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The paper's aim is to introduce the interactive acculturation model (IAM) of Bourhis et al. to predict how disconcordance in acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers relates to the quality of intergroup work‐relations.

The sample consisted of 141 host community (Dutch) and 41 non‐western immigrant workers of a postal service company who filled out a questionnaire. Methods of analyses include analysis of variance and multiple regression.

In line with the IAM, results showed that a higher disconcordance in preferred acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers related to a poorer quality of intergroup work‐relations. However, intergroup contact moderated this relationship differently for host community and immigrant workers.

Data are cross‐sectional and collected in one organization. Future studies should replicate the findings to other organizational contexts, cultural groups, and collect longitudinal data to determine causal effects.

Organizations should monitor disconcordance in acculturation orientations amongst host community and immigrant workers. A multicultural culture in organizations may reduce disconcordance in acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers.

The paper helps to explain the mixed findings in cultural diversity research so far, by demonstrating that disconcordance in acculturation orientations relates negatively to intergroup work‐relations in a multicultural workplace.

Subjective Well-Being (SWB) refers to how a person evaluates his or her life (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). This appraisal may take the form of cognitions – when a person makes a conscious evaluative judgment about his or her satisfaction with (working) life; or take the form of affect, when people experience negative or positive emotions in response to everyday life. In this chapter, we concentrate on the latter form of SWB – momentary affective experiences (Russell, 1980, 2003) in everyday working life, which we also refer to as momentary SWB.

Simon L. Albrecht is a registered psychologist and has a PhD and a master’s degree in Organizational Psychology. Simon’s PhD focused on identifying the dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of organizational trust. Simon is a Senior Lecturer within the Organizational Psychology program at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Teaching, research, and practice interests are in the areas of work engagement, organizational development and change, leadership development, culture and climate, and organizational politics. Simon has published in numerous international journals, has numerous book chapters in print, and has presented at international conferences. In addition to his academic and research interests Simon also has considerable consultancy experience. He has previously been a director of a human resource consultancy engaged in delivering a broad range of organizational development activities and programs.

The paper aims to introduce the papers in this special issue which highlight the importance of cooperation in organizations, and outline future research directions.

Conceptual approaches to cooperation in organizations are described and a brief outline is given to each paper in the special issue.

This special issue brings together studies that enhance our theoretical understanding of cooperation, addressing core issues related to the role of cultural differences, virtual communication, team processes, leader behavior, and the impact of norms on cooperation.

Factors that facilitate or hinder cooperation in organizations are highlighted, and suggestions on how to deal with those issues in practice are provided. The papers facilitate understanding of the role of cultural differences, communication, team processes, and leader behavior on cooperation in organizations.

The paper provides an introduction to the special issue.

This paper aims to examine the use of Cross-Functional Bridge (CFB) in dyadic relationships towards enhancing organisational performance. Prior research has flagged conflict in interfunctional relationships. Research on managing such conflict context is, however, limited.

Analysing 20 in-depth interviews conducted in UK financial services organisations, this study explains how the CFB is used to manage interfunctional relationship conflict and enhance performance.

This study underlines three core insights about intragroup working relationship: cultural and disciplinary differences and boundary fencing are core features of, and conflict drivers in, the accounting – marketing interface; CFB is a tool for analysing and managing these conflict drivers; and organisations that use this tool achieve improved organisational performance, an outcome that is enhanced and sustained through the team psychological enhancement factor of the conflict management strategy. Also, this study underlines the need to ensure a fit between conflict management strategy and conflict types.

This research has several limitations. It explores only accounting – marketing working relationship in UK financial services organisations. Also, it explores only relationship conflict and cultural and disciplinary diversity and boundary fencing factors. Finally, this study suggests a mediating influence of psychological well-being on the CFB – performance link, a conclusion that is based on a methodologically inadequate tool: causes and effects associations are better assessed quantitatively (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

The paper highlights insights for analysing and resolving conflicts towards harmonious dyadic relationships. Importantly, managers who use the flagged CFB tool would achieve psychological enhancement in team, and extendedly enhanced organisational performance. Managers are reminded of the need to adequately address the emotional substances in relationship conflicts, as failure to do this will lead to conflict escalation, transformation and negative performance.

The paper offers theory testing and theory building knowledge. The CFB insight is a major highlight, one that lays a brick for future development, especially concerning its modus operandi, motivators and how to maximize its performance value.

This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance of managers, and employees and can be enabled by sufficient use of management controls. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research studies from the organizational, management and accounting literature, the authors develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work.

First, the authors propose that the use of formal management controls in a system (i.e. the levers of the control framework) is more powerful than using unrelated formal controls only. Second, they suggest that the interaction of a formal control system together with informal controls working as a control package can even stretch the perception of meaningful work. Third, they argue that the intensity of the control use matters to enhance the perception of meaningful work (inverted u-shaped relationship).

This study presents the first conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. It provides valuable implications for practice and future research in the field of performance management.