Boundary management preferences from a gender and cross-cultural perspective

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accu- mulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding of gender roles and promotes gender equality), gender, and boundary management preferences across 27 countries/territories. Based on a sample of 9362 employees, we found that the pattern of the relationship between gender egalitarianism and boundary management depends on the direction of segmentation preferences. Individuals from more gender egalitarian societies reported lower preferences to segment family-from-work (i.e., protect the work role from the family role); however, gender egalitarianism was not directly associated with preferences to segment work-from-family. Moreover, gender was associated with both boundary management directions such that women preferred to segment family-from-work and work-from-family more so than did men. As theo- rized, we found gender egalitarianism moderated the relationship between gender and segmen- tation preferences such that women's desire to protect family from work was stronger in lower (vs. higher) gender egalitarianism cultures. Contrary to expectations, women reported a greater preference to protect work from family than men regardless of gender egalitarianism. Implica- tions for boundary management theory and the cross-national work-family literature are discussed

Humane Orientation, Work–Family Conflict, and Positive Spillover Across Cultures

Although cross-national work–family research has made great strides in recent decades, knowledge accumulation on the impact of culture on the work–family interface has been hampered by a limited geographical and cultural scope that has excluded countries where cultural expectations regarding work, family, and support may differ. We advance this literature by investigating work–family relationships in a broad range of cultures, including understudied regions of the world (i.e., Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia). We focus on humane orientation (HO), an overlooked cultural dimension that is however central to the study of social support and higher in those regions. We explore its moderating effect on relationships between work and family social support, work–family conflict, and work–family positive spillover. Building on the congruence and compensation perspectives of fit theory, we test alternative hypotheses on a sample of 10,307 participants from 30 countries/territories. We find HO has mostly a compensatory role in the relationships between workplace support and work-to-family conflict. Specifically, supervisor and coworker supports were most strongly and negatively related to conflict in cultures in which support is most needed (i.e., lower HO cultures). Regarding positive spillover, HO has mostly an amplifying role. Coworker (but not supervisor) support was most strongly and positively related to work-to-family positive spillover in higher HO cultures, where providing social support at work is consistent with the societal practice of providing support to one another. Likewise, instrumental (but not emotional) family support was most strongly and positively related to family-to-work positive spillover in higher HO cultures

Cultural Intelligence Sounding the Death Knell for Stereotypes in Business Communication

Globalization is creating culturally diverse teams. Managers are increasingly challenged to lead multicultural teams towards common organizational goals. It has therefore become imperative that team members be helped to quickly attain a shared understanding of messages. Much research has focused on generating awareness of different cultures and how this knowledge can be used to improve business communication. Even with this awareness that different cultures exist, stereotypes (of race, gender, national culture) still influence how team members interpret the actions of their colleagues. Studies in social psychology have focused on how stereotypes influence perceptions about individuals or groups of people. Message encoding and decoding (verbal, non-verbal, intentional and unintentional) may thus unconsciously become victims of stereotypes. Often, these stereotypical frames do not provide a complete picture of the observations and so can lead to communication failures. This study proposes a unified framework for the use and understanding of organizational culture to improve communication. The Message Coding Congruence model (MCC) draws on national and organizational culture models (Edgar Schein, Geert Hofstede and Alfonso Nieto) to facilitate the sharing of meaning in interpersonal and organizational communication towards organizational effectiveness, especially in the face of stereotypes. Members of groups will thus understand better how much of their observations and interpretations are victims of often wrongly held assumptions based on the cultural backgrounds of their interlocutors. The MCC model should be useful in academic settings and in actual business environments. It would help in the training of managers and team members in effective communication that accommodates cultural diversity. Beyond training purposes the model also improve practitioners’ awareness and understanding of the consequences of cultural differences and taking them into account in striving to attain organizational aims