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The ability to effectively engage in cross-cultural interactions is imperative for leaders in our increasingly globalized world. Those who possess certain key psychological resources are more likely to engage in cross-cultural interactions successfully. Psychological resources include cross-cultural hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, which together comprise cross-cultural psychological capital (CC PsyCap). Previous research has indicated that CC PsyCap predicts cultural competence, yet the pathways underlying this relationship remain unexplored. We examined the relationships among CC PsyCap, engagement in cross-cultural interactions, stress during cross-cultural interactions, and cultural competence. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a sample of 135 undergraduate students (76% female) participating in study abroad programs. Participants completed measures of cultural competence, CC PsyCap, engagement, and stress approximately one month into their study abroad. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate that CC PsyCap and stress influence cultural competence directly and indirectly through engagement level during cross-cultural interactions. Furthermore, the results suggest that CC PsyCap indirectly influences engagement through stress during cross-cultural interactions. We discuss the implications of these results for people preparing to enter cross-cultural environments.

Pervasive forms of worldwide communication now connect us instantly and constantly, and yet we all too often fail to understand each other. Rather than benefiting from our globally interconnected reality, the world continues to fall back on divisiveness, a widening schism exacerbated by some of the most pronounced divisions in history along lines of wealth, culture, religion, ideology, class, gender, and race. Cross-cultural dynamics are rife within multinational organizations and among people who regularly work with people from other cultures. This chapter reviews what we know from our scholarship on cross-cultural interaction among expatriates, negotiators, and teams that work in international contexts. Perhaps more important, this chapter outlines what we need to learn – and to unlearn – to be able to see diversity as an asset in helping individuals, organizations, and society to succeed rather than continuing to understand it primarily as a source of problems.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how everyday cross-cultural interactions affected the adjustment of undergraduate international students attending a private university in the northeastern United States of America.

Data were collected primarily through interviews with nine international students and observations at “Eastern University”. Students were purposively selected to balance gender and world regions. Analysis used constant comparison until findings emerged, which were member-checked with study participants (Merriam, 2009).

Findings show that the impact of university diversity initiatives for promoting everyday cross-cultural interactions is described as creating an us/them divide, promoting solidarity and establishing a cultural presence. It is concluded that formal university events foster recognition of the campus diversity international students help provide, but their impact on everyday cross-cultural interactions is both positive and negative. Additionally, the mode by which undergraduate international students are introduced to their US campus affects their integration and future interaction patterns.

Further research is needed to explore higher education institutions (HEIs)’ connection to human resource development (HRD) for shaping the future global arena. Studies that address the continuum from higher education to the workforce are needed to prepare the next generation of professionals for a global world. This study is limited due to small sample size. Findings are not generalizable in a statistical sense, but HRD professionals in HEIs may compare the details in this study with their own institutions.

This study contributes to the discussion of national HRD by addressing international students and their insights into how diversity programs impact adjustment in an American setting. Additionally, organizational and faculty development initiatives in academic institutions can be improved by understanding the insights found in this study.

The paper aims to conceptually explore customer‐to‐customer interaction (CCI) in a cross‐cultural context; and to identify research opportunities in the field of cross‐cultural CCI.

The paper analyses consultations both with CCI experts and cross‐cultural management experts.

Cross‐cultural customer‐to‐customer interaction (CC‐CCI) is shown to have received very little research attention. The relevance of CCI to hospitality management is highlighted and opportunities for future investigations are identified. CC‐CCI is shown to be conceptually quite complex.

For hospitality management practitioners and researchers, a variety of perspectives on how CC‐CCI can influence the customer experience are provided. Service managers are provided with a new dimension to incorporate into their strategic and operational plans for managing CCI in an increasingly globalised environment.

The article contributes towards developing a scientific approach towards understanding a phenomenon which is a widespread feature of social life. It also provides a fresh focus for cross‐cultural research.

The paper addresses an important and original issue in hospitality management. Many illustrations of the new concept are provided and directions and methods for conducting research into CC‐CCI are put forward. The article also contributes to the hospitality management literature by broadening the discussion of the customer as an operant resource.

International assignments are becoming more and more typical parts of a managerial career. As an outcome, cross‐cultural leadership competencies are required within international companies. Still, real cross‐cultural leadership interaction between expatriate managers and their local subordinates has not been much studied. In the light of this, the goals of the present study were to analyse whether and how expatriate managers adjust their leadership style due to cross‐cultural differences, and whether and how local subordinates perceive the styles of expatriate managers to differ from the styles of local managers after possible adjustments. The data were collected by interviewing Finnish expatriate managers and their Indonesian subordinates in real cross‐cultural business settings with a bicultural interview team.

