Human Resources Management Strategies of Taiwan-based Enterprises in Vietnam

The study explores the main challenge for human resource management (HRM) of Taiwan-based enterprises in Vietnam in which cross-cultural management and human capital are mainly focused on, and the study also investigates the strategies of HRM of Taiwanese companies in Vietnam in which companies are centralized in localization management, training and development program and incentive and compensation systems of HR practice.. There are six Taiwanese expatriates work in Vietnam invited to participate the in-depth interview to further understand the difficult of HRM they faced with and to find out the strategies of HRM their company offer. The result consistent with the inference earlier that Taiwan-based enterprises have difficult on cross-cultural management and human capital, and then the strategies about localization management, training and development program, and incentive and compensation systems are conducted as well. The study provides critical research implications as well as practical implications for Taiwanese-based companies in Vietnam.

COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of cross-cultural differences on crisis management: A conceptual model of transcultural crisis management

In this paper, leadership tasks and stakeholder response during transboundary crisis management are analyzed based on findings from Hofstede’s study, GLOBE Project, and theoretical concepts in cross-cultural management. Accordingly, a conceptual model of transcultural crisis management is proposed. Seven propositions (P) and sixteen sub-propositions (SP) are developed and then tested using the case method. The case of the COVID-19 pandemic is studied to note the effects of cross-cultural differences and intercultural communication in the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis stages. Cross-cultural differences are found to affect sense-making, decision-making, sense-giving and meaning-making during pre-crisis and crisis management stages. Implications of these findings and further research agenda are discussed.

Seeking and explaining culturally meaningful within-country regions: A functional, institutional and critical event analysis

Cross-cultural management scholars traditionally use country boundaries to study societal culture, while recognizing that regions within many countries show cultural differences. We review survey studies published in business journals between 1991 and 2021 that assess within-country cultural differences among administrative regions. We classify the articles according to their theoretical bases, methodological approaches, and outcomes. We use a functional, institutional, and critical event framework to suggest direction for theory that is and can be used to seek and explain within-country cultural regions. We also evaluate currently used databases, measurement, and analysis approaches to suggest ways forward.

In praise of holistic scholarship: A collective essay in memory of Mark Easterby-Smith

This collective essay was born out of a desire to honor and remember Professor Mark Easterby-Smith, a founder of the Management Learning community. To do this, we invited community members to share their experiences of working with Mark. The resulting narratives remember Mark as a co-author, co-researcher, project manager, conference organizer, research leader, PhD supervisor, and much more. The memories cover many different aspects of Mark’s academic spectrum: from evaluation to research methods to cross-cultural management, to dynamic capabilities, naming but a few. This space for remembrance however developed into a space of reflection and conceptualization. Inspired by the range and extent of Mark’s interests, skills, experiences, and personal qualities, this essay became conceptual as well as personal as we turned the spotlight on academic careers and consider alternative paths for Management Learning scholarship today. Using the collective representations of Mark’s career as a starting point, we develop, the concept of holistic scholarship, which embraces certain attitudes and orientations in navigating the dialectical spaces and transcending tensions in academic life. We reflect on how such holistic scholarship can be practised in our contemporary and challenging times and what inspiration and lessons we can draw from Mark’s legacy.

Intermediary Management and Employee Corporate Culture Identification Mediation and Mediation Effect Verification

This exploration is mainly performed to study the role of corporate culture accepted by employees in enterprise development and its impact on employees themselves. First, the influence of employee participation, cross-cultural management, and corporate culture on the enterprise is realized through the relevant literature. Then, investigation and analysis are carried out with American I Industrial Group as the research object to determine the impact of cross-cultural management on mergers and acquisitions and organizational performance. The results show that the total impact of trust on reuse is 0.264 before mergers and acquisitions; the difference is not statistically significant, and so is the overall impact of mergers and acquisitions. This means that there is no correlation between trust and reuse. However, when the merger is done, the total effect of trust on reuse rises to 1.594, indicating that the difference and the total effect are statistically significant. The data calculation and analysis for the direct impact of trust on reuse and the indirect impact of trust on reuse are 0.667 and 0.926, respectively, which means that the difference is statistically significant. This proves the role of satisfaction in the impact of trust on reuse once mergers and acquisitions are completed. Therefore, in the process of mergers and acquisitions in the future, enterprises must consider the different cultures of employees and company locations and employee participation, which will further affect the organizational performance of enterprises.

