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Using the case of a cross-cultural setting, the purpose of this paper is to compare perceptions of students towards face-to-face learning and blended learning. A social constructivist perspective is used which implies that cultural data are in fact social constructs made on the basis of the participants’ own cultural thought patterns and the concepts and categories to which they are socialised within learning organisations. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Perceptual evidence forms the primary qualitative and quantitative data for this study. The paper uses social constructivist approach with empirical data in developing the notion that cross-cultural management is a process whereby people, through social interactions, acquire participative competence for working in cross-cultural settings.

Perceptual data emerging from this study point out that considering the learning objectives of a cross-cultural context are paramount when engaging in cross-cultural management curriculum and teaching design. Such social contexts, while complex and challenging, is often a perfect opportunity where cross-cultural competence can be developed.

The value of the study lies in the original insights it offers into student experiences and the challenges to adopt a “one size fits all” strategy in a cross-cultural setting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborers’ cross-cultural adjustment.

This paper uses structural equation modeling to analyze the data from a sample of 258 Vietnamese laborers in Taiwan.

The results show a significantly positive impact of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on cross-cultural adjustment.

The findings of this study provide important implications for academic researchers and organizations concerning management and development of successful foreign laborers. From a theoretical aspect, this study shows new evidence on the impacts of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborer cross-cultural adjustment. In addition, this study enriches theories in the field of self-determination motivation, workplace learning, trust and self-efficacy literature. From a practical aspect, this study provides implications for business managers to make better policies in training and managing foreign laborers.

This study aims to contribute to the enrichment of the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Data on cross-cultural adjustment from expatriate employees in five banks that collectively accounted for over 80 per cent of Nigerian banks with subsidiaries in other African were systematically selected for the investigation. This data was collected quantitatively via a survey instrument. Independent sample t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were deployed in analyzing the data.

The study found that cross-cultural adjustment varied significantly across the different categories of gender, age, marital status, previous expatriate training, previous expatriate experience, and duration of expatriation. The study concludes that in order to attain higher levels of adjustment African banks and other organizations should provide a more comprehensive cross-cultural training program that mirrors the needs of employees following a detailed needs analysis. Also, the training must be sequential and not a one-off approach.

The literature though still nascent is largely focused on expatriate preparation and adjustment for expatriates moving from Western-to-western contexts and very little exists in the literature on how multinationals from Non-Western contexts like Africa prepare their staff for expatriation and its consequent impact on their adjustment. This study aims to enrich the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Higher education is influenced, to an increasing extent, by changing student demographics. This requires educators to design and deliver learning systems which will enhance students’ learning experience with innovative, real world and engaging resources. The authors predict that transformations in the learning systems will increase as higher learning institutions seek to add educational value. The authors maintain that current pedagogies in cross‐cultural education are insufficiently adapted to student learning‐style needs. This problem is particularly noticeable in one cross‐cultural setting. This study aims to explore games, as an alternate pedagogy, to enhance learning systems.

Students’ feedback formed the primary qualitative data for this study. The paper develops a conceptual model which provides an organised framework to manage intercultural differences, using games. The Mapping, Bridging, Integrating (MBI) model creates an opportunity for students to appreciate differences and understand the model's implications for their careers in international management.

Participants’ responses to the games were overwhelmingly positive. Participants’ responses indicated games as a preferred method for developing the intercultural competence, team work, decision making and self awareness skills essential for business and entrepreneurship.

There is a growing need to consider and align the relationship between education, the increasing cultural diversity in student populations, and the learning and teaching styles of a changing student population in order to enhance the extent of expected knowledge transfer.

In this study, the authors adopted a qualitative approach to trialling the use of games in a cross‐cultural context with the view to reducing international cross‐cultural barriers and developing skills in intercultural competence, self awareness, collaborative working and decision making. This study shows the need for alternative, more integrative models of education comprising elements of complexity that fit with an increasingly complex world.

