Fabiola H. Gerpott and Ulrike Fasbender
Meetings are conducted by increasingly age-diverse participant groups as the workforces in most industrialized economies are aging due to demographic change. There are at least…
Abstract
Meetings are conducted by increasingly age-diverse participant groups as the workforces in most industrialized economies are aging due to demographic change. There are at least three reasons why meetings constitute a particularly interesting environment to study intergenerational learning processes, defined as individuals’ joint construction of knowledge through an exchange of information with one or more individuals from different age groups. First, meetings allow us to observe a wide variety of interactions that may foster or inhibit intergenerational learning. Second, the interactions taking place in meetings reflect general organizational practices as well as social exchange and age norms. As such, meetings offer a view through the magnifying glass at the age-inclusive or age-discriminating organizational culture which is interwoven with the engagement of different generations in intergenerational learning processes. Third, organizational members use meetings as an arena for strategic interactions to negotiate their current and future status by positioning themselves in relation to their colleagues through social comparisons. This chapter particularly focuses on the latter topic and develops a conceptual model outlining the motivational and emotional coˇnsequences as well as antecedents that link social comparison processes in meetings to intergenerational learning outcomes of participants from different age groups.
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In recent years, international management research has focused on the cognitive development of managers as increasingly important in a complex and dynamic business environment. As…
Abstract
In recent years, international management research has focused on the cognitive development of managers as increasingly important in a complex and dynamic business environment. As part of what might be called a cognitive revolution in international management research, several individual difference constructs have been introduced that promise to improve upon our ability to link culture to action beyond the study of dimensions of cultural variability and inventories of cultural competence. In this paper, I review three of these ideas: multicultural personality, global mindset, and cultural intelligence. I examine their conceptual similarities and level of development, and identify five criteria that need to be satisfied for these new ideas to have utility in international management research.
Murali Sambasivan, Morvarid Sadoughi and Pouyan Esmaeilzadeh
The fundamental question addressed in this research is: How do cultural intelligence, personality traits of expatriates, spousal support and cultural adjustment of expatriates…
Abstract
Purpose
The fundamental question addressed in this research is: How do cultural intelligence, personality traits of expatriates, spousal support and cultural adjustment of expatriates impact their performance? The answer to the question is important to ensure that expatriation is successful. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The integrated framework linking the factors was formulated and tested among the 139 expatriates employed by multinational corporations (MNC) in Malaysia. A questionnaire was developed and distributed. The framework was validated using structural equation modeling technique.
Findings
Based on the analysis, the important findings are: cultural empathy and social initiatives (personality traits) of expatriates, cultural intelligence and spousal support enhance cultural adjustment of expatriates; spousal support, cultural empathy and social initiatives influence the cultural intelligence of the expatriates; and cultural intelligence and spousal support impact the performance of expatriates.
Research limitations/implications
This study selected the expatriates working in MNCs and residing in Malaysia for six months and above.
Originality/value
This integrated view helps us understand the mechanism that leads to an expatriate’s perceived performance. Generally, researchers use “Big Five” to capture the personality traits. This research has used the construct and its dimensions that are relevant for studies on expatriation.
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Christopher Richardson, Guat-Hoon Tan and Shaian Kiumarsi
This paper aims to investigate and reflect upon the effects of personality traits on expatriate adjustment within the context of Malaysia’s multicultural society.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate and reflect upon the effects of personality traits on expatriate adjustment within the context of Malaysia’s multicultural society.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) and extrapolating from the literature on expatriate adjustment, the authors introduce five hypotheses, which are then tested based on data derived from 101 expatriates working in Malaysia.
Findings
The results indicate a positive relationship between both open-mindedness and adjustment as well as between flexibility and adjustment. However, the authors did not observe any significant positive relationship between the three remaining MPQ personality traits and expatriate adjustment.
Originality/value
While various studies have investigated the relationship between personality and expatriate adjustment in an Asian context, the majority have been conducted in largely monocultural settings, or at least on the implicit assumption of a single societal culture within the host country. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the relationship in the context of a multicultural Asian host country.
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P. van Zee, K.G. Günther, R. Poleschinski and N. Roth
A new approach to programming and operating multi‐sensor systems in flexible assembly automation has been developed. The concepts and strategies are described together with its…
Abstract
A new approach to programming and operating multi‐sensor systems in flexible assembly automation has been developed. The concepts and strategies are described together with its application to a depalletising task.
David C. Thomas, Günter Stahl, Elizabeth C. Ravlin, Steven Poelmans, Andre Pekerti, Martha Maznevski, Mila B. Lazarova, Efrat Elron, Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Jean-Luc Cerdin, Richard Brislin, Zeynep Aycan and Kevin Au
The construct of cultural intelligence has recently been introduced to the management literature as an individual difference that may predict effectiveness and a variety of…
Abstract
The construct of cultural intelligence has recently been introduced to the management literature as an individual difference that may predict effectiveness and a variety of interpersonal behavior in the global business environment. This construct has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross-cultural interactions. However, progress has been limited by the adequacy of existing measures. In this chapter, we describe the development and preliminary validation of a web-based assessment of cultural intelligence based on our conceptualization of cultural intelligence.
Jonna Holopainen and Ingmar Björkman
When critically reviewing the empirical research on the relationships between personal characteristics and successful foreign assignments it is revealed that the extant empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
When critically reviewing the empirical research on the relationships between personal characteristics and successful foreign assignments it is revealed that the extant empirical research suffers from several limitations. The aim of this article is to shed additional light into the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and job performance, circumventing the identified limitations of cross‐sectional design, use of self‐evaluations and inappropriate measures of success.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical study is based on longitudinal data. Trained psychologists carried out a psychological assessment of the expatriate prior to the assignment. Performance data were provided by both the expatriate and the expatriate's superior.
Findings
The obtained results support the importance of communicational ability for expatriate success, whereas stress tolerance and relational ability were not found to be significantly related to success.
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted in only one multinational company and the country of origin of all studied expatriates was Finland. Another limitation of this study is the relatively limited number of personal characteristics studied and the use of only one superior performance evaluation per expatriate.
Practical implications
Based on the results it is recommended that companies systematically assess the personal characteristics of candidates before deciding on an expatriation, especially the communicational ability. Minimising the use of self‐evaluations in research is strongly advised.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the literature by providing a longitudinal study on the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and performance.
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Sharon Glazer, Małgorzata W. Kożusznik and Irina A. Shargo
Global virtual teams (GVTs), also known as transnational or distributed teams, are increasingly common as organizations strive to maintain a global presence, find top and diverse…
Abstract
Global virtual teams (GVTs), also known as transnational or distributed teams, are increasingly common as organizations strive to maintain a global presence, find top and diverse talent, and cope with economic constraints. Despite increasing adoption of GVTs, there is a dearth of research addressing whether GVTs are an effective coping strategy for dealing with the world economic crisis and if there are unintended negative consequences on employee well-being as a result of their use. Thus, a focal question guiding the development of this chapter is whether or not GVTs are a sustainable solution for organizations? In this chapter we present a generic framework depicting the cycle by which macroeconomic demands impose changes on organization's structures, which trickle down to the level of the individual who has to cope with the demands the new structure has imposed. We discuss GVTs as an intervention (or cure) for organizations’ dealing with the current world economic crisis and how this organizational intervention inevitably becomes the context (or cause) for the kinds of stressors or demands employees face.
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The term “sensor integration” is used with different connotations and can be used on different levels of production. So when talking about sensor integration it should be helpful…