scholarly journals Cross-cultural management education rebooted

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Dietz ◽  
Stacey R. Fitzsimmons ◽  
Zeynep Aycan ◽  
Anne Marie Francesco ◽  
Karsten Jonsen ◽  
...  

Purpose Graduates of cross-cultural management (CCM) courses should be capable of both tackling international and cross-cultural situations and creating positive value from the diversity inherent in these situations. Such value creation is challenging because these situations are typically complex due to differences in cultural values, traditions, social practices, and institutions, such as legal rules, coupled with variation in, for example, wealth and civil rights among stakeholders. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors argue that a scientific mindfulness approach to teaching CCM can help students identify and leverage positive aspects of differences and thereby contribute to positive change in cross-cultural situations. Findings Scientific mindfulness combines mindfulness and scientific thinking with the explicit goal to drive positive change in the world. Originality/value The authors explain how the action principles of scientific mindfulness enable learners to build positive value from cultural diversity. The authors then describe how to enact these principles in the context of CCM education.

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-27
Author(s):  
Yeongsu Kim ◽  
Dong‐Kee Rhee ◽  
Sangsuk Lee

PurposeThis paper aims to answer the following question: do the customer behaviors in evaluating a product's quality converge in terms of low‐ and high‐context culture? The paper is designed to examine how customers in different cultural contexts recognize the quality of a product according to three quality recognition approaches; these are exchange, sign, and experience approaches.Design/methodology/approachIn order to verify whether the worldwide quality recognition methods were converging or diverging, almost 300 exchange students in South Korea were surveyed. The survey examined how the 20s perceive quality of a laptop, analyzing each approach individually in order to observe whether the quality recognition methods were converging. Especially, when examining the experience approach, the value was segregated into two parts: extrinsic and intrinsic value.FindingsIt is found that only the experience approach is converging, which indicates that even within different degrees of cultural context, there are still cultural differences in quality recognition approaches.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations such as limited product uses, dividing the nations simply into two groups which are Western and Eastern are evident in the study. More elaborative future studies are suggested including, dividing nations in terms of cultural context and using more products.Originality/valueThis paper shows that the value recognition approaches are heterogeneous across cultures, and therefore more cultural‐based knowledge is required in cross‐cultural management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
Dariusz Jemielniak

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to see how digital societies’ studies can be inspired by cross-cultural management. Design/methodology/approach – Theory critical analysis and review. Findings – The paper reveals many similarities and analogies, allowing for useful connections between cross-cultural management research, and studying digital societies. Originality/value – By exposing methodological and theoretical links of cross-cultural management field in general, and Magala’s contribution in particular, the following paper helps in better understanding of contemporary research on digital societies, as well as allows for the use of already proven methodologies and approaches in the emerging field of the internet studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sid Lowe ◽  
Astrid Kainzbauer ◽  
Ki-Soon Hwang

Purpose The 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/approach The paper provides an outline of culture as a paradox and an outline of a research approach to address the dualities of culture. Findings A 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/implications A 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/value The 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.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Boussebaa

Purpose This paper responds to calls for a new raison d’être in the field cross-cultural management (CCM) and culture-sensitive studies of international business (IB) more broadly. It argues that one way of addressing the crisis of confidence in the field is to develop a line of inquiry focussed on corporate-driven cultural globalization. This paper also proposes a theoretical approach informed by international political economy (IPE) and postcolonial theory and outlines a research agenda for future work on cultural globalization. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a desk-based analysis that draws on relevant research in the wider social sciences to insert cultural globalization into the CCM/IB field’s intellectual project. Findings The paper finds the field of CCM and culture-sensitive IB studies more broadly to be almost exclusively focussed on studying the impact of cultural differences. Surprisingly, little attention has been devoted to the phenomenon of corporate-driven cultural globalization. Research limitations/implications The paper redirects the field and presents a research agenda, calling for studies on the role of four related actors in cultural globalization: MNEs, global professional service firms, business schools and CCM/IB researchers themselves. Practical implications CCM/IB scholars may be able to reorient themselves towards the phenomenon of cultural globalization and, in so doing, also seize an opportunity to contribute to important debates about it in the wider social sciences. Originality/value The paper suggests possibilities for renewal by redirecting CCM/IB towards the study of cultural globalization and by encouraging the field to develop a postcolonial sensibility in future research on the phenomenon.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-199
Author(s):  
David Lee Keiser

Purpose This essay furthers cross-cultural exchange, and understanding. Written for a general audience by a teacher educator, it argues for accepting all others into the academic conversation. Using varied examples, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate both lifelong learning and the power of connecting across difference. Design/methodology/approach The author draws upon experience as a teacher and professor and his engagement with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for examples of edification and engagement. Findings The author cites both the current period and a mid-twentieth-century American major event, the civil rights March on Washington to illustrate possibilities for connection, clarity and symbiosis. Originality/value Written for this journal, this essay uses an original and skeletal theoretical and empirical frame as well as field examples to argue for inclusiveness, exchange and acceptance of all learners.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Xiaojia Guo ◽  
Hao Chen ◽  
Peng Jiang