In this chapter, we outline the research presented by each of the contributors, who used narrative inquiry approaches that were grounded in long-term research, to examine teacher experiences of cross-cultural teaching. The authors write about cross-cultural experiences that cross temporal, spatial, and social-personal dimensions. Woven into teaching and learning experiences set across time and context were interactions with colleagues, peers, and community members that offered insight into rationale for pedagogical decisions about ways in which practices and curricular materials may be mismatched or well aligned, or unfolded with tension in their current professional contexts. This crossing of time, context, and across social-personal interactions added complexity in ways that highlight the need for research methodologies that support examination of experience that unfolded across time, space, and social-personal dimensions. The authors elaborate upon ways in which a narrative inquiry approached provided a theoretical foundation to highlight complexities and reveal nuances of cross-cultural teacher experiences. The cross-cultural features in these chapters, whereby teachers cross cultural boundaries when they assumed teaching positions in communities culturally different from those in which they themselves were educated and certified. We argue for the need for cross-cultural comparative narrative inquiry approach, that help to reveal complexities of these cross-cultural teaching and learning as a fitting research approach to document and to analyze complexities underlying and informing understanding of teacher knowledge in cross-cultural teaching contexts.

Globalization requires business leaders who can manage effectively in multicultural environments. Although many organizations assume leaders will enhance their multicultural skills through international assignments, it is unclear how leaders translate these international experiences into knowledge and skills that enhance their effectiveness. Based on experiential learning theory (ELT), we propose that cultural intelligence (CQ) is an essential learning capability that leaders can use to translate their international experiences into effective experiential learning in culturally diverse contexts.

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.

Chapter 1 overviews the purposes, organization, and various contributions in the volume, “Smudging composition lines of identity and teacher knowledge: Cross-cultural narrative inquiries into teaching and learning.” Through these inquiries, we unpack the complexities of teachers and students engaging in cross-cultural classroom contexts. We present narrative inquiry as a fitting research approach to document and to analyze complexities underlying and informing understanding of teacher knowledge in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Such a methodological approach reveals details of the kinds of cross-cultural perspectives that might unfold in the implementation of curriculum, and explores ways in which teachers' sense of teacher knowledge are shaped by experiences of teaching and learning. We recognize complexities revealed through a comparative cross-cultural narrative approach as a way of highlighting the educational significance of this work. We organized chapters of this volume into sections, using Schwab's (1973) curriculum commonplaces as a framework for examining some of these complexities. The four section headings are: Section I: “Becoming a cross-cultural teacher: Developing teacher knowledge from cross-cultural experiences;” Section II: “Learner experience informing teacher knowledge;” Section III: “Subject matter/curriculum informing teacher knowledge;” and Section IV: “Milieu informing teacher knowledge.”

The ability to effectively engage in cross-cultural interactions is imperative for leaders in our increasingly globalized world. Those who possess certain key psychological resources are more likely to engage in cross-cultural interactions successfully. Psychological resources include cross-cultural hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, which together comprise cross-cultural psychological capital (CC PsyCap). Previous research has indicated that CC PsyCap predicts cultural competence, yet the pathways underlying this relationship remain unexplored. We examined the relationships among CC PsyCap, engagement in cross-cultural interactions, stress during cross-cultural interactions, and cultural competence. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a sample of 135 undergraduate students (76% female) participating in study abroad programs. Participants completed measures of cultural competence, CC PsyCap, engagement, and stress approximately one month into their study abroad. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate that CC PsyCap and stress influence cultural competence directly and indirectly through engagement level during cross-cultural interactions. Furthermore, the results suggest that CC PsyCap indirectly influences engagement through stress during cross-cultural interactions. We discuss the implications of these results for people preparing to enter cross-cultural environments.

The main purpose of this paper is to test the effects of a classical intercultural simulation on participants' ability to modify their behavior in response to collectivistic and individualistic contexts. Moreover, the paper aims to examine moderating effects based on experiential learning and social identity theory.

The learning effects are evaluated through two separate quasi-experimental studies with 152 master students in business economics at a Danish university and 190 bachelor students in international business at a German university.

The analysis shows that intercultural simulations with artificial cultures significantly improve participants' ability to modify their behavior depending on cultural context. Participants who identify with an artificial culture that differs radically from their own take greater advantage of the simulation. The overall duration of international experience moderates participants' learning with a U-shaped effect. Culture-specific experience strengthens the positive effect of the simulation. The comparison of the two conducted studies indicates that previous cognitive teaching enhances learning.

The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of intercultural simulations that guide participants through all phases of the experiential learning cycle. Moreover, they underline the importance of assessing participants' cultural backgrounds before the assignment of training groups.

Prior research on intercultural simulations is often based on qualitative methods and mostly limited to affective outcomes, such as motivation and enjoyment of intercultural interactions. By contrast, this paper quantitatively tests to what extent intercultural simulations improve participants' ability to modify behavior depending on culture.