What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Meet Me at the 50 : A Critical Discourse Analysis of How Higher Education Curriculum Is Meeting the Needs of Black, Male Student-Athletes

The overarching goal of this research is to make proverbial payments towards Ladson-Billings’ (2006) “education debt” owed to historically resilient populations by promoting equitable and democratic practices in all facets of education. Black men, specifically those who participate in athletics, are advocated for in this research because these men identify as part of a community of voices who are not only historically oppressed but are being failed by current educational practices. Further, student-athletes provide a predetermined and specific sociocultural context, and thus social location, by which to compare how various types of critical literacy assignments are addressing said contexts. Using a bricolage theoretical framework of critical sociocultural theory and critical literacy, a critical discourse analysis evaluates the course documents and assignments provisioned to students enrolled in 100- and 200-level general education courses. Using Kynard and Eddy’s (2009) coalition building framework, over 180 artifacts were reviewed and analyzed. Findings indicate that while faculty are willing to allow students to explore their sociocultural identities in isolation, classroom spaces—both physically and metaphorically speaking—are not yet being used to critically incorporate the diverse social situations of diverse student populations. Recommendations encourage faculty to consider students the expert learners they are in order to promote democratic and socially just curriculum and pedagogy in higher education classrooms

An interdisciplinary model of international technology transfer

Central to this thesis is the issue of how to account for the effects of micro-level organisational factors such as culture and social norms on the technology transfer process. The expansion of multinational firms has created a need for increased international technology transfer into nations with distinctly different cultures, social norms and · methods of organisation. The dilemma of how to deal with the transfer of technology into different countries is a continuing problem for academics in the innovation adoption field and corporate managers alike. A synthesis of the literature revealed a lack of understanding associated with the influence of managerial interventions, social, cultural and other organisational processes on the adoption decision. In an international context, it was found that there was an increased need to understand cross-national differences in the determinants of technology adoption. Further, the bulk of conceptual technology transfer models were found to be difficuit to operationalise and overwhelmingly unidimensional. This precipitated a need to develop a pragmatic interactive and dynamic interdisciplinary model that could be used to quantitatively predict transfer difficulty and develop implementation strategy. Longitudinal research methods were used to investigate the implementation of a knowledge management system within a multinational automotive manufacturing organisation. Focusing on two distinct cultures - Australia and India, observations showed that innovation perceptions have a comparatively minor influence on the adoption decision and advocated a need for frameworks capable of explaining adoption and diffusion from a cultural and social basis. These findings were subsequently reinforced through an investigative case study of technology transfer within the automotive manufacturing organisation at a global (or corporate) level. Both research studies supported the conceptualisation of the transfer process as a game between two players (management and the workforce) each weighing perceived advantages and disadvantages associated with adoption relative to their internal schemata. The extent and seriousness of the game is in the first instance determined by the technology itself and later moderated by the cultural, organisational and social norms that dictate play. This game-play notion was the platform upon which specifications for the international technology transfer model were developed. An integration of the literature review and research case studies, produced a top-level requirements model based on various inputs, desired outputs and operating conditions. A variety of interdisciplinary concepts including: technology classification, social capital, the social discount rate, investment appraisal (utilising cost-benefit analysis) and game theory, were used to construct a threestage model of technology transfer. An innovative hypothesis is put forward, enabling the derivation of the social discount rate (based on the social time preference rate) from estimates of a culture's social capital (principally based on measures of trust). Verification and validation of the model showed significant explanatory power in a retrospective context. It also highlighted the model's ability to differentiate between cultures and its potential ability as a predictive tool. It is thought that the greatest application for the model lies in its potential use as a pre-transfer assessment tool aiding corporate managers in the formulation of implementation strategy

Cognitive features and strategies for the meaning transfer of students in the process of online learning

Solving the problem of finding new technologies and ways of teaching in the education system today has become a global topic. Undoubtedly, young people quickly adapted to the new conditions of learning through Internet technologies. However, it should be taken into account that some psychological qualities of students influence their preference for forms of learning: direct "live" communication and interaction in the "educator-student" system, or online learning. The study involved students of 1-2 years of study of bachelor's degree in technical and humanitarian areas. A total of 103 students participated, including 49 girls and 54 boys aged 18 to 24 (average age is 18.7). Methods used: survey - Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, CFI (CFI-R) (Dennis J.P., Vander Wal J.S. adapted by Kurginyan S.S., Osavolyuk E.Yu.), Questionnaire by S. Epstein “Rationality-Experience” (adapted on the Russian sample by T. V. Kornilova, A. Yu. Razvalyaeva), Analyticity-holisticity scale (Apanovich VV, Znakova VV, Alexandrov Yu.I.), Questionnaire “Meaning transfer strategies” (Suroedova E.A.), Questionnaire that made it possible to collect data on respondents; statistical methods.The study established differences in cognitive styles, ways of comprehending cognitive and social situations, cognitive flexibility and strategies for meaning transfer between groups of students with different preferences for the learning format. Research perspectives are aimed at studying shifts in the development of cognitive features and strategies for meaning transfer in the process of online learning

