Multiculturalism within individuals: a review, critique, and agenda for future research

In a globally connected world, it is increasingly common for individuals to belong to and be influenced by more than one culture. Based on a critique of conceptualizations from psychology, management, marketing, anthropology, and sociology, we bring clarity and consistency to conceptualizing and measuring multiculturalism at the individual level. We propose that individual-level multiculturalism is the degree to which someone has knowledge of, identification with, and internalization of more than one societal culture, and recommend methods to measure each dimension. Finally, we suggest how individual-level multiculturalism influences, and is influenced by, social networks and power dynamics in international organizations

Us and them: Disentangling forms of identification in MNCs

When employees identify with both the subsidiary and multinational corporation (MNC), they are likely to make decisions and engage in behaviors that benefit both. Previous work has concentrated on strength of identification, but we know much less about form – how the two identification foci relate to each other in employees' minds. Introducing an innovative methodology focusing on pronoun usage, we identify three empirical forms: single, extended, and coupled. Single refers to when individuals only identify with one entity (in this case the subsidiary). Extended is similar to single in that there is no separate MNC identification, but some MNC identification is intertwined with subsidiary identification. Coupled occurs when individuals identify with both the subsidiary and the MNC separately, and these identifications are also intertwined. We also explore some work-related factors that may provide tentative insights into ways MNCs might manage the development of form of identification. Preliminary results indicate that expatriation, prior within-firm international mobility, prior within-firm role mobility, job interdependence with headquarters, and job interdependence with other units are associated with the coupled form of identification. This research demonstrates differences from previous theoretical work and provides insight into how MNCs might manage the development of form of identification.Peer reviewe

Testing Alternative Cultural Explanations of Managers’ Values across the U.S.-Canada Border

Research about the implications that cultural differences have for managers in different parts of Anglophone Canada and the United States, like management studies of regional culture throughout the world, have been based on varied, narrowly focused theories and have reached varied conclusions. Here, we identify and compare theories about immigrant group characteristics and contemporary socioeconomic characteristics that figure strongly in research comparing Canada, the United States, and their regions. We summarize the predictions that each immigration theory and each socioeconomic characteristic makes for the two implications of culture that are most prominent in regional studies of North America – self-reliance and deference to authority. We conclude with thoughts about the potential contributions of culture research about North American regions along with theories of culture emergence and change that need to be revised or added to them to advance research about cultural regions of Europe