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This paper aims to understand how these competencies gained will help human resource (HR) leaders become more strategic about when and how to use global mobility for talent development.

In this paper, the author defines the construct of cultural agility and describes the theoretical mechanisms through which employees can gain cultural agility through culturally novel situations such as global mobility. Cultural agility enables individuals to work comfortably and effectively with people from different cultures and in situations of cultural novelty. People with cultural agility have task-management competencies (cultural minimization, adaptation and integration), self-management competencies (tolerance of ambiguity, resilience, curiosity) and relationship-management competencies (humility, relationship building and perspective taking).

This study aims at focusing on the development of cultural agility, this paper focuses on four cascading features of a culturally novel experience that can help individuals gain this competence: (1) the level of cultural novelty in the experience, (2) the readiness of an individual for that level of cultural novelty, (3) the individual's level of awareness of the cultural norms and values inherent in the culturally novel experience and (4) the level of social support offered to that individual to learn how to understand and respond in that experience.

Each feature is discussed, concluding with the implications for future research and practitioners in global mobility and talent development.

The purpose of this paper is to encourage innovation in our thinking about future organisation effectiveness. It is premised on the argument that the neo-liberal context that has dominated much of our thinking over the last 40 years is under pressure, with increasing polarisation and questioning about globalisation, and concern over our neglect of ethics and the environment. This questioning of business and society, and the development of digitisation in particular, will impact the way we should study organisation effectiveness. Notions such as flexibility, talent and organisation agility are themselves embedded in this macro context and in need of revision.

The paper takes our notions of agility and resilience, and breaks them down into their related components of change. The notion of agility – defined as the capacity to respond, adapt quickly and thrive in the changing environment – can be captured through five key components of future focus, customer-collaboration, iteration, experimentation and empowerment. Such a notion of agility must come hand in hand with resilience, and its related concepts of involvement, shared purpose, renewal, learning, risk management, networks and engagement.

We are moving beyond a search for greater flexibility at greater speed, towards a search for organisational agility itself. The dominant model of focussing on “hard” output measures (such as productivity, financial results and shareholder value) and enablement through internal alignment is being brought into question, as is the role of the HR discipline. Definitions of organisation effectiveness will need a stronger focus on the “means” to a different set of “ends”. The changes in the means are fundamental. Constructs such as agile structures will mean changes in work processes, structures, skills requirements, management practices, technological elements and cultural practices.

Despite many pressures for change, shareholder value thinking and related practices still appear to prevail. The traditional long-term employee value propositions that are derived from these practices are ill-matched with current employee desires for self-management of data, fair pay and opportunities for development, and more accessible styles of management and leadership. We should however expect different outcomes for the three different employee segments of elite and high-skilled employees, a squeezed middle of white collar and professional staff, and low-skilled workers.

The paper captures recent questioning about the role and purpose of business in the neo-liberal economy and uses it to highlight some of the tensions; consequently, this affects the way we think about organisation effectiveness. By deconstructing the discussion of concepts such as agility and resilience, it focusses the research and practice agenda on some of the necessary means that have recently been neglected in much of the organisational effectiveness literature.

In this world of global interconnectedness, women continue to develop cross-cultural careers and their experiences impact global scholarship and practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships, resources and characteristics that support female expatriate success, with specific focus on the role of mentor/coach relationships. The sample included 102 women from the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK working or formerly working in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.

This three phase sequential mixed-methods exploratory research study included 10 one-on-one semi-structured interviews, 102 survey respondents and 3 facilitated focus groups attended by nine professional women.

This research offers evidence that resiliency-based characteristics must be cultivated and developed to support expatriate cross-cultural success. These characteristics can be cultivated through relying on multiple relationships, such as mentors, coaches, host country liaisons, expatriate colleagues, friends and family as well as by supporting and mentoring others. These characteristics can also be developed through specific cultural experiences, knowledge and skill building resources, as well as developing an informed view of self and identity clarity through reflective activities.

Based on the overall findings, a cross-cultural professional success model was designed and implications for scholarship, organizational effectiveness and cross-cultural leadership practice are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to implement diversity and inclusion practices in an USA university department through the application of a cultural audit in the style of participatory action research (PAR). The cultural audit process demonstrates an inclusive, grassroots approach to creating actionable solutions that brings about positive organizational change and can be replicated by others.

