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As part of the globalizing work environment, new forms of organizations have emerged, ranging from international to multinational and transnational organizations. These forms of organizations require high levels of cross-national interdependence, and often the formation of multicultural teams (MCTs), nested within multinational organizations. Employees who operate in the global multinational context should share common meanings, values, and codes of behaviors in order to effectively communicate with each other and coordinate their activities. What helps global multicultural team members create the social glue that connects them to each other, above and beyond the national cultures to which they belong? We propose that a more macro-level meaning system of a global work culture, which is the shared understanding of the visible rules, regulations, and behaviors, and the deeper values and ethics of the global work context, that is formed outside of the level of national cultures, binds members of MCTs. At the individual level, the representation of these global work values in the self leads to the emergence of a global identity, which is an individual's sense of belonging to and identification with groups (such as MCTs), operating in the global work environment of multinational organizations. The chapter focuses on the potential influence of a global work culture, and of a global identity on the effectiveness of MCTs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three work‐value orientations — cosmopolitan, local and bureaucratic, on teachers' activities in the high‐school system. The research supported the notion that the bureaucratic orientation is not in conflict with the two other orientations and hence its effect on teachers' activities is not opposite to that of the local cosmopolitan orientation. Two hundred and sixty‐two high‐school teachers participated in the study. They answered mailed questionnaires which sought biographical data, measures of the three work value orientations and measures of five groups of school activities. Results indicated that teachers' activities are affected by their work‐value orientations. The bureaucratic orientation was not found to be in conflict with the two other orientations, but rather complementary to the local one in its effect on teachers' activity. The teachers who rated high in all three orientations were also the most involved in all five groups of school activities.

The present study examined the potential and actual stress in terms of conflict and ambiguity, in the role of the elementary school principal. The investigation was focused on the pedagogical and the administrative domains of the principal's role. Data on the perceived ambiguity and conflict were collected by means of individually administered questionnaires to 65 elementary school principals in Israel. In addition, objective ambiguity was measured by content analysis of formal documents of the Ministry of Education. Results pointed at the existence of role conflict as well as that of role ambiguity in objective and in subjective terms. Activities which fell under the administrative domain contained fewer clements of stress than those in the pedagogic domain. It was concluded that role stress forced the principal to neglect his pedagogical duties in favor of the administrative duties.

This chapter discusses the strengths and challenges posed by the chapter by Aumann and Ostroff entitled, “Multi-Level Fit: An Integrative Framework for Understanding HRM Practices in Cross-Cultural Contexts.” In addition, this chapter proposes an alternative multi-level model of culture, which consists of structural and dynamic dimensions with culture's strength as a moderator of the top-down bottom-up dynamic processes. This model assumes that there is a fit between the value system and the HRM practices, as they represent two layers of culture – visible and less visible. Yet, the fit can be interrupted when HRM practices are transferred across cultures. The chapter further discusses when HRM practices are rejected and when they are accepted despite the misfit.

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.

Kerstin Aumann is a doctoral student in the social-organizational psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received her B.S. at Northwestern University, after which she spent three years working in the Change Communication Specialty Group at Burson-Marsteller, a global communications firm. Her research interests include international human resources management, cross-cultural organizational behavior, and cultural diversity.

Using social categorization perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of global identity, perceived proximity, and team interdependence on relational conflict in multicultural distributed teams.

Participants were 317 MBA students in 83 multicultural distributed project teams. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap methods were used to test the study model.

The results demonstrate that the indirect effect of global identity on relational conflict, through the pathway of perceived proximity, is moderated by team interdependence. More specifically, global identity leads to higher perceived proximity and lower relational conflict levels under low, rather than high, interdependence levels.

The particular study context (multicultural distributed MBA student project teams) may limit the extent of the generalization of the findings.

The findings presented here can help practitioners in global organizations to defuse relational conflicts in multicultural distributed teams by embracing a global cultural approach and relying on shared global identity in team building, personnel selection, and development. Additionally, managers should be conscientious when they use the practice of facilitating interdependence between team members and assess the need for other interventions.

This study advances multicultural distributed team research by highlighting the role of global identity in reducing relational conflict, identifying the mediation mechanism of perceived proximity, and the boundary conditions of team interdependence levels under which this attenuation effect prevails.