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1 – 10 of over 9000Mike Szymanski, Ilan Alon and Komal Kalra
In this study, micro-foundations of strategy as the theoretical framework to study the effect of managers’ individual characteristics on multinational team performance are…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, micro-foundations of strategy as the theoretical framework to study the effect of managers’ individual characteristics on multinational team performance are adopted. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to study managers’ multilingual communication abilities and multicultural background, and their role in, respectively, effectively reconfiguring team human assets and sensing cognitively distant opportunities and threats.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses national football teams competing in national and international competitions and their coaches’ characteristics as the data set to test the theory. Using random coefficient modeling and ordinary least square regression, this paper analyzes two samples of 222 and 79 teams and found that both these characteristics contribute to team performance; however, their effects differ depending on the team environment.
Findings
Multicultural managers contribute positively to team performance only when the team is operating in a highly diverse environment, their effect is not statistically significant in homogeneous environments. In less diverse environments, it is the multilingual manager who can improve team performance through more efficient communication and greater effects of leadership on the team.
Originality/value
Managers’ characteristics such as their multicultural background and multilingual capabilities affect team performance. In particular, these effects come into play in highly diverse and international settings. Micro-foundation literature is advised to focus on the internationalization and multicultural backgrounds of managers as a precursor for organizational international performance.
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The aim of this paper is to examine the strategic approach of culturally responsive and communicative teaching (CRCT) through a critical assessment of interracial teachers in…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine the strategic approach of culturally responsive and communicative teaching (CRCT) through a critical assessment of interracial teachers in their daily school interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical data were obtained through interviews among ten interracial teachers. The analysis was made through a thematic approach to obtain substantial data from interviews.
Findings
The findings reveal that attempts to gain sufficient comprehension of CRCT are actualized through routine interaction in the multicultural school environment hence resulting in embedding self-awareness of cultural competence in a multicultural classroom, constructing emotional and social development on cultural awareness and internalizing responsive awareness on social engagement in global learning.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research provides an insightful value on expanding key consideration to support the multicultural classroom environment with an active engagement and enhancement of CRCT as fundamental basis of the multicultural classroom.
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Dolores Sanchez Bengoa, Stephane Ganassali, Hans Ruediger Kaufmann, Arto Rajala, Italo Trevisan, Johan van Berkel, Katrin Zulauf and Ralf Wagner
This paper aims to analyze the skills and attitudes development of multicultural teams. In todays’ environment, business interconnectivity and multicultural societies are becoming…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the skills and attitudes development of multicultural teams. In todays’ environment, business interconnectivity and multicultural societies are becoming the normal way of living. Although students are increasingly facing multicultural learning environments, their awareness and willingness or harmonious and productive learning in these environments need to be prepared for in a systematic manner. Therefore, it is necessary that the students are conscious of their commonalities and differences with other students to gain cultural competence. Students’ progress in developing their cultural intelligence is determined by co-operative social skills and the amount of interactions in a multicultural environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted using a quantitative methodology. The questionnaire development roots in a students’ self-assessment scheme proposed by Armstrong (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) covering the progress made during the participation in an intercultural project.
Findings
The research findings relate to attitudes toward developing and sharing knowledge, stress, learning and task orientation, intercultural communication and cultural awareness skills related to the impacts of culture on the different ways of learning when working in multicultural teams. The study confirmed that knowledge gains and competence progress are higher in international teams compared to national teams.
Research limitations/implications
To provide for better differentiation as to the student profile, e.g., nationality, cultural categories, a larger sample size is suggested.
Practical implications
The study might be seen as a road map for universities and international companies alike for imparting cognitive, affective and behavioral competencies.
Originality/value
This study complements previous studies investigating the phenomenon of stress with multi-cultural complexity in more long-term durations. It implies stress factors to appear also in short-term multi-cultural exposures.
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Public relations (PR) education has not kept pace with the rapid globalisation that has occurred since 1992. The existing PR body of knowledge, and PR curricula around the world…
Abstract
Public relations (PR) education has not kept pace with the rapid globalisation that has occurred since 1992. The existing PR body of knowledge, and PR curricula around the world, have a US bias. In order to prepare PR students in various parts of the world to become effective multicultural professionals it is essential for experiences and perspectives from other continents to be integrated into PR education. The complexities of societal factors such as culture, political systems and media systems make Asia a challenging place to conduct strategic PR. It is time for educators to integrate experiences from other continents into the PR body of knowledge, thereby building PR curricula that contribute to training truly multicultural PR professionals.
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Pilar Rojas Gaviria and Julie Emontspool
– Studying the cultural dynamics of expatriate amateur theater in Brussels, the purpose of this paper is to investigate multicultural marketplace development in global cities.
Abstract
Purpose
Studying the cultural dynamics of expatriate amateur theater in Brussels, the purpose of this paper is to investigate multicultural marketplace development in global cities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper performs an interpretive analysis of the expatriate amateur scene from an ethnographic perspective, combining observations of rehearsals and performances, in-depth interviews with actors, directors and audience, and secondary data.
Findings
The fluidity of global cities allows their inhabitants to engage in creative processes of cultural experimentation, performing a continuous back-and-forth movement between hybridization and pluralization. The former creates enough homogeneity for the expatriates to feel targeted; the latter ensures a level of cultural diversity necessary to satisfy their cosmopolitan aspirations.