The version of an organizational cultural audit described here included two phases. The first was quantitative in nature, using a survey to collect data that would provide the organization with a perspective of how its culture is perceived (Fletcher and Jones, 1992) and serve as the basis for the second, more crucial phase. The second phase utilized PAR qualitative approach. Having data presented in aggregate form allows for truer reactions to how others believe they experience the work environment, as opposed to making assumptions about how others may experience the work environment. A cultural audit such as this relies heavily upon the qualitative narrative that is exposed when participants react to the quantitative data presented. In fact, the real assessment begins not with the quantitative data collection process, but with the presentation of the quantitative data and the analysis of how participants respond to what they see.

The researchers found social and practical implications for empowering employees to develop a culturally agile organization. Results showed that participants generally viewed the culture as lacking transparency and needing values-based guidelines for everyday interactions. Participants thought they should value diversity, but viewed the culture as having a gap in solutions to apply that value. Incentivizing actions that promote diversity and inclusion and better shared governance were needed to address cultural problems in the organization. Recommendations for actionable solutions included: developing shared language through a values statement, restructuring onboarding and mentoring support, increasing transparency of standing committee work, membership, and minutes to foster trust and communication, implementing group guidelines for respectful interactions, and the creation of regular, planned social events to enhance human relations. This case study is significant because it uses an innovative method to not only study diversity and inclusion in a university setting, but also take action, thereby filling a gap in the literature on critical studies of organizations.

For those trying to institute a similar experience for their organization, it would be important to note that the cultural audit was a grassroots intervention, designed to help the division discern what kinds of lived experiences and shared assumptions exist within.

The case study presented should serve as a roadmap for how individuals can garner support for conducting a similar cultural audit with their own organizations.

This case study is significant because it uses an innovative method to not only study diversity in a university setting, but also take action, thereby filling a gap in the literature on critical studies of organizations.

Drawing on goal-setting theory and team effectiveness theory, the study aims to examine the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team performance. In addition, it investigates the mediating effect of project commitment on the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team performance. Furthermore, the study also tests the moderating role of career level on the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team performance.

Survey data were collected from 563 employees working in 290 information technology (IT) companies in India using a self-reporting structured questionnaire. Partial least squares path modeling was used to test the hypothesized model, and the Process macro was used to test the moderating effect.

The results show that agile taskwork and agile teamwork positively affect team performance and project commitment, and project commitment positively impacts team performance. Furthermore, project commitment fully mediates the relationship between agile taskwork and team performance and partially mediates the relationship between agile teamwork and team performance. Furthermore, the career level negatively moderates the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team performance.

The study shows the importance of agile work practices and project commitment to enhance team performance. Thus, the study provides managers with two strategies to improve their team performance.

There is a scarcity of research examining the distinct effects of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team performance and the mediating role of project commitment in these relationships. Furthermore, as per the empirical evidence, no previous research has empirically examined the moderating role of career level in the agile taskwork-team performance and agile teamwork-team performance relationships.

This study aims to examine the impact of two dimensions of agile work practices (i.e. agile taskwork and agile teamwork) on team efficacy and creativity. Further, it examines the mediating effect of team efficacy in the relationship between two dimensions of agile work practices and team creativity.

The data were collected from 563 professionals working in 290 information technology (IT) companies in India using a self-reporting structured questionnaire. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized model.

The results demonstrate that agile taskwork and agile teamwork positively impact team creativity and team efficacy, and team efficacy positively impacts team creativity. Furthermore, team efficacy partially mediates the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team creativity.

This study shows the importance of agile work practices and team efficacy to enhance team creativity. The research offers managers strategies to boost team creativity.

There is a dearth of research examining the distinct effects of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team efficacy and team creativity. Also, this study is one of its kind that examines the mediating mechanisms that explain the effect of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team creativity.

This study aims to theoretically explore the relationship between potential antecedents of business model innovation (BMI) in multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the paths through which BMI unfolds in such contexts. This study theorizes how multiculturalism in top management teams (TMTs) influences team-level cultural intelligence (CQ), which enhances firm strategic agility and helps develop BMI in MNEs.