Emiratisation : an assessment of intercultural realities

This research undertook to examine those obstacles which prevented organisations in Abu Dhabi from complying with the aims of the UAE government's Emiratisation initiative: that of strategic employment for UAE nationals and transfer of knowledge from the incumbent senior management, primarily of Western origin. Research into the psycho-social barriers to knowledge creation and transfer used a multiple method and multi-disciplinary approach to examine the varying levels of need for cognition, requirements of `high care' and frames of reference of male UAE nationals and male Western expatriates. The findings are summarised in a model which is reflective of the cultural values and social perceptions, and which aims to enable cross-cultural knowledge exchange in Abu Dhabi. The application of the model is designed to facilitate those common elements of `high care' expectation in organisations alongside those management initiatives which promote knowledge exchange, thus enabling organisational compliance with the government labour regulations and ultimately the strategic goals of the Emiratisation initiative

Pre-competition achievement goals within young sports performers

This thesis attempted to develop a clearer understanding of the pre-competition achievement goal perspectives that are held by young performers. The programme of research moves through three transitional stages incorporating three different methodologies. Specifically, the first two investigations which comprised Study 1 adopted a quantitative research methodology; Study 2 incorporated qualitative techniques; and the final investigation addressed the research question on an idiographic basis via a single subject design study. Firstly, an attempt is made to identify the major antecedents or precursors to states of goal involvement prior to a specific competitive situation. The first study examined the antecedents of pre-competition state goals within adolescent swimmers from an interactionist perspective. Results showed how levels of task and ego involvement prior to a specific race were related to both dispositional tendencies and situational factors within the race context. However, task orientation appeared to play a more powerful role than ego orientation in predicting their respective goal states. Furthermore, ego involvement was more strongly predicted by situational factors. The second investigation extended this question by investigating a sample of elite junior tennis players prior to a competitive match at the National Championships. In this way, the nature of the competitive context, with respect to goal or reward structure, changed from being more task-involving (individualistic-focused) to being more ego-involving (competitive-focused). Results showed how the players' goal states were related much more to perceptions of the context than to their reported goal orientation. Furthermore, task orientation did not emerge as a significant predictor of goal involvement. With these results in mind, the second stage of the thesis involved investigating, to a much greater depth, the motivational criteria which appeared to contribute to the development of goal orientation and the activation of goal involvement in the context of competition. For this purpose, qualitative interview techniques and an inductive content analysis were applied to a sample of seventeen elite junior tennis players. The findings suggested that the development of goal orientation and activation of pre-competition goal involvement rested on a complex interaction of internal and environmental factors. Specific general dimensions of influence included cognitive-developmental skills and experience, the motivational climate conveyed by significant others, the social and structural nature of tennis, and the match context. The information gathered from this study provided the impetus, rationale and theoretical foundation for the final study in this thesis. Employing a single subject multiple baseline across subjects design, the study investigated the effects of a structured environmental and task-based intervention programme which sought to influence precompetition goal involvement and related competitive cognitions within a small sample of adolescent national standard tennis players. Following a three month intervention period, the three targeted players reported pre-competition goal states which showed increased activation of the self-referent conception of achievement. Furthermore, each player fostered an attitude which valued the challenge of winning matches for internal reasons, as opposed to reasons associated with favourable social approval. These findings reinforced the practicability of educationlaction-based interventions designed to develop more adaptive motivational responses to competitive situations. The programme of research conducted in this thesis, therefore, highlights how precompetition achievement goal perspectives within young performers may be influenced, provided that one has a detailed understanding of the antecedents of this process. In so doing, this thesis alerts future research to the importance of working within an interactionist paradigm and with a measurement technology which can accurately assess goal states in a diverse number of sporting situations. In this way, our understanding of goal involvement, as an important achievement-related attentional state, may be greatly facilitated