Practical implications
The paper points to the important role of global cities for cultural experimentation. Such cities are not only an interesting market for culturally diverse products, but also experimental hubs. Managers willing to address multicultural marketplaces might target these markets with dynamic cultural offers that ensure a balance between rendering a product globally appreciated and recognizable, and maintaining a cosmopolitan appeal for consumers in search of diversity.
Originality/value
Drawing on global cities as markets in continuous reconstruction and subject to cultural experimentation, the paper turns the attention of the research community to the collective, reflexive, and experimental aspects of symbolic consumption. It shows how arts and cultural products represent valuable contexts for international marketing research, providing original insights into market dynamics and cultural experimentation.
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This chapter seeks to help and support online educators in their efforts to improve tomorrow. Specifically, the chapter shares practical strategies and tools that online educators…
Abstract
This chapter seeks to help and support online educators in their efforts to improve tomorrow. Specifically, the chapter shares practical strategies and tools that online educators can easily apply, adapt, and/or personalize in order to help promote a mindfully multicultural classroom in their online classrooms and programs. The chapter includes a wide range of actionable tools and exercises to help online instructors optimize the learning experience for all students by building upon the unique strengths and diverse cultural backgrounds of all students in their online classrooms. The strategies help instructors leverage diversity as a means to promote equity and social justice in online programs and, ultimately, the world as a whole. The chapter relies upon Gollnick and Chinn’s (2017) six beliefs that are fundamental to multicultural education and presents strategies from two perspectives or lenses (student-focused and faculty-focused). Approaching the issue from a dual-sided lens is intended to best support the ultimate goal of improving the student learning experience. Emphasis is placed on both public and private interactions between faculty and students. Public interactions include all discussion board and announcement communications. Public interactions also include resources that are shared in the online classroom for all students’ benefit.
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Alberto G. Canen and Ana Canen
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of organizational conflict management from a multicultural perspective in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of organizational conflict management from a multicultural perspective in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs).
Design/methodology/approach
Besides a theoretical discussion about multiculturalism and leadership, a case study based extensively, but not exclusively, on oral history has been undertaken within a unit of a HEI in Brazil. The case study, which illustrates the cost when multicultural leadership is absent, is based on a combination of first‐hand information and facts reconstruction.
Findings
The research discussed in this paper showed that the system of constructing “otherness” and isolating it can actually be characterized as workplace bullying condoned by extremely mono‐cultural leaders. An alternative scenario with more multiculturally competent leaders is discussed, providing possible tools and avenues for organizational conflict management.
Practical implications
HEIs should be viewed as multicultural organizations, not only for the purpose of developing multicultural curricula but also for reviewing the impact of institutional practices and leadership on the organizational climate. Leaders should be ethically and multiculturally accountable for ensuring an institutional identity that is open to cultural plurality and to the challenge of the institutionalization of differences.
Originality/value
This paper goes beyond multicultural issues restricted to individual and group identities and incorporates institutional cultural climate and the role of multicultural leaders in organizational conflict management in the context of HEIs, hitherto not much discussed, which may open up new debates in the area.
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In the current study, the author tests a conceptual model in which teachers' knowledge and skills of multiculturalism and teaching relationship (cultural harmony) are associated…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current study, the author tests a conceptual model in which teachers' knowledge and skills of multiculturalism and teaching relationship (cultural harmony) are associated with developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs), developmentally appropriate (DABs), developmentally inappropriate beliefs and developmentally inappropriate practices (DIPs) in the classroom.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 347 preschool teachers from 12 preschools including 342 women ( 98.6%) and five men (1.4%) aged 24–45 years located across all five districts of Hong Kong. The hypothesized model of multicultural teaching competency as a predictor of DABs and DAPs is confirmed in the present study.
Findings
Multicultural teaching knowledge can enhance developmentally appropriate teaching beliefs and practices and reduce DIPs. It is highly recommended that multicultural education can be embedded in early childhood education (ECE) programs for both in-service and preservice teachers.
Originality/value
A new conceptual model of teachers' knowledge and skills of multiculturalism and teaching relationship (cultural harmony) associated with DABs, developmentally inappropriate beliefs and DAPs in the classroom was firstly examined.
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Alexei V. Matveev and Richard G. Milter
Managers working in multinational companies carry out their organizational goals through multicultural teams. Performance of multicultural teams can be examined from an…
Abstract
Managers working in multinational companies carry out their organizational goals through multicultural teams. Performance of multicultural teams can be examined from an intercultural communication perspective. Executives, managers, management consultants, and educators interested in improving multicultural team performance need to know about intercultural competence and how it affects team performance. This article provides a working definition of high‐performance multicultural teams and outlines the challenges multicultural teams face. These definitions along with extensive interview data and detailed self‐reports of American and Russian managers working in multicultural teams emphasize the high importance of intercultural competence in improving the performance of these teams. This article also serves to highlight the characteristics of high‐performance multicultural teams, the common challenges of multicultural teams, and the sources of these challenges.
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Teresa R. Hammond and Brian H. Kleiner
Managing Multicultural Work Environments Multicultural workforces are becoming more prevalent in today's business environment. This trend is expected to continue into the next…
Abstract
Managing Multicultural Work Environments Multicultural workforces are becoming more prevalent in today's business environment. This trend is expected to continue into the next century. Businesses that will prosper under these conditions are those that will tap into the talents of the workforce and will value those differences. Those employers who realise that diversity relates directly to the bottom line will continue to be successful.