Values in Managing a Contemporary Enterprise – the Perspective of Intercultural Management

The purpose of the article is to define the role and importance of values in managing a contemporary enterprise, while taking into account the perspective of intercultural management. Values are a very important element affecting employees’ motivation and commitment in achieving common goals, especially in a culturally diverse work environment. The first part of the article explains the essence of management through values. The next part describes the role of values in management and benefits stemming from managing by values. Next intercultural management and its dimensions are discussed, whereas the last part describes the challenges related to values in intercultural management.

TRENDS IN CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERCULTURAL MANAGEMENT

Cultural intelligence (CQ), expressing a capacity to effectively function in a cultural or culturally diverse environment (professional and otherwise), has great importance not only for the success of individuals who operate professionally in a intercultural environment, but also for the competitiveness of companies or organizations operating in international markets. For this reason research about CQ abroad is given the high level of attention, however this is not the case in the Czech Republic. This review uses the relatively new method of systematic quantitative literature review to provide a detailed mapping of cultural intelligence research in the years 2015–2019. The results of the analysis indicate that CQ is a global multidisciplinary phenomenon that has become established in intercultural management as a compelling area of research. The concept of CQ is well conceptualized and operationalized; the research at present is focused on the known relationships of new mediators or moderators and other correlations between CQ and new variables are being sought at the level of international economies and management. From the number of published research outcomes it can be seen that interest in CQ is growing, primarily among authors from multicultural countries. Researchers in the years 2015–2019 tested (predominantly in empirical studies) far more hypotheses related to CQ than they did in a comparable previous period; the studies took place in 33 countries, however mostly in the USA. European countries nonetheless fall somewhat behind in this area. Building on previous literature reviews, the nomological network of CQ has been supplemented for the years 2018 and 2019. From the classification of research outcomes it is evident that researchers are most interested in topics oriented on psychology of work. Our study brings entirely new information about CQ research pertaining to the methods used in quantitative analysis and the characteristics of respondents and localization of research.

A Review of Contemporary Challenges in Business Culture

The following article deals with the basic principles of intercultural management and possible improvements in terms of cultural, ethnic and gender diversification. The results are exemplarily applied to a bank located in Germany. The aim of this paper is to find out to what extent intercultural management could improve the productivity of Relatos-Bank in dealing with foreign employees or employees with a different cultural background. To achieve this goal, the authors con-duct a literature research. The main sources of information are books, journal articles and internet sources. It becomes clear that especially the different perceptions of different generations have a potential for conflict, which can be counteracted by applying presented scientific models. Equalizing the salaries of female and male employees and equalizing the rights and distribution of power could also be the key to becoming an open-minded, dynamic and fair organization that is pre-pared for the rapidly changing environment in which it operates.

The influence of intercultural management factors as elements of management innovation

In the current globalization conditions, companies operate in an open environment and constant contact with foreign managers and other interest groups. Intercultural management is an integral and important part of any international company employing and cooperating with employees from different cultures. The proper implementation of intercultural management enables the innovation of employee relations and thus supports achieving the company's goals. This paper aims to examine the influences and relations between local and foreign employees and/or managers. Research on intercultural communication and management was conducted in IT companies by collecting questionnaire data from respondents, formulating hypotheses, and examining them through the Kruskal-Wallis test. Hypotheses verification stated that statistically significant differences are in the relation between the knowledge of the company's cultural differences and the employees' years of experience. The calculated value of p = 0.04728 proved that the longer the employees work in a company interconnecting different cultures, the greater their knowledge of its cultural differences. The research verified the hypothesis on statistically significant differences in the acceptance of cultural differences in the company concerning employee training. The result of the hypothesis verification was the value of p = 0.6539, which did not confirm the hypothesis. The research showed that the employee training did not affect the acceptance of cultural differences. In companies with a labor force from diverse countries and cultures, disputes often arise in communication. The last formulated hypothesis concerning the issue focused on examining the relationship between the acceptance of disputes based on cultural differences in the company and the employee training. The calculated value of p = 0.1 did not confirm this relationship. Therefore, the employee training does not affect the acceptance of disputes in the examined companies. The present research on intercultural management could expand knowledge and innovate relationships to prevent disputes in international companies.

Third-country nationals as intercultural boundary spanners in multinational corporations

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the central roles, functions and competences of third-country nationals (TCNs) in intercultural boundary spanning in multinational corporations (MNCs): Why are TCNs particularly important for reducing complexity at the overlapping functional, geographic and external boundaries of MNCs with their related interferences and which role do they play as boundary spanners in cross-boundary collaboration? Design/methodology/approach After introducing the theoretical background on boundary spanning and TCNs, the methodology applied in this paper is a theory-driven, qualitative approach based on 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews with TNCs conducted in 10 MNCs. Findings The authors aggregate TCNs’ activities into four roles: disembedded cosmopolitan, intermediary, third party and team-related boundary spanner. They show that TCNs tend to understand the complex intercultural context between headquarters and subsidiaries, balance power asymmetries, use their in-between neutrality to create trust, and act in an interculturally highly competent way by using a great variety of intercultural and linguistic skills. The TCNs’ meta-competence permits a higher level, intellectual and abstract perspective, enabling TCNs to consider structures, objects and interactions from an affective distance. Research limitations/implications The differences between TCNs and “regular” expatriates or other interface managers are examined and methodological limitations as well as research implications are critically discussed. MNCs can intentionally assign TCNs with their related competence profiles when expecting boundary-spanning tasks. Originality/value This paper is one of the few published that undergirds the TCN concept with empirical data and illustrates the suitability of specific role-takers such as TCNs for some complex challenges in international and intercultural management settings.