Scientific mindfulness: a foundation for future themes in international business

We conceptualize new ways to qualify what themes should dominate the future IB research agenda by examining three questions: Whom should we ask? What should we ask and which selection criteria should we apply? What are the contextual forces? We propose scientific mindfulness as the way forward for generating themes in IB research

Bridging Space over Time: Global Virtual Team Dynamics and Effectiveness

Global virtual teams are internationally distributed groups of people with an organizational mandate to make or implement decisions with international components and implications. They are typically assigned tasks that are strategically important and highly complex. They rarely meet in person, conducting almost all of their interaction and decision making using communications technology. Although they play an increasingly important role in multinational organizations, little systematic is known about their dynamics or effectiveness. This study built a grounded theory of global virtual team processes and performance over time. We built a template based on Adaptive Structuration Theory (DeSanctis and Poole 1994) to guide our research, and we conducted a case study, observing three global virtual teams over a period of 21 months. Data were gathered using multiple methods, and qualitative methods were used to analyze them and generate a theory of global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. First, we propose that effective global virtual team interaction comprises a series of communication incidents, each configured by aspects of the team\u27s structural and process elements. Effective outcomes were associated with a fit among an interaction incident\u27s form, decision process, and complexity. Second, effective global virtual teams sequence these incidents to generate a deep rhythm of regular face-to-face incidents interspersed with less intensive, shorter incidents using various media. These two insights are discussed with respect to other literature and are elaborated upon in several propositions. Implications for research and practice are also outlined

A look at the bright side of multicultural team diversity

Summary Current research on multicultural teams tends to exhibit a bias towards studying the negative effects of team diversity more than the positive. This negative bias has limited our understanding of the conditions that promote the benefits of diversity and of the mechanisms that foster these benefits. In this article, we highlight a complementary perspective, namely the idea that cultural diversity and cultural differences can be an asset rather than a liability. This perspective has been present in the practitioner and anecdotal literature, but has thus far not received much rigorous research attention. Using a lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), we draw upon recent research on cultural diversity in teams to explore the positive aspects of cross-cultural dynamics in teams and identify some of the processes underlying these effects in more rigorous ways, proposing a future research agenda.Multicultural teams Cultural diversity Positive Organizational Scholarship Creativity Satisfaction Communication Team learning Global integration

International Management Behavior : Leading With a Global Mindset

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Testing the Cultural Boundaries of a Model of Trust: Subordinate-Manager Relationships in China, Norway and the United States

The purpose of this study is to test a model of trust in the organizational setting, incorporating hypotheses about the effect of culture on the trust process. It is predicted that subordinates’ trust in their supervisors is a function of their perceptions of their supervisors’ behavior and their own propensity to trust. In addition, subordinates’ cultural orientation toward relationships moderates the relationship between their perceptions of their managers’ trustworthiness and trust, and their orientation to human nature directly affects propensity to trust. These predictions are tested by using data collected with questionnaires completed by businesspeople in China (n=180), Norway (n=128) and the United States (n=203)

Testing the Cultural Boundaries of a Model of Trust: Subordinate-Manager Relationships in China, Norway and the United States

The purpose of this study is to test a model of trust in the organizational setting, incorporating hypotheses about the effect of culture on the trust process. It is predicted that subordinates’ trust in their supervisors is a function of their perceptions of their supervisors’ behavior and their own propensity to trust. In addition, subordinates’ cultural orientation toward relationships moderates the relationship between their perceptions of their managers’ trustworthiness and trust, and their orientation to human nature directly affects propensity to trust. These predictions are tested by using data collected with questionnaires completed by businesspeople in China (n=180), Norway (n=128) and the United States (n=203)