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The purpose of this article is to set out the ways in which pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim embedded a strengths-based approach to the assessment and development of field-based staff during a period of structural and culture change. It provides an overview of how strengths-based methodologies were implemented and embedded through this period. It offers a case study example of how Capp partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim to deliver and cascade its assessment and development solutions. It also provides early evaluation data.

Boehringer Ingelheim introduced strengths through recruitment and development. It built on Capp's strengths methodology and Realise2 tool and model. To aid implementation, cross functional teams were also set up to cascade knowledge and skills across the organizational system.

The initial findings from this program include quantitative and qualitative data from candidates and assessors demonstrating their positive perception of the assessment and development process.

This article provides case study material, client learning and tips for how other organizations could introduce strengths-based solutions into similar culture change, team and personal development projects.

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the first UK based organizations explicitly to take a strengths-based approach to aid culture change.

This study is an empirical investigation of receptivity to expatriate assignment in culturally similar and dissimilar environments. The theoretical underpinnings of the study emerge from a model of the expatriate adjustment process which views the determinants as anticipatory adjustment variables antecedent to actual adjustment. Vertical individualism, career distance and corporate career policy along with role clarity and economic development as moderators were found to significantly explain willingness to relocate to culturally similar environments. Economic development, corporate family policy and career distance were significant predictors of mobility to culturally dissimilar environments. The proposed model for culturally similar environments substantially improves explanatory power over an existing model. Implications of the study in conjunction with predictors from the domestic mobility and international adjustment literature are discussed.

Acculturation profiles based on the self‐oriented, others‐oriented, and perceptual dimensions of acculturative adjustment were derived for MNC employees of American, Canadian, Indian, Japanese, Latin American, Carribean and Nigerian origin. Our finding of significant, target‐specific, intercultural differences is of paramount importance in delineating areas of predeparture expatriate training and development.

The overrepresentation and lack of academic success for Black male athletes on college campuses are problems that warrant attention in the 21st century. A recent report from the University of Pennsylvania shows that over the four-year period between 2007 and 2010, Black males were overrepresented in college sports (Harper, Williams, & Blackman, 2013), a startling reality considering that Black males are severely underrepresented in the general student body. Further complicating matters is the fact that Black male student-athletes do not graduate from college at rates comparable to their peers (Harper et al., 2013). Focused primarily on the experiences of Division I Black male student-athletes, this chapter begins with an overview of literature relevant to successful academic support programs. The authors also present an overview of best practices for advising African American male student-athletes, derived from athletic departments with a demonstrated record of academic success for Black males.

How top management teams (TMTs) adapt and change to create and sustain competitive advantage is a fundamental challenge for human resource management studies. This paper examines the effects of TMT composition (human capital) and managerial ties (social capital) as factors that interactively explain managerial adaptive capability and organizational performance.

A unique survey dataset, derived through privileged access to organizational CEOs and CFOs of 101 Chinese organizations, was used to investigate a path between TMT functional diversity and organizational performance through adaptive managerial capability. Data were analysed using hierarchical multiple regression and Hayes (2012) PROCESS macro for SPSS.

Unexpectedly, the results show that functional diversity has no direct positive effect on firm performance; however when functionally-diverse TMTs are embedded in external networks, there is a significant positive impact on managerial adaptive capability and, through this, competitive advantage.

By identifying TMT functional diversity as an important driver of adaptive managerial capability, contingent on managerial ties, this study addresses a significant research gap pertaining to how TMT characteristics potentially contribute to the development of a core organizational capability.

The authors’ results highlight the importance of ensuring that recruitment into TMTs considers the complementarity of member functional background; however, benefit is only achieved when TMT members establish external ties with other organizations.

The authors’ findings provide evidence of the interactive effect of human and social capital on adaptive capability development and, through this, organizational performance.

To summarize and build on research that explores the influence of culture on team dynamics, particularly over time. Specifically, we explore culture and teams from a dynamic perspective by providing a framework for understanding both how culture influences team dynamics over time, and where interventions should be targeted at different points to maximize the potential benefits of cultural diversity.

Drawing from a prominent model of team development (Kozlowski, Gully, Nason, & Smith, 1999), we provide mechanisms through which culture exerts an influence, as well as the practical approaches that will be best suited for mitigating potential negative effects at different points in time.

We focus on the following phases: team formation, task compilation, role compilation, team compilation, as well as team maintenance. At first, surface-level characteristics and subgroup formation should be closely monitored along with interventions to develop a group identity when teams are being formed. Later on, emergent states (e.g., trust, conflict) can come to the forefront as team members can develop multiple memberships or yet be resistant to performing in an adaptive manner.

We identify key avenues for future research to serve as a foundation for those studying the cultural diversity within teams via temporal lens, including the role of context and going beyond Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

Albeit research has started to accumulate regarding how culture influences teams through conflict, communication, trust, cohesion, and creativity, this chapter goes beyond current development to address when different cultural elements influence team dynamics.

This paper sets out to assess the market for start‐up finance in the UK for high growth potential entrepreneurial firms.

The paper uses data from the UK's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys between 2001 and 2003 to assess the scale of equity finance in the UK. It further examines the strengths and weaknesses of the UK financial markets for supporting high growth potential firms on the basis of an additional survey of 60 experts conducted during September and October 2003.

The paper suggests that there are areas of the market that are strongly served by existing financial mechanisms. However, there is a perception amongst business support agencies, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs alike that the size of investments in the formal venture capital market has been increasing and that companies seeking investments above this level, up as high as £2 million, may be restricted in their access to finance. The paper tests this qualitative finding on a number of empirical data sources and finds that there is indeed an “equity gap” of between £150,000 and £1.5 million. It concludes that lack of finance in this area represents a brake on the expansion of high growth potential businesses in the UK.

The empirical data covered in this paper are from three large‐scale surveys of the adult population in the UK. While this is robust as a reflection of what is happening amongst the whole spectrum of business start‐up activity, the methodology was not originally conceptualised as a mechanism for assessing the scale of the equity gap. This evidence was gained from a qualitative survey of actors in the market. Further research should survey high growth potential firms and financiers themselves in more detail to develop the analysis on a more systematic basis.

The research will be of interest to policy makers who seek appropriate mechanism for developing a funding “ladder” to support businesses through the growth process. It identifies a clear gap in the market for growth finance that is evidence on which to base funding priorities in the future.

Academic and policy attempts to quantify the scale of the equity gap in the UK have been limited by availability of longitudinal and systematic data. As a result, they have tended to be largely qualitative in nature and prone to anecdote. Many of these studies do corroborate the findings reported here, but this does represent a first attempt to provide a quantification of the equity gap and thus should be of interest to policy makers, practitioners and academics alike.