“Don't worry, relationship conflict won't hurt us” Cultural Beliefs about the Consequences of Conflict

Three cross-cultural studies examined cognitive representations of conflict providing evidence of cultural similarities and differences in expectations and behavioral intentions. In Study 1 Americans exhibited an optimistic bias relative to East Asians in their beliefs about relationship conflict, but not conflict in general. Study 2 suggests that these findings cannot be alternatively accounted for by cultural differences in perceptions about the