This study’s cross-level theoretical framework describes the mediating role of CQ of TMTs in the relationship between team multiculturalism and strategic agility, which subsequently influences BMI. This study discusses contributions, limitations and future directions.

MNEs’ capability of developing and recombining disruptive knowledge from globally dispersed sources and integrating them to innovate is subject to the knowledge-sourcing paradox. Despite the importance of intra-member diversity in the form of multicultural individuals in multicultural teams, inter-member diversity is more prominent in the literature. Regardless, the applicability of a comprehensive conceptualization of diversity in multicultural teams to BMI has yet to be examined. This study’s theoretical model links multiculturalism in TMTs with BMI in MNEs through a cross-level framework.

This study contributes to the International Business literature by proposing a novel conceptualization of team multiculturalism and leverage theoretical underpinnings of the Dynamic Managerial Capabilities perspective to develop a cross-level model of factors influencing BMI in MNEs.

This article offers a novel approach that brings together management, engineering and organizational behavior. It focuses on the understanding of organizational dynamics in an era of technological change, upholding the importance of organizational agility and of the cultural paradigm in the management of organizations.

In this work, the authors present the conclusions from a set of studies carried out in organizations operating in technical and technological industries. The authors assessed the capabilities of these organizations in terms of operational excellence maturity and its impact on the organizational culture and organizational agility.

Results show the importance of operational excellence either in developing or expanding organizational agility capabilities while reinforcing the cruciality of an excellence-oriented culture to sustain these efforts over time.

Increasingly unstable business environments have led to a growing interest in how to develop and maintain operational excellence in the face of continued and disruptive change. However, this interest has, so far, been advanced with little empirical evidence to support the corresponding predictions. This work offers the first practical evidence that continued focus and optimization of operations, with the right cultural alignment, helps organizations survive and thrive in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments.

Paula Caligiuri set the stage and, with Ibraiz Tarique, pioneered the first direct studies on global leadership effectiveness and the boundary conditions that influence it. Paula is a D'Amore-McKim School of Business Distinguished Professor of International Business and Strategy at Northeastern University and business consultant. Researching in the areas of expatriate management, global leadership development, and cultural agility, Paula has authored or coauthored several articles and books – including Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals and Build Your Cultural Agility. She has been a frequent expert guest on CNN and CNN International and is an instructor for a LinkedIn Learning course entitled Managing Globally. In 2021, Paula was named a semifinalist for the Forbes “50 over 50” for cofounding a public benefit corporation, Skiilify, to help foster cultural understanding more broadly. Based on her significant research contributions, she is a Fellow in both the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of International Business and has been a Senior Editor for the Journal of World Business and an Area Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between geographical traits consisting of institutional traits and cultural traits, and supply chain agility in third-party logistics providers.

A theoretical model was developed and assessed through a structured questionnaire survey using cross-sectional data from 170 third-party logistics providers registered in Uganda. To validate the suggested model, data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, correlations and regressions.

Correlation results revealed that all institutional and cultural geographical traits in the model, i.e. infrastructural frameworks, regulatory frameworks, organisational culture and national culture are positively and significantly associated with supply chain agility. However, a further analysis using regression revealed that regulatory framework and organisational culture are the only significant predictors of supply chain agility and together, all the four traits account for 28.1% variance in supply chain agility.

This study applies the institutional theoretical framework to provide an empirical understanding of the role of institutional and cultural factors in supply chain management practice. Furthermore, it confirms and expands on the existing theories about supply chain agility.

The findings provide firm ground for managerial decisions regarding emphasis on external factors in building firms' supply chain agility. Managers should scan the macro-environment and make conscious firm decisions regarding institutions and culture in certain geographical locations. The host countries should also be aware of their role in building firms' supply chain agility.

Distinctive from the literature on antecedents of supply chain agility, which predominantly focuses on the firm and supply chain capabilities, this study utilises the paradigm of institutional fit to empirically show how managers in a developing country wishing to build supply chain agility should not only focus on their supply chains and internal operations, but go beyond and consider geographical traits when making firm location and/or operational decisions for certain geographical contexts in order to achieve fit.