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The purpose of this paper is to highlight how future teaching in business schools will probably take place in an online (here called 24/7) classroom, where culturally diverse e‐learners around the globe meet. Technologies such as iPhone, iPad and a variety of social media, to mention but a few, give management learners of any age easy 24/7 access to information. Depending on the quality of the materials and the competences and cross‐cultural sensibilities of the teachers and trainers, this information may support the progress of e‐learning in business schools. At the same time, easy online access to knowledge and educational structures is not, in practice, equally available yet across cultures, and this will be documented with comparative cases from the Arab world and African learning communities.

This article contributes to multicultural education by identifying various barriers in the online management classroom. It combines theories from educational and cross‐cultural leadership studies, as well as e‐learning studies.

The outcomes of this analysis show how technical, language and cross‐cultural barriers still hinder particular adult learners to benefit from the “24/7 business school”. It is concluded that by understanding and serving a wide range of culturally diverse e‐learners in business schools, the stewardship role of the business school teacher is key.

The interplay between technical, language and cultural barriers in the online business school is rarely reflected upon. It is the intention of the authors to trigger a broad discussion process by focusing on culturally diverse management learners and by connecting with innovative educational insights across histories and cultures.

Language and dialect, customs and service attitudes are just a few of the characteristics that make each culture unique. Consequently, the presence of people from different cultures during a service encounter may impact service quality, as what constitutes good service quality is perceived differently across cultures. As a country with a multicultural society, culturally diverse migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) play an increasingly important role in the Australian hospitality and accommodation sector. Within this regional context, this study aims to contribute to a more robust understanding of the influence of workforce cultural diversity on different aspects of front-desk accommodation service quality in the accommodation industry.

In this qualitative study, 31 semi-structured in-depth interviews with guests, front-desk staff and managers at service apartments in Western Australia were conducted, followed by validation interviews with five hospitality human resource management experts.

The results of the interviews suggest that cultural diversity of NESB staff affects several aspects of Australian accommodation front-desk services, including communication quality, staff-guest interaction and guest satisfaction. Findings point out that culturally diverse NESB front-desk staff may face cross-cultural communication barriers due to different foreign accents and the presence of local slang, improve guest-staff interaction and the overall guest experience in case of similar cultural backgrounds with guests and provide authentic representations of multiculturalism in Australia.

The study sheds new light on tourists’ shifting perceptions and expectations of authenticity, particularly in Australia, where cultural diversity has increased in prominence. Moreover, in the Australian accommodation service, many NESB employees who have learned American/British English have difficulty conversing with people with Australian accents, especially when Australian slang is also present.

本项定性研究针对西澳大利亚州服务公寓的客户、前台工作人员和经理进行了 31 次半结构化深度访谈, 随后对五位酒店人力资源管理专家进行了验证性访谈。

语言和方言、习俗和服务态度是能体现每种文化独特性的几个特征。因此, 在服务过程中人们文化背景的差异可能会影响服务质量, 因为不同文化对于良好服务质量的认知各不相同。澳大利亚作为一个多元文化社会的国家, 其酒店和住宿行业的发展愈发受到来自非英语背景（NESB）的多元文化移民的影响。因而, 本研究以澳大利亚为案例地有助于更深入地了解劳动力文化多样性对住宿行业前台住宿服务质量的多层面影响。

访谈结果表明, NESB 员工的文化多样性对于澳大利亚住宿前台服务的沟通质量、员工-宾客互动、以及宾客满意度等多方面都有影响。调查结果指出, 文化多元化的 NESB 前台工作人员：（1）可能由于不同的外国口音和当地俚语的存在而面临跨文化沟通障碍; （2） 接待相似文化背景的宾客时员工-宾客互动和整体宾客体验都会得到提升（3）代表澳大利亚多元文化的真实现状。

本研究为游客对原真性的看法和期望的转变提供了新的线索, 特别是在文化多样性日益突出的澳大利亚。此外, 在澳大利亚的住宿服务中, 许多学习过美式/英式英语的NESB员工很难与带有澳大利亚口音的宾客沟通, 更何况还需面对澳大利亚俚语。

El idioma y el dialecto, las costumbres y las actitudes de servicio son sólo algunas de las características que hacen que cada cultura sea única. En consecuencia, la presencia de personas de diferentes culturas durante un encuentro de servicio puede repercutir en la calidad del servicio, ya que lo que constituye una buena calidad de servicio se percibe de forma diferente en las distintas culturas. Como país con una sociedad multicultural, los inmigrantes culturalmente diversos de origen no angloparlante (NESB) desempeñan un papel cada vez más importante en el sector de la hostelería y el alojamiento en Australia. Dentro de este contexto regional, este estudio contribuye a una comprensión más sólida de la influencia de la diversidad cultural de la mano de obra en diferentes aspectos de la calidad del servicio de recepción en el sector del alojamiento.

