Unequal relationships in high and low power distance societies: a comparative study of tutor - student role relations in Britain and China

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness

Measures Matter: Scales for Adaptation, Cultural Distance, and Acculturation Orientation Revisited

Building upon existing measures, four new brief acculturation scales are presented, measuring sociocultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, perceived cultural distance, and acculturation orientation. Following good scale reliability in initial samples, the English scales were translated into nine different languages (Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish). The translated scales were administered to a large sample of sojourners (N = 1,929), demonstrating good reliability and adequate structural equivalence across languages. In line with existing theory, sociocultural adaptation and psychological adaptation were positively correlated, and showed a negative association with perceived cultural distance. General measures of well-being were correlated with adaptation and distance, with better adaptation relating to higher well-being, and more distance relating to lower well-being. Acculturation orientation toward the home and host culture were measured separately and a weak negative correlation was found between the two, supporting their independence. Arguing against dichotomization, these subscales were analyzed as continuous variables. Regression analysis showed sojourners to be better adapted, if they were oriented more toward the host culture and less toward the home culture. These new scales are proposed as alternatives to existing measures

Impact of aerobic and resistance exercise combination on physical self-perceptions and self-esteem in women with obesity with one-year follow-up

The effectiveness of an exercise intervention including both aerobics and resistance training components in improving physical self-perceptions and global self-esteem (GSE) in women with obesity was examined. An experimental design with a one-year follow-up was used. Women with obesity (n = 72) participated in a structured exercise programme for 12 weeks after being randomised into a control and an exercise group. Exercise self-efficacy, body attractiveness, physical strength, sport competence, physical condition, physical self-worth, and GSE were measured at pre-intervention, early intervention, mid-intervention, immediately after the intervention, and five times following programme termination at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively. Analyses of covariance revealed exercise effects for all of the dependent variables except for body attractiveness. Generally, exercise effects lasted between 6 and 12 months. A 12-week physical exercise programme including aerobic and resistance training components has the potential to improve physical self-perceptions and self-esteem in women with obesity

Perfectionism and self-conscious emotions in British and Japanese students: Predicting pride and embarrassment after success and failure

Regarding self-conscious emotions, studies have shown that different forms of perfectionism show different relationships with pride, shame, and embarrassment depending on success and failure. What is unknown is whether these relationships also show cultural variations. Therefore, we conducted a study investigating how self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted pride and embarrassment after success and failure comparing 363 British and 352 Japanese students. Students were asked to respond to a set of scenarios where they imagined achieving either perfect (success) or flawed results (failure). In both British and Japanese students, self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and embarrassment after failure whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted embarrassment after success and failure. Moreover, in Japanese students, socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and self-oriented perfectionism negatively predicted pride after failure. The findings have implications for our understanding of perfectionism indicating that the perfectionism–pride relationship not only varies between perfectionism dimensions, but may also show cultural variations

Managers’ resources for authentic leadership – A multi-study exploration of positive psychological capacities and ethical organizational climates

While authentic leadership is highly valued in today’s business world, managers do not necessarily have the resources to attain it. Building on conservation of resources theory, we propose a conceptual model to address how personal and contextual resources predict authentic leadership. Study 1 analyzes the day-to-day variability in managers’ positive psychological capacities as personal resources in relation to changes in authentic leadership. In addition, it tests ethical organizational climates as stable, contextual resources for authentic leadership. In Study 2, we replicate our results on the between-person level and extend the research model by exploring promotion focus as a link in the relationship between personal resources and authentic leadership. Evidence from an experience sampling study with 89 managers surveyed daily on 10 consecutive work days (Study 1) and a field survey of 130 managers at two points in time (Study 2) supports the hypothesized role of personal resources and promotion focus for authentic leadership. In both studies, only principled but not benevolent ethical organizational climates emerged as a contextual resource for authentic leadership. We discuss the implications for current management research and practice

Are MNCs norm entrepreneurs or followers? The changing relationship between host country institutions and MNC HRM practices

Rooted in the literature on comparative capitalism, we examine the effects of host country institutions on the intra-organizational practices of multinational corporations (MNCs), using transnational level survey data, exploring change over time. We found that the less comprehensive institutional mediation of the Liberal Market Economies correlated with greater diversity and a more pronounced difference between domestic firms and foreign MNCs. However, rather than being the predicted norm entrepreneurs, MNCs tended to follow the lead of local firms in adjusting HRM policies and practices towards liberalization. Those most prone to challenging existing orders were in industries facing particular crises of competitiveness. Finally, we found that single regulatory features rather than complex assemblies of institutions exerted particularly strong effects on the individual firms’ practices encompassed in this study

The consequences of (not) seeing eye-to-eye about the past:The role of supervisor–team fit in past temporal focus for supervisors' leadership behavior

This study seeks to advance our understanding of the leadership consequences that may ensue when supervisors and their teams have similar versus differing orientations toward the past. Integrating a leader–team fit perspective with functional leadership theory, we cast incongruence between supervisor and team past temporal focus as a key antecedent of supervisors' active (i.e., task-oriented and relationship-oriented) and passive (i.e., laissez-faire) leadership behaviors toward the team. We tested our hypotheses in a team-level study that included a field sample of 84 super-visors and their teams using polynomial regression and response surface analyses.Results illustrated that supervisors demonstrated more task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership when supervisors' and their team's past temporal focus were incongruent rather than aligned. Furthermore, in situations of supervisor–team congruence, supervisors engaged in less task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership and more laissez-faire leadership with higher (rather than lower)levels of supervisor and team past temporal focus. In sum, these findings support a complex (mis)fit model such that supervisors' attention to the past may hinder their productive leadership behaviors in some team contexts but not in others. Hence, this research advances a novel, multiple-stakeholder perspective on the role of both supervisors' and their team's past temporal focus for important leadership behavio