Limits of a Second Language: Native and Second Languages in Management Team Communication

Cultural differences in speech acts are common challenges in management involving Chinese and Western managers. Comparing four groups – Native-speaking Chinese, English-speaking Chinese, Chinese-speaking Westerners, and non-Chinese- speaking Westerners, we assessed the effects of language and ethnicity on the ability to predict communication obstacles in a management team scenario. Bilingual subjects were less likely to be influenced by ethnic biases. Still, bilinguals were not more likely to adjust their metacognitions about communication toward those of the native speakers. The study creates a link between management, cognition and linguistics, as well as having consequences for the study of metacognition in cross-cultural management.

An auto-ethnographic narrative of corporate intercultural training: Insights from the genealogical reordering of the material

Intercultural training is common practice in many organizations. By cross-cultural management scholars, intercultural training is often critiqued as overly simplistic. The argument is that intercultural trainers lack sophisticated cross-cultural management knowledge. Based on 6 years of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research, I argue that such a categorical rejection of intercultural training practice as inferior functions as a closure mechanism towards higher scholarly relevance: The problem is not that intercultural training practice is overly simplistic but rather that cross-cultural management scholars fail to consider the actual processes of how intercultural training emerges in a certain (simplistic) and not in another (sophisticated) shape. What is required, is thus an investigation of the actual contexts, actors and chains of events, and of the power-relations underlying them, that bring a certain reality into being. To achieve this goal, I propose a practice approach to genealogy (based on Foucault) which I apply to rich auto-ethnographic and ethnographic material. In doing so, I work with ethnographic material in novel ways and move beyond a previously held, more structuralist, archival and textual approach to genealogy. Exemplifying the benefits of genealogy, I show how intercultural training is implicated by other, more intertwined and local, power-effects than those considered by academia, such as intersections of gender (women trainers), job precariousness, dominant male professionalism, organizational pressures and personal agendas. In walking the reader through the construction of a sample genealogy, I provide academics with a concrete approach of how to challenge taken-for-granted scholarly assumptions and make more impactful contributions to practice.

Wizer.me and Socrative as innovative teaching method tools: Integrating TPACK and Social Learning Theory

The purpose of this paper is to share a lecturer’s viewpoint on using Wizer.me and Socrative applications as an innovative teaching method integrating TPACK and Social Learning Theory (SLT) at higher education. The applications were used to teach 44 undergraduate students who registered for Cross-Cultural Management course at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). At first, the lecturer used Wizer.me before the class starts and requesting the students to answer several questions before coming to the class. After completing each chapter, the students requested to answer some questions using Socrative application to test their understanding level. The research revealed that at the beginning of the semester, the students not aware of these two applications. However, at the end of the semester, every student familiar with these applications and overall provided positive feedback on the usage of Wizer.me and Socrative application in the teaching and learning process. This study used IntenCheck sentiment analysis software to evaluate the students’ feedback. Student’s opinion on using Wizer.me and Socrative application as an innovative teaching method not explored before at UUM. Therefore, this viewpoint could provide useful insight for university lecturers to use these applications in their teaching and learning process.

The Role of Ethical Leadership in Managing Occupational Stress to Promote Innovative Work Behaviour: A Cross-Cultural Management Perspective

This study examines the role of ethical leadership in managing occupational stress to engender innovative work behaviour (IWB) in cargo logistic SMEs in a contrasting cross-cultural management context of Canada and Pakistan. We draw on Trait Activation Theory to develop the conceptual and theoretical framework of the study. Using connections and a networking approach, a proportionate equal sample of nine SMEs were selected for the study. Analysis of the data from the semi-structured Skype and face-to-face interviews with 38 supervisors and 97 employees showed that ethical leadership plays a vital role in reducing occupational stress and increasing employees’ IWB in both countries. Employees in both countries perceiving ethical leadership exhibit more creative-constructive behaviour. The results further demonstrate that males relative to females in both countries have a higher tendency of exhibiting risk-taking behaviour and IWB, resulting from leaders’ support. Similarly, males have higher tendency of challenging the prevailing “status quo” within the organisations than females. Generally, the Pakistani workforce scored higher in contrast to the Canadian workforce in demonstrating IWB due to ethical leadership support, despite higher perception of occupational stress. Cross-cultural management implications are duly outlined.