En este estudio cualitativo se realizaron 31 entrevistas en profundidad semiestructuradas a huéspedes, personal de recepción y gerentes de apartamentos en Australia Occidental, seguidas de entrevistas de validación con cinco expertos en gestión de recursos humanos del sector de la hostelería.

Los resultados de las entrevistas sugieren que la diversidad cultural del personal de los NESB afecta a varios aspectos de los servicios de recepción de los alojamientos australianos, como la calidad de la comunicación, la interacción entre el personal y los huéspedes y la satisfacción de éstos. Los hallazgos señalan que el personal de recepción de los NESB culturalmente diverso puede (1) enfrentarse a barreras de comunicación intercultural debido a los diferentes acentos extranjeros y a la presencia de jerga local, (2) mejorar la interacción huésped-personal y la experiencia general del huésped en caso de tener antecedentes culturales similares con los huéspedes, y (3) proporcionar representaciones auténticas del multiculturalismo en Australia.

El estudio arroja nueva luz sobre las cambiantes percepciones y expectativas de autenticidad de los turistas, especialmente en Australia, donde la diversidad cultural ha cobrado mayor protagonismo. Además, en el servicio de alojamiento australiano, muchos empleados de NESB que han aprendido inglés americano/británico tienen dificultades para conversar con personas con acento australiano, sobre todo cuando también está presente la jerga australiana.

Globalization blurs the boundaries of national identity and national differences between corporations. It is increasingly necessary for corporations to identify with a plethora of nations and cultures. Countries that had never been considered major participants in world trade have suddenly emerged as major economic powers. In the past two decades, world trade has expanded from $200 billion to over $4 trillion (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1993). Yet, the USA's participation in world trade measured as a proportion of world market share has declined drastically. In the early 1950s the USA accounted for nearly 25 per cent of world exports (adjusted for World War II); in 1991 this figure had declined to 12 per cent (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1993). In 1987 the USA had a trade deficit of $166 billion, larger than that of any other nation (McEnery and DesHarnais, 1990, p. 43). This situation demonstrates a need for American corporations to develop products with a global consciousness in a cross‐cultural context. It is essential that managers acquire cross‐cultural understanding and skills. International business competition requires managers to have not only a knowledge of how to be a global player, but also the ability to implement that knowledge. In response to this, cross‐cultural managers must deal with certain fundamental issues. Three of the most essential issues are: communication, adaptable management strategies that transcend cultural differences, and sufficient investment in human resources.

Science is a form of narrative that is regarded as the prime generator of knowledge. What about other forms of narratives such as novels and dramatic films? Claims this question is particularly important in organizational science because its narrative nature is easier to detect than is the case with the physical sciences. Using the metaphor of organizations as texts, contends that narrative fictions, especially films, are valuable sources in the study of organizations. What organizational researchers and film writers do are strikingly similar. For example, they enact rather than discover, test ideas against evidence, generalize, raise testable questions about the social world, and stay focused on the complexity of experience. An analysis of the film Rising Sun illustrates the use of narrative fiction as texts for organizational analysis. Discusses the implications of this approach.

Globalisation means that more and more construction projects involve participants from different cultural backgrounds. Besides the obvious language barrier, people may also have different faiths, assumptions and behaviour norms which can and do cause conflicts. This challenges previous approaches and is creating a new context for the construction industry. This research aims to explore how practitioners can work more effectively in cross‐cultural situations.

The paper uses real‐life experience and personal construct theory to understand the problems in interpretation, communications, emotion and trust. It uses methods of participatory action research and experiential research, and an analysis based on dialogue and reflection between the researchers with different cultural backgrounds.

The paper concludes that, to work effectively in cross‐cultural situations, one needs to work with one's personal constructs and pay more attention to informal communications. It is also necessary to recognise and deal with emotions explicitly. It is very important yet difficult to build and maintain trust in cross‐cultural cooperation.

This approach inevitably brings some personal or even biased subjective judgement on certain cultural phenomena. There are others involved who do not have a voice.

The research provides a new approach to facilitate practitioners to tackle the problems of cross‐cultural projects.

