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This paper suggests that motives for engaging in affiliative‐promotive “helping” extra‐role behavior is related to cross‐cultural differences. The cultural dimensions of in‐group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, and humane orientation, and their differential effect on helping extra‐role behavior in a diverse workforce are examined. Theoretical implications provide guidance for future empirical research in this area, and provide managers with more realistic expectations of employee performance in the workplace.

Drawing from our current original research on cultural trends in Latin America‐based multinational firms, this paper challenges the stereotypical perception of Latin America as a homogeneous region and explores the cultural distances among groups of multinational employees. After collecting surveys from 733 employees across eight multinationals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, we establish that, much like it happens in other lumped‐together regions of the globe, such as “East Asia” and “Africa”, Latin American countries present significant differences in the way firm employees respond to situations where cultural traits are at stake. By researching these countries, we recorded significant variation in aspects such as the treatment and place of women in the workplace, attachment or detachment to formal rules, formal organizational hierarchies, and structured business planning, in addition to varying levels of tolerance to invasion of privacy. Implications of the study include the need to develop methodologies that adequately capture cultural differences within large geographic blocs and business practices that prepare the expatriate, the international manager, and the policy maker for the different realities they are bound to encounter in different countries.

A case study of an organisation in transition is examined. It describes a Canadian regional airline which is facing major environmental changes and challenges, and attempts to make the required organisational adjustments. The dynamics of strategic change at that company are then related to the available literature. Of particular interest are the stakeholder model and the literature on organisational learning.

Recent criticism of the UK's public sector has rekindled the debate about public service leadership in comparison with the private sector, particularly in the context of the financial austerity we face for years ahead. This article first reviews recent research on leadership and compares the public and private sectors, finding both commonalities and differences. The article then considers the kind of leadership required of public service leaders in the present economic climate and to handle crises and emergencies. The place of individual leadership and collective leadership and consensus is discussed, with a suggestion that charismatic individual leadership may play a more important role in the public sector than it typically has done in less turbulent times in the past. The public sector is becoming more like the private sector in this respect. The article ends with key implications of the analysis for leadership in practice.

Two landmark studies of national culture undertaken approximately a quarter century apart present a unique opportunity for a longitudinal analysis of the shift in cultural values in work organizations over time. Using comparable data from Hofstede and GLO BE, we investigate the hypothesis that, in the rapidly developing nations of Asia, there has been a convergence of collectivist values in work organizations toward the level of collectivist values found in work organizations in the highly developed nations of the major economies. Findings suggest that collectivist values in rapidly developing nations are converging towards collectivist values of highly developed countries. This convergence is not exclusively due to economic growth or wealth but rather due to the speed of the economic growth. Specifically, periods of prolonged rapid economic transformation appear to also have a transforming effect on national cultural values. Implications of this finding and directions for future research are discussed.

The specific problem this research addresses is whether cultural differences, national or organizational, impact how effectively the continuous improvement process is received within the supply chain in order to improve supplier performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research design used a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research.

The research found that Canada was most receptive to continuous improvement, with China being the least receptive. The study found that organizational culture was more influential than national culture. Isomorphism and benchmarking is driving continuous-improvement language and methods to be more universally known within business. Business and management practices appear to take precedence in driving change within organizations.

The sample size and countries involved was very small and limited to key medium sized distributed power company (MSDPC) suppliers. This limited diversity and may have introduced supplier selection bias, as well as survey response bias.

This research concludes that organizational culture is more dominant over national culture and the influence of leadership within the organization drives the impact of continuous improvement.

With isomorphism and the fact that businesses want to be successful, continuous improvement language and methods are becoming more universally known. Business and management practices are now taking precedence in driving change within organizations. Organizational culture is now more influential than national culture.

This paper aims to analyze the effectiveness of cultural profiling tools in predicting and identifying potential cultural pitfalls and challenges that the executive could encounter during an interaction with an individual or group from a different national culture. The initial analysis is based on the author’s experience in China. Over a two-year period and as part of the wider strategy to implement account management principles within the local sales teams across China, the strategy and sales development team (composed of two Chinese nationals lead by a Spanish/USA experienced expatriate/author) engaged senior members of the sales team through a series of workshops.

Despite the top management support and the alignment of the program with the organizational culture of the company, the coaching program had limited success. Using a past experience in China and as part of a preliminary study on cultural profiling models available to executives, professors and students exposed to global environments, the author reviewed three popular cultural models to potentially identify sources of conflict, cultural gaps and misalignments between individual culture and the national cultures.

The paper found that culture profiling tools could have a guiding value for executives and other individuals visiting a different culture, as it identified potential sources of conflict and pitfalls to avoid.

The paper offered a fresh look at proliferating culture profiling tools.

The purpose of this study is to identify similarities and differences between the leadership practices of managing entrepreneurs and professional CEOs and to investigate how these impact on their immediate subordinates' satisfaction, commitment, motivation, and effectiveness (engagement).

A multiple‐respondents survey, aiming at CEOs and their immediate subordinates, was conducted. Factor analysis, correlations and moderated regression analysis were used in order to reach conclusions.

Two leadership dimensions are found to be most influential: being a good manager/mentor and articulating vision. Although good manager/mentor characteristics prove crucial for both types of CEOs, the effect of vision articulation on subordinates is moderated by the type of company the CEO is leading. No significant differences are found in the leadership style that the two types of CEOs adopt, except for their calmness and self‐possession, which is lower among entrepreneurs.

The findings raise questions regarding the differences in subordinate expectations from owners – CEOs, as opposed to professional CEOs; and point at certain characteristics which could be developed in order to enhance leadership effectiveness in both groups of top managers.

The study underlines the importance of sound vision development and articulation in entrepreneur‐run firms, as it appears that people working for such firms expect more direction from the Head. It is also sustained that good management and mentoring are essential in any kind of firm, in order to develop an effective, committed and motivated top management team, which will bring corporate success.

This paper seeks to argue that global management should be considered by practitioners, educators, regulators and society at large as a true professional discipline. While in its current form it may not meet all the defining criteria of a profession, true professionalism is the best guiding principle as progress is made.

The paper reviews recent critiques of management education, synthesizes the generally agreed criteria of a profession, and applies that framework to the case of management.

Global management needs to further develop a body of knowledge that is both theoretically grounded and instrumental for practice; it needs to raise the bar in terms of professional qualification through existing accrediting bodies; and it needs to articulate and formally adopt a set of core values and principles of conduct, determining how it serves the broader interest of society.

It is important that all key actors assume true professionalism as a guiding principle for the future. The challenges ahead need to consider the ongoing construction of a solid body of knowledge, the revision of MBA degree requirements and the establishment of a set of core transcendental values that should guide professional practice. Academic institutions and practising executives alike must share a commitment to building a global management knowledge base that will not only improve the quality of management practice, but also earn management its professional status.

Comparative cultural closeness between Canada and the U.S. established in part by the Hofstede (1980) study continues to influence some business research efforts that assume cultural parity between the two nations. Sampling business professionals, evidence emerges that cautions assuming cultural parity between Canada and the U.S. based on typical and selected Anglo culture type dimensions. Contributing as an updated empirical test of the Anglo culture type assumption between the two nations, uncertainty avoidance was higher in the U.S. sample and varied more by country than by individual characteristics or by an indication of professional discipline type.