Subject area This case describes a real-time crisis experienced by the co-founder (Mr Yang) of a multi-national Chinese company operating in Vietnam during the 2014 Vietnam riot. After the strike broke out, Mr Yang made several critical decisions to protect and save both his factory and employees. Study level/applicability This case is applicable to graduate-level management courses such as: Business ethics, Decision-making, Business Communication and Cross-Cultural Management. Students should have some knowledge in Decision-Making concepts (e.g. “bounded rationality”); in Cross-Cultural Management concepts (e.g. “culture norms”); and in Strategic management theory such as “institution-based view” (e.g. formal vs informal institutions). Case overview Part A of the case introduces the main character (Mr Yang) and his factory in Vietnam, the escalation of the strike and the course of the crisis. It also elaborates the important critical decisions Mr Yang made to save both his factory and employees. Part B of the case describes the rescue of Mr Yang and his Chinese employees, his actions after the crisis and strategic positioning in future business. Part C of the case introduces the aftermath of the riot and Mr Yang's reflection regarding the crisis. Expected learning outcomes The instructors may emphasize different learning objectives in different courses. Business Ethics: help the students learn to recognize, clarify, speak and act on their values when conflicts arise. Decision-Making: helps the students understand the logic of sense-making in crisis and the concept of bounded rationality. Business Communication: helps the students learn to raise issues in an effective manner and learn to deliver their own responses effectively. Cross-Cultural Management: helps the students identify and analyze the many ways in which managers can voice and implement their values in the face of critical moments in a different cultural environment. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Guanyi Zhao ◽  
Yuwei Han ◽  
Yuwen Zhang

<p>Cultural values have a wide influence on international business management and its related activities. In people's daily living environment, due to the different culture and education people receive, the growing environment is different, so it can be divided into different groups, resulting in the relationship between each different cultural groups more and more estranged. If there is no correct sense of management, it is difficult to have close communication, and even there will be barriers in communication. This article mainly analyzes the cross-cultural issues, expounds the cultural factors in international business management, enumerates the cultural differences in international business management, and makes an in-depth analysis of the role of cultural values in international business management and related activities. The purpose is to strengthen the management awareness of relevant managers in cross-cultural management.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1057-1071
Author(s):  
Ashok Ashta

PurposeThe importance of work design to organizational engagement and firm performance is increasingly recognized in management scholarship. For international business, a majority of variation in work design based on national cultures is addressed through cross-cultural management scholarship. However, there is a paucity of qualitative research on the influences international business human resource managers face for work design in the intercultural environment of overseas subsidiaries. The purpose of this interpretivist study was to examine the lived experience of overseas subsidiaries’ local managers to surface a more nuanced understanding of their expectations and related implications for work.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical research was conducted through semistructured in-depth interviews with senior managers of subsidiaries of Japanese MNCs in USA, Thailand and India.FindingsThe findings of the study develop and extend on prior cross-cultural management scholarship on world cultural clusters revealing changed expectations of work in intercultural work environments as instantiated by Japanese MNCs.Social implicationsThrough engaging work design, international businesses can contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 that pertains to decent work.Originality/valueThe study adds to extant understanding of the work design antecedent to engagement by broadening to intercultural environment impacts understanding facilitated by empirical lived experience data and suggesting a modification to extant theory. This study pioneers in taking world cultural clusters as the field for evaluating data.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Ashta

Purpose Though there is emerging research that induces a postulation for a Vedic–Buddhist (V–B) cultural cluster, good theory development requires not only generalizability but also strong explanation. This paper aims to address the explanation gap to strengthen emerging theory development. Design/methodology/approach Religion-derived spiritual philosophy travel is traced from historical origins in India to contemporary Japanese management practice and its underpinning values. Findings The enhanced explanation developed in this paper finds a clear trace of spiritual values with roots in India surfacing in contemporary Japanese management as identified in extant cross-cultural management (CCM) literature. Research limitations/implications This paper offers important explanation to strengthen emerging theory on the novel idea of a V–B CCM cluster. Practical implications The strengthening of explanation for emerging theory adds to the case for modification of the traditional CCM meta-narrative that has positioned India and Japan in separate cultural clusters. Social implications Strengthening the postulation of a V–B cultural cluster potentially lubricates foreign investment from Japan to India contributing to achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 17 that pertains to international partnerships. Additionally, the findings raise questions for public policymakers who in modern times occlude religion from the public sphere. Originality/value This paper offers novel explanatory perspectives for emerging CCM theory, potentially expanding the spiritual philosophy avenue of management research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao C. Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to comment on “Global implication of the indigenous epistemological system from the East: How to Apply yin-yang balancing to paradox management” by Li (2016). As a pioneer in developing indigenous Chinese management theories, Li has been focused on extracting essential principles of the Chinese yin-yang philosophy and applying them to organization and management phenomena within and outside China (Li, 1998, 2012, 2014a, b). In this paper (Li, 2016), Li sharpens his thinking on the unique attributes of the Chinese yin-yang balancing perspective so as to both distinguish it from and connect it to Western Aristotelian and Hegelian philosophies in regard to contradictions and paradoxes that are increasingly more prevalent in contemporary organizations. The author found Li’s paper thought provoking and highly relevant to cross-cultural management research. The author reflects on the yin and yang of the yin-yang perspective itself and discusses how it can be extended for theorizing about cross-cultural or inter-cultural management research. Design/methodology/approach Applying yin-yang dialectics on the East-West cultural differences, this commentary contends that the strengths and weaknesses of the cultural mindsets of the East and the West are relative and potentially complementary to each other, and seeks to balance and integrate Eastern and Western perspectives for theorizing and tackling cultural differences and conflicts in a globalized world. Findings On the basis of yin-yang dialectics on cultural differences, a communitarianism model is proposed for cross-cultural researchers to balance and integrate individualism and collectivism, a well-established East-West cultural difference. Originality/value The theoretical model of communitarianism builds upon but transcends either Eastern or Western cultural differences toward a viable global value system.


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