The paper applies personal construct theory to cross‐cultural analysis using a novel methodology of cross‐cultural dialogue. This develops a practical approach to situations and establishes the importance of emotion in cross‐cultural cooperation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the adjustment model of expatriates in overseas projects by studying two overseas projects of a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Based on the grounded theory, qualitative analysis was performed based on data compiled from 116 pieces of project briefings, 105 questionnaires answered by expatriate workers and 21 interviews conducted to those workers based on briefings and questionnaires.

The study found that the simulated home is a standard cross-cultural adjustment model for expatriates in Chinese engineering projects, which are project-oriented and often inattentive to employees' individual rights. The simulated home creates a unique work-place and social environment similar to that of expatriates' home country in the cultural setting of the host country, but it also establishes a cultural barrier, limiting the communication between expatriates and the local people, which is not conducive to the cultural exchange between the two sides, causing cultural clashes and consequently hindering the progress of projects.

This research puts forward the model of “simulated home.” And this study bears significance to the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate workers in Chinese overseas projects.

The present study unveils the service encounter barriers – interactional and instructional – faced by foreign consumers at food and beverage restaurants in China. It builds a conceptual framework and examines (1) how service encounter barriers create situational abnormality, (2) how situational abnormality engenders foreign consumers' felt discomfort that influences their revisit intentions and (3) how expectations disconfirmation moderates situational abnormality.

Convenience sampling using the survey method was employed to collect data from 517 foreign consumers – who stay in Beijing (China) – at food and beverage restaurants. The study used IBM SPSS 25.0 and Amos Graphics 24.0 to analyze the data and interpret results.

Findings reveal that interactional and instructional barriers positively create situational abnormality, which ultimately leads to foreign consumers' felt discomfort and their negative revisit intentions. Expectations disconfirmation significantly aggravates situational abnormality as a moderator.

This study investigates foreign consumers' behavior at food and beverage restaurants in China and cautions its generalizability. It suggests corroborating the foreign consumers' behavioral intentions in the context of other countries to generalize the findings and unleash other factors additive to comprehend their behavior in the wake of restaurant industry.

The extant literature has not examined the service encounter barriers faced by foreign consumers at food and beverage restaurants in China. The present study, responding to the previous calls, incorporated the service encounter barriers and their downstream effects on foreign consumers' behavioral responses. By doing so, it adds value to the domestic food and beverage restaurants and service firms in China, in particular, and paves the way to understand the interactional and instructional barriers in the global context, in general, by engaging the foreign consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers to knowledge management (KM) due to various national cultural dimensions and to understand how social media can be used to mitigate those barriers to KM processes within organizations.

The paper begins with a focussed review of existing literature to understand the key concepts in KM and national culture. The paper then outlined the important dimensions of national culture and the barriers they introduce to the KM processes. The paper also briefly reviews the features of some of the popular social media tools available. The paper then conceptually link the three areas of KM, national culture and social media to emerge with a clear picture of how social media can overcome KM barriers due to specific cultural traits.

National culture has multiple dimensions and each of these dimensions can act as a significant barrier to KM within organizations. Social media tools have rich interactive features which can help overcome these barriers. Choosing the correct social media tool with specific features can help alleviate the issues introduced by specific cultural traits.

This paper integrates the three areas of KM, national culture and social media. It provides an understanding of how the various cultural dimensions can act as barriers to KM. It particularly outlines specific social media tools to remedy obstacles to KM due to each of the national culture dimension.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the architectural firm's role in the briefing process on international projects and to identify the strategies of successful firms to overcome barriers.

A model is developed based on a critique of briefing models and international design management theory. The development of a reflexive capability model borrows cultural theory concepts of capital and reflexivity. The model is based on maximizing reflexive capability through the management of social, cultural and intellectual capital. Two case studies of architectural firms identify barriers during the briefing process and strategies to overcome these barriers. Data collection involved 16 interviews with senior management and design team staff.

There are various barriers and strategies used to achieve success in the briefing process. However, the management of a firm's capital is key to successful briefing on international projects and is a characteristic of reflexive practice. Reflexivity is based in a positive interpretation of change, and a continual responsiveness to change by participants in a system. The study provides useful information on management of the design and briefing stages of international projects.

The study is limited by the number of case studies used and the difficulty of generalisability of findings.

The research is that it provides useful information about how to approach constant change during briefing for the architects and clients who work on international projects.

The model is original and has value as it assists in explaining why some firms are more successful than others. The case studies provide new knowledge on international projects and the briefing process. The value of the paper is for the academic community, professionals in the built environment and clients involved in international projects.