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This paper aims to discover the effect of cultural diversity challenges (organizational communication, work- related discrimination and training) on physicians’ cognitive, affective and behavioral cynicism in the context of public hospitals, Menoufia (Egypt).

A total of 360 physicians at public hospitals in Menoufia (Egypt) were contacted and all of them received a set of questionnaires. After five follow ups, a total of 240 responses were collected with a response rate of 66.67 per cent.

The findings suggest that only communication is considered the main and significant predictor for cognitive, affective and behavioral cynicism. Accordingly, when physicians perceive well-coordinated and balanced communication, they feel that their hospital has an adequate level of integrity and consequently will have a positive attitude toward it.

Through well-formulated organizational communication, the hospital administration can decrease the organizational cynicism among physicians and subsequently their unwanted behavior. It is needless to say that when physicians experience an open-door communication climate, they experience a sense of psychological safety and give their very best.

This paper contributes by filling a gap in management and organization literature, in which empirical studies on cultural diversity and organizational cynicism were limited until now.

The lack of career movement of members of ethnic minority groups in work organizations has been widely documented. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into conditions for the realization of diversity goals in the case of talent development.

In a case study of management development in the Dutch national tax administration, the practice of fostering vertical mobility of ethnic minority personnel through diversity management has been analysed. The authors make use of theories regarding effective diversity management and career advancement of ethnic minority employees. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 12 participants in the management development course, and a further 25 functionaries involved in the project.

With regard to diversity management as a means of fostering talent development of ethnic minorities, the authors come to the conclusion that key success factors mentioned in the literature such as top level commitment and strategic integration, are insufficient and overrated conditions. More important are “non‐issues” in the formulation of diversity strategies, organizational alignment of relevant organizational players, strategic coherence and organizational culture.

The case study design used in this research facilitates case‐sensitive analysis, but is limited in estimations of validity and explanatory strength of factors mentioned in the literature, as it is in generalizing across organizations.

Interventions aimed at fostering ethnic diversity in talent development should start with precise analysis of cultural and organizational conditions and processes underpinning standard practices of talent and career development, and not only seek strategic integration and top management commitment but arrange for broad‐based organizational alignment.

While there are many theoretical and normative models tracing diversity outcomes to organizational conditions and diversity management strategies, there is a dearth of empirical studies in this field. The case study explores the merits of these models and adds new insights on an empirical basis.

As organisations respond to changes in cross‐border business activity career practices more attuned to differences in business and cultural practices are required if organisations are to become more effective in their cross‐ border business activities. Missing from the career management practices of many cross‐border organisations are two complementary challenges. First is the selection, development and retention of a “diverse” cross‐section of skilled managers, representative of the various locations of the business entity, reflecting an organisational culture that values the “know‐how” possessed by skilled managers from disparate cultural backgrounds. Second is the existence of a corporate culture that values a “mindset” reflective of the cultural diversity of the organisation, as well as the disparate values, attitudes and behaviours that potentially exist across the firm’s foreign business operations. The literature on these themes is reviewed and some recommendations for the development and management of cross‐border careers and propositions for future research are outlined.

Over the past decade, the U.S. workforce has become increasingly diverse. In response, scholars and practitioners have sought to uncover ways to leverage this increasing diversity to enhance business performance. To date, research evidence has failed to provide consistent support for the value of diversity to organizational effectiveness. Accordingly, scholars have shifted their attention to diversity management as a means to fully realize the potential benefits of diversity in organizations. The principal aim of this chapter is to review the current wisdom on the study of diversity climate in organizations. Defined as the extent that employees view an organization as utilizing fair personnel practices and socially integrating all personnel into the work environment, diversity climate has been proposed as a catalyst for unlocking the full value of diversity in organizations. During our review, we discuss the existent individual- and aggregate-level research, describe the theoretical foundations of such work, summarize the key research findings and themes gleaned from work in each domain, and note the limitations of diversity climate research. Finally, we highlight the domains of uncertainty regarding diversity climate research, and offer recommendations for future work that can enhance knowledge of diversity climate effects on organizational outcomes.

This paper empirically explores the types and extent of cultural diversity strategies in Sweden, a developed economy with many migrant workers. The role of organizational culture as the context and the association with diversity strategy and the selection of international skilled migrant workers are examined.

Empirical data are collected by surveying 249 Swedish large or medium-sized firms. Cluster analysis is used to explore the configuration of organizational culture, cultural diversity strategy (CDS) and selection and development criteria.

The authors identify five clusters of organizations. Organizational culture is the main contextual factor that influences the CDS and human resource (HR) approaches for selecting skilled migrant workers. The profile of the clusters including organizational culture, diversity strategies, the selection criteria and firm demographics is presented. The empirical results indicate that organizational culture and demographics are associated with the choice of diversity strategy and, consequently, HR processes.

This study's main focus is on international skilled migrants, which is among empirically less-studied areas in global mobility literature. Furthermore, until now more attention has been directed toward studying the consequences of diversity than toward understanding the factors that influence choice of diversity strategies and practices. This study focuses on antecedents of diversity and attempts to understand the factors that influence adoption and implementation of different cultural diversity strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to encourage scholars to look at commonly considered phenomena in international business and cross-cultural research in new ways and to theorize and explore how cultural diversity, distance, and foreignness create value for global organizations. These considerations should result in a more balanced treatment of culture in cross-cultural management (CCM) research.

