to provide a bi-focal understanding of both tacit and explicit aspects of culture is proposed as a research agenda.Originality/valueThe suggestion is that these cultural shadows have been relatively neglected thus far in cross-cultural management research. This means that in order to better comprehend culture as paradox, an equalization of approaches sensitive to both sides of the duality is prescient. In pursuit of this idea, a complementary qualitative analysis directed at more nebulous cultural phenomena is proposed in order to provide a balanced analysis of culture as paradox.

Cross-cultural management research: Topics, paradigms, and methods—A journal-based longitudinal analysis between 2001 and 2018

Cross-cultural management (CCM) research comprises a variety of disciplines with different thematic, paradigmatic, and methodological assumptions. Since there has been no systematic analysis of the development of topics, paradigms, and methods, this article draws a landscape of these analyzing 777 articles published in two leading journals between 2001 and 2018. Results show that corporate culture, human resource management, and cultural dimensions are main topics in CCM and that positivist and quantitative papers outweigh interpretive and qualitative articles. We examine a convergence of the positivist and interpretive paradigm in 2016 and 2017, what might indicate a possible upcoming paradigmatic shift in CCM. However, positivist articles rise again since 2017. Using computer-aided tools, this study serves as a basis for future literature reviews.

The Hidden Dimension of Happy Cultural Cooperation

Cross-cultural management research usually postulates that mutual expectations must be clearly assessed and that it is necessary for people from different cultural areas to share a common vision in order to efficiently collaborate. This research examines the link between intercultural understanding and relational efficiency by studying a “happy” and successful Franco-Latino-American case. It challenges the above-mentioned postulate and reveals that relational efficiency relies upon compatible positive understandings of a same situation rather than upon similar understandings, hence the notion of productive misunderstandings.

Cultural intelligence and work engagement of expatriate academics: The role of psychological needs satisfaction

Cultural intelligence (CQ) has received considerable research attention in studies on expatriates. However, most of the studies on this have been conducted on business expatriates, neglecting other types of expatriates, such as self-initiated expatriate academics. The growing number of expatriate academics taking up faculty positions in universities in an upper middle-income economy, like Malaysia, which is known for its complex cultural, racial, and religious diversity, has posed greater challenges to human resource managers of the respective universities. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of CQ on work engagement (WE) with the presence of psychological needs satisfaction (PNS) as a mediating factor. Using a sample of 152 expatriate academics employed in 20 Malaysian public universities, it is found that PNS partially mediates the relationship between CQ and WE. In other words, the relationship between CQ and WE is both direct and indirect and mediated through PNS. The findings give rise to a number of implications, both theoretical and practical, in cross-cultural management research.

Whence, how and when psychological capital enhances job performance: Insights from an east–west conceptual synthesis

The positive core construct of psychological capital (PsyCap) continues to garner a great deal of enduring heed from academicians and practitioners alike. While studies have continually been attesting to PsyCap’s positive influence on job performance, there is an obvious silence in the literature as to the cross-cultural implications for PsyCap formation and management. Besides, little is known about the underlying mechanisms and the team-level boundary conditions of the PsyCap–job performance relationship. Addressing these gaps, this article speculates a blend of ancient Indian and contemporary Western psychological perspectives. In particular, we theorize the role of trigunas (three trait-like components namely sattwa, rajas and tamas) on PsyCap formation, the mediating role of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) in the PsyCap–job performance relationship and the moderating role of supervisors’ authentic leadership behaviour in the relationship between trigunas, PsyCap, OBSE and job performance of their followers at the individual level. Research propositions based on the proposed conceptual model are presented. Implications of such a conceptual blend for cross-cultural management and future research directions conclude the article.

Culture, an excuse?—A critical analysis of essentialist assumptions in cross-cultural management research and practice

The essentialist cross-cultural management paradigm legitimizes a discourse that undermines the agency of people with different cultural backgrounds. The assumptions that underlie the essentialist conceptualization of culture are investigated from an attribution theory perspective. The assumptions are largely based on making culture a valid predictor of action at the expense of the actor’s agency. The manifestation of the essentialist discourse in an international management context is investigated through an attribution theory framework on project professionals’ accounts of intercultural encounters in large-scale construction projects. The analysis shows that culture is used as the cause of actions but also as a means to excuse that actor for his actions. The analysis further shows how the essentialist conceptualization of culture creates a framework for using culture as both a cause of actions and an excuse. The article provides a nonessentialist conceptualization of culture and shows how the assumptions it rests on undermine the assumption that culture is a valid predictor of action. The essentialist assumption of culture can shroud the issues that underlie the challenges currently attributed to culture. Therefore, managers are encouraged to move from an essentialist conceptualization to a nonessentialist conceptualization of culture.

Advancing Otherness and Othering of the Cultural Other during “Intercultural Encounters” in Cross-Cultural Management Research

This article argues that theorising Otherness and Othering of the cultural Other is integral to identity construction during intercultural encounters, but has largely been neglected in Cross-Cultural Management (CCM) research. Intercultural encounters entail the exchange of cultural identities and ideas when individuals from different cultures interact with each other or multicultural organizations. Otherness signals the ascribed qualities attributed to the Other and is expressed through conceptual boundary markers regarding what constitutes Us and Them. Othering, however, reflects the above boundary-production as an underlying cultural process which maintains (and reproduces) such boundaries. Consequently, the CCM research agenda has overly focused on “cultural differences,” values and broad-stroke dimensions of fixed “national cultures” at the expense of identity constructions that transpire when individuals from different cultures are interacting. This article builds theory through advancing the Otherness and Othering concepts, which are key missing interrelationships to Self in CCM research. This is achieved by coupling CCM theory with intellectual developments in Social Anthropology and Sociology.

Cross-Cultural Management Studies: State of the Field in the Four Research Paradigms*

Cross-cultural management research is often confined to the positivist tradition, which is archetypically illustrated by the seminal work of Hofstede. However, this gives an incomplete overview of the field to which three additional research paradigms contribute: interpretivist, postmodern, and critical. Our ambition is to raise awareness of the presence of multiple paradigms in cross-cultural management research. This meta-theoretical positioning allows researchers to consider the insights and contributions from the different paradigms. We aim to achieve this by presenting a brief overview of the state of the field in each paradigm, thus, stressing areas of studies that enrich our understanding of the interaction between culture and management (at the national, organizational, interpersonal, and individual levels). We then highlight the specific contributions of these four paradigms, drawing especially upon the postmodern and critical works, as they have been repeatedly overlooked in reviews. The article concludes by mentioning how more interactions between the paradigms can be developed and can lead to further knowledge development.