Organisations operate in diverse cultural environment, which is a challenging task due to absence of cultural knowledge and difficulty in adapting the native culture that usually leads to expatriate failure. In this context cultural intelligence plays an important role in the adjustment of employees. The purpose of the study is to examine the mediating role played by cultural intelligence between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural adjustment relationship. It further analyses the moderating role of cross-cultural training and types of expatriate between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment relationship.

Set in a large culturally diverse emerging economy context, data have been gathered from 530 managers working in banking sector. Data have been duly assessed for reliability and validity.

The results revealed that cultural intelligence mediates cross-cultural training and cross-cultural adjustment relationship. Evidence from the analysis further suggests that cross-cultural training and types of expatriate moderate the relationship between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment. Lastly, the managerial and theoretical implications have been put forth for practical and academic perusal.

The study is cross-sectional in nature and data have been collected from single source.

Organisations should design such training programmes, which motivate the managers to successfully complete out of home state assignment and help them to adapt in the cross-cultural situations.

Culturally intelligent employees/managers are able to communicate with people belonging to diverse culture, which results in building trust, loyalty and cordial relationship amongst the people. This will create the feeling of unity in the society thereby bringing national as well as global peace.

The study develops the extant literature on cross-cultural training and types of expatriate as effective intercultural instruments to enhance the capability of the managers to interact and adjust in host region environment.

The purpose of this paper is to propose emotional intelligence (hereinafter EI) competences as a key predictor for overall cross‐cultural adjustment of managers and professionals in its three respective dimensions: work, interaction and non‐work adjustment. This explorative study contributes to the assessment and selection of potential professionals for international assignments by identifying the combination of soft competences and selected pre‐existing personal factors that can predict cross cultural adjustment beyond traditional technical or functional skills.

Data were gathered via a pre‐validated multi‐item questionnaire. The latter was administered in two languages: English and Spanish and two steps of multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, in addition to the main variables (i.e. main effect). A total of 16 individual, organisational and context‐related control variables were used in this study.

The main findings indicate that EI is related to overall cross‐cultural adjustment measured in its three dimensions. However, EI was most strongly related to interaction adjustment following overall cross‐cultural adjustment. Furthermore, by isolating some important variables, the predictive role of EI on cross‐cultural adjustment above and beyond these control variables was shown.

EI is still a new and debatable construct. Researchers are continuing to explore this construct from different angles. Moreover, there is keen interest in ascertaining whether the findings reported herein are sustainable. With the exception of one external source (culture distance), all data for the current study were collected via a self‐reported questionnaire and although additional effort was made to reduce some potential method‐variance problems, they cannot be entirely ruled out. The authors encourage future studies to improve the design by gathering data from multiple sources and from diverse settings.

The paper reviews the possible advantages of including EI assessment in international postings selection process.

This paper fills the need to study the predictive role of key soft skills in understanding cross‐cultural adjustment of international assignees. This study analysed the role of emotions in cross‐cultural settings by specifically examining a set of competences stemming from the EI construct. Although EI has been extensively used in the organisational behaviour literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is still a need to empirically explore the relationships of this construct within the context of overseas postings and cross cultural encounters.

A major concern facing multinational corporations in the 1990s is how to prepare managers to operate effectively within another culture. Unfortunately, many corporations seldom provide cross‐cultural management training because it is considered unnecessary or ineffective by top management. Given such corporate mentality, a major concern facing trainers is how to develop cultural awareness and improve cultural sensitivity. Introduces a new approach for enhancing the efficacy of cross‐cultural training by extending one of the most effective psychotherapeutic counselling methods – transactional analysis – over the cross‐cultural setting. Presents conceptual framework which suggests that a crucial element of cross‐cultural training for managers must be to help them achieve an “adult ego state”, and thus ensure that they maintain the most effective cross‐cultural position – my culture′s OK, your culture′s OK. By using transactional analysis as a prerequisite to other approaches in cross‐cultural training, trainers can provide a more comprehensive programme which will not only enhance sensitivity and awareness, but ultimately lead to a greater usage of and appreciation for cross‐cultural training by organizations.