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The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between employee perceptions of their organization's management of cultural diversity, their perceived organizational support and affective commitment.

A questionnaire survey was developed and distributed to a sample of employees working in a large Australian financial institution.

Analysis of the data shows that, when controlling for perceived organizational support, there is no direct relationship between cultural diversity management perceptions and affective commitment. Rather, the data support an indirect relationship between the two variables via perceived organizational support.

Implications are, first, that managers need to recognize the potential contribution of developing a positive workplace atmosphere for cultural diversity to strengthen employee perceived organizational support, which in turn enhances affective commitment. Second, the research findings underscore the importance of perceived organizational support in linking cultural diversity management perceptions to organizational outcomes, such as affective commitment. Third, managers should not underestimate the influence of initiatives, such as making all employees feel included in the “taken‐for‐granted” informal networks in engendering positive organizational and individual attitudes.

The paper examines cultural diversity management from the employees' (rather than a management) perspective to develop a fully mediated model using organizational support to link cultural diversity management perceptions to commitment. The study reinforces the need to rethink simple relationships between cultural diversity management perceptions and organizational/individual outcomes, to consider more complex models that include important mediating variables to more fully understand the effects of cultural diversity management.

The increasing trend for the globalisation of business has highlighted the need for a better understanding of the factors that influence levels of intercultural awareness within organisations. Within the higher education sector, one initiative that aims to address this issue is student study abroad programs. This paper reports on a study that investigates factors that influence Australian students' propensity to engage in these programs. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, we examined the role of students' personality in the decision to participate in study abroad programs. The implications for education in international business are discussed.

Despite the increasing attention of organizational commitment in the management literature, most studies predominantly focus on full‐time workers in traditional work settings. This paper examined the antecedents of organizational commitment among casual academics working in the tertiary education sector in Australia.

A questionnaire survey was developed and distributed to casual academics working in a large Australian public university.

Analysis of the data shows that personal characteristics (gender, marital status, family responsibilities and education), job‐related characteristics (supervisor support, co‐worker support, role clarity and resource availability) and job involvement characteristics (tenure, second job and post‐graduate study at the employing university) all impact on organizational commitment.

Australian tertiary institutions are prominent employers of casual workers, however, very little is known about the work behavior of this group of academics. The results of this study highlight important directions for implementing strategies to increase casual academic's organizational commitment. Organization commitment is important because it is known association with other important organizational variables such as turnover, absenteeism and work effort.

Given the increasing reliance on casual academics in tertiary institutions, this study provides the first step in better understanding the factors that affect the organization commitment of casual academics.