The idea that there are negative consequences associated with cultural differences is pervasive in hypotheses formulation and empirical testing in international business and CCM literature, as reflected in widely used constructs such as “cultural distance,” “cultural misfit,” “foreignness,” and related concepts. Consistent with a Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspective on culture and cultural differences, the authors emphasize the positive role of distance and diversity across national, cultural, institutional, and organizational dimensions. In addition, they provide an overview of the contributions to the special issue.

Examining the positive side of culture is not only beneficial theoretically in terms of filling the existing gaps in the literature, but is also crucial for the practice of international and global business. Accordingly, the contributions to the special issue highlight how explicitly considering positive phenomena can help better understand when and how cultural diversity, distance, and foreignness can enhance organizational effectiveness and performance at multiple levels. They include five research papers, a Distinguished Scholar Essay by Kim Cameron, the Founder of the POS movement, and an interview piece with Richard Nisbett, a Pioneer Researcher in culture and cognition.

The overemphasis on adverse outcomes associated with cultural differences in existing research has hindered the understanding of the processes and conditions that help organizations leverage the benefits of cultural differences in a wide range of contexts. This introductory paper together with the contributions included in the special issue showcases the positive dynamics and outcomes associated with cultural differences, distance, and diversity in a wide range of international business contexts.

This chapter focuses on the management of ethnic diversity and investigates Diversity Management practices in an organization which is a member of the Diversity Charta in Germany and even won a prize for its outstanding Diversity Management initiatives. However, this chapter illustrates that in this company Diversity Management can only be understood as window dressing, rather than as a serious attempt to manage diversity and particularly ethnic diversity. The case study data derives from a larger study, which examined the habitus of managing ethnic diversity in Germany. The case study data consists of observations, interviews with key internal stuff as well as employees, a focus group, documentary analysis of company data (policies, annual reports, brochures, as well as employee statistics), information about company history and lastly visual data in the form of pictures.

Different forms of inter-organisational encounters, including joint ventures, alliances, mergers and acquisitions, have over the last decades become fashionable and much-sought means of globalisation. A continuous concern shared by managers involved in these different forms of inter-organisational encounters is the challenge of making them work in practice – their successful implementation and management. The cultural dimensions of these different kinds of inter-organisational encounters, particularly in cross-border contexts, have been deplored as being particularly difficult. This paper builds on prior research and aims to understand how the cultural dimensions of inter-organisational encounters have been approached by researchers on mergers and acquisitions on the one hand and researchers on alliances and joint ventures on the other hand. Based on a comparative literature review, the findings suggest that the two fields, despite their valuable contributions and the similarities in the phenomena they study, have remained surprisingly isolated from one another and would offer opportunities for cross-fertilisation. Through its theoretical contribution, the paper intends to offer insights to researchers in both streams of research.

The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on the necessity of incorporating practical and experiential learning modalities in higher education to prepare communication and relationship management students for engaging others in potentially conflicting socio-cultural heterogeneous settings. It is argued that cultural diversity sensitivity, cultivated in teaching modalities, could enhance social cohesion and aid nation-building endeavours. Participative action research was applied in a case study of second year communication students enrolled for a module concerning the application of relationship management in communication specialisms. Students generally comprehend the foundational theorem and praxis of communication and relationship management but failed to successfully apply these principles in practice. This impedes the emotional and intellectual preparation of students for work and negates social cohesion efforts in a diverse society like South Africa. The case study conclusively illustrates students' general anxiety to engage people from different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds. Teachers should create ‘safe spaces’ in the classroom to equip and prepare students in utilizing the principles of communication and relationship management in politically charged and diverse settings. Innovative teaching strategies are recommended to foster harmony, tolerance, understanding and cultural sensitivity in Communication and Relationship Management education.

The purpose of this paper is to show how corporate responsibility (CR) could be utilized to manage and develop individual, cultural, and biodiversity and turn them into business strategies.

Case studies of two multinational forest companies are used to demonstrate present and possible corporate values, words, and actions of diversity.

Forest companies tend to react on external pressure in diversity issues. They often take a confrontational or minimum legal compliance approach. Biodiversity, cultural diversity, and individual diversity form an intertwined hot topic all over the world.

For future prospects, forest companies should take initiative in diversity enhancement and become entrepreneurial, particularly as pulp and paper production is a declining industry and new business visions are needed. In cooperation with indigenous peoples, environmental organizations, governments, and other stakeholders forest companies could replace monocultural tree plantations with multicultural forest gardens, which provide many ecosystem services, natural products, and employment, and participate in large‐scale forest leasing for conservation. Multinational forest companies could also make better use of their diverse individual and cultural resources.

This is the first attempt to build a CR/diversity framework by studying different kinds of diversity issues through CR and by analyzing corporate values, words, and actions. Integrating diversity into CR helps companies to turn it into a business strategy.