International Journal of Cross Cultural Management current issue

Editorial: Cross Cultural Management in the Age of Globalization

Bird, A., Fang, T. — 2009-07-30

Modeling National Identities and Cultural Change: The Western European, Japanese, and United States Experiences Compared

Tipton, F. B. — 2009-07-30

This article examines cultural change in the triad regions, Japan, the United States, and Western Europe. In doing so it attempts to respond to calls to incorporate contextual and temporal factors in the analysis of national culture and their implications for the management of international operations. A four-stage model of development is proposed, derived in dialogue with conceptualizations from anthropology and sociology and with the specialist literature on nationalism. Created by narrow elites over the 19th century, the national cultures of the triad became arenas of violent confrontation in the early twentieth century, and then fragmented into a postmodern diversity in the generation following the Second World War. These tensions reflect broader processes of development that have transformed culture, especially the global forces of rising incomes, rising educational levels, and expansion of the public sphere. In the triad regions these processes have led through a series of stages to a world where individuals choose their own culture. The model therefore predicts in broad outline the likely course of development in emerging nations. The concluding section outlines some possible directions of development and implications for researchers and practitioners.

Is National Culture Still Relevant to Management in a Global Context?: The Case of Switzerland

Chevrier, S. — 2009-07-30

For over 20 years researchers have urged international managers to take culture into account. Focussing on culture raises the problem of using relevant units of analysis. This article advocates that national cultures should be considered even in the global economic context. First, analysis on the national scale makes sense when it is grounded in a political approach to culture. Second, the relevance of the national level is illustrated by the case of Switzerland. If at first sight, Switzerland is a country with multiple internal cultures and borders, a closer analysis shows that the Swiss people share a common political culture based upon attachment to local communities and institutions, to government through consensus and to conflict solving by resorting to arbitration and pragmatism. In the Swiss case, the article shows that management practices are embedded in national political cultures. Validity of the national political culture approach beyond the Swiss case is examined and implications for managers working in cross-cultural environments are discussed.

Ecological Limits to Globalization of Managerial Situations

Van de Vliert, E., Einarsen, S., Euwema, M. C., Janssen, O. — 2009-07-30

The fast-growing global village may not be without cultural boundaries. Globalization as the evolvement of a syndrome of universally endorsed cultural values and practices may have its limits because climate-based demands and wealth-based resources in concert shape unique local cultures. This article reviews results of theory-based research that tested this innovative hypothesis for globalization of the managerially relevant decisions and actions of recruitment, handling work motives, conforming to leadership ideals, and shaping organizational structures and strategies. Recently published secondary analyses of large cross-national/cross-sectional data sets indeed support the presumption that there are climato-economic limits to globalization of managerial situations. Globaphobes and globaphiles may thus have too unrealistic nightmares and daydreams about the sameness of cultures around the globe in times to come.

Chinese Host Country Nationals' Willingness to Support Expatriates: The Role of Collectivism, Interpersonal Affect and Guanxi

Varma, A., Pichler, S., Budhwar, P., Biswas, S. — 2009-07-30

The willingness of host country nationals (HCNs) to provide support to the expatriate has received a lot of attention in the literature on international assignments. Surprisingly, though, the number of empirical studies examining this relationship is extremely limited. This study examines the role of HCNs' collectivistic orientation, interpersonal affect, and guanxi in relation to their willingness to support expatriates. Using data from 212 HCNs in China, it is found that HCNs' perceived relationship quality with the expatriate has a significant impact on their willingness to provide assistance, both role information and social support, to expatriates. Further, it is found that relationship quality is related to perceived cultural similarity. The results reinforce the importance of paying attention to the perceptions and reactions of HCNs towards expatriates. Implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions are offered for future research.

Emotional Intelligence: Factorial Structure and Construct Validity across Cultures

Sharma, S., Deller, J., Biswal, R., Mandal, M. K. — 2009-07-30

This study empirically examines the construct of emotional Intelligence (EI) cross-culturally. Participants (N = 200) from Germany (N = 100) and India (N = 100) completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale, NEO-Five Factor Personality Inventory (Form-S) and Hofstede's Value Survey (Module 94). The major objectives of the study were to examine cross-culturally (a) the factor structure of EI, and (b) the construct of EI as distinct from personality. Results revealed different factor structures for these two cultures, and the construct of EI failed to correlate with the dimensions of personality. Implications of the findings for leadership in a specific culture as well as across different cultures are discussed.

Customization Decisions Regarding Performance Management Systems of Multinational Companies: An Empirical View of Eastern European Firms

Claus, L., Hand, M. L. — 2009-07-30

Performance management (PM) is an important human resource (HR) process for the global organization. There is yet no theoretical framework for identifying the factors that affect customization decisions to standardize or localize PM systems of multinational companies (MNCs). Our purpose is to ascertain the extent of customization of PM systems in MNCs and identify factors that influence customization decisions. We hypothesized that customization of a PM system is a function of global integration, cultural distance and the upstream/downstream nature of PM activities moderated by contextual enterprise variables. A survey was conducted among senior HR practitioners working for the 100 largest companies (by number of employees) in Bulgaria and Romania. Results from a response sample of 97 Bulgarian and Romanian companies indicate that MNCs are already aware of the need for cultural localization of their PM systems and that global integration strategy and specific cultural dimensions — power distance and masculinity — matter more in customization decisions than does overall cultural distance.