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

Cross-cultural management education rebooted: creating positive value through scientific mindfulness

Graduates of cross-cultural management (CCM) courses should be capable of both tackling international and cross-cultural situations and creating positive value from the diversity inherent in these situations. Such value creation is challenging because these situations are typically complex due to differences in cultural values, traditions, social practices and institutions, such as legal rules, coupled with variation in, for example, wealth and civil rights among stakeholders. We argue that a scientific mindfulness approach to teaching CCM can help students identify and leverage positive aspects of differences and thereby contribute to positive change in crosscultural situations. This new approach combines mindfulness and scientific thinking with the explicit goal to drive positive change in the world. We explain how the action principles of scientific mindfulness enable learners to build positive value from cultural diversity. We then describe the enactment of these principles in the context of CCM educatio

Multicultural employees: Global business' untapped resource

Despite rapid growth in the number of multicultural employees, few global organizations are tapping the potential of their employees with more than one culture. Some organizations may be unaware of the skills these employees possess, or may even see them as a source of problems. Others may lack the procedures necessary to use their skills (e.g., selection processes and career development practices to place multicultural employees in positions where they can be most useful). We describe multicultural employees' potential to contribute to five key international business activities: Multicultural teams, intercultural negotiations, ethics and leadership, expatriation, and international mergers and acquisitions. We then describe how global organizations can leverage the distinctive skills, knowledge and perspectives of their multicultural employees. Overall, multicultural employees possess many of the skills and abilities necessary to succeed in complex, global companies, and organizations would be wise to pay more attention to them

Multicultural Individuals: What Can They Bring to Global Organizations?

Global businesses are fast-moving places with technologies that enable people to be more mobile than ever. Not only do individuals travel more frequently and connect with people from societal cultures that are different from their own, but as globalization dissolves geographical barriers, more individuals find themselves identifying with not only one culture, but with two or even more. Statistics indicate that this demographic is both large and growing. By 2021, more than 40 million people in OECD countries were foreign-born (OECD, 2022), and multicultural individuals have become so important that UNESCO has discussed their impact in reports since 2009 (UNESCO, 2009)

Designing a relevant cross-cultural management course: a view through the lens of scientific mindfulness

Literature review and interviews with CCM instructors and former course participants who are now expatriates indicate that CCM courses generally lack relevance. To address this problem, we suggest a new type of CCM course designed through the lens of scientific mindfulness, a holistic, cross-disciplinary, contextual, and reflexive approach to scholarship and practice with the intent to contribute to the betterment of society. First, regarding the course content, a scientifically mindful course is based on a broad and phenomenon-based definition of CCM recognizing that today’s corporations are not purely economic, but also social and political actors with a responsibility for global sustainability. Thus, this type of course highlights how cross-cultural competencies are critical for sustainable and responsible management. Second, this type of course makes extensive use of skill-building methods, such as service learning experiences. Third, such a course is evaluated at the levels of both student performance and course effectiveness in delivering outcomes that have the potential to contribute to society

Epidemiologic study of cystic fibrosis: Design and implementation of a prospective, multicenter, observational study of patients with cystic fibrosis in the U.S. and Canada

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a complex illness characterized by chronic lung infection leading to deterioration in function and respiratory failure in over 85% of patients. An understanding of the risk factors for that progression and the interaction of these factors with current therapeutic strategies should materially improve the prevention of this progressive lung disease. The Epidemiologic Study of Cystic Fibrosis (ESCF) was therefore designed as a multicenter, longitudinal, observational study to prospectively collect detailed clinical, therapeutic, microbiologic, and lung function data from a large number of CF treatment sites in the U.S. and Canada. The ESCF also serves an important role as a phase‐IV study of dornase alfa. To be eligible for enrollment, subjects must have the diagnosis of CF and receive the majority of their care at an ESCF site. In this paper, the authors present the ESCF study design in detail. Further, enrollment data collected at 194 study sites in 18,411 subjects enrolled from December 1, 1993 to December 31, 1995 are presented in summary form. This comprehensive study is unique in the detail of clinical data collected regarding patient monitoring and therapeutic practices in CF care. Two companion articles present data regarding practice patterns in cystic fibrosis care, including data on resource utilization and prescribing practices. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1999; 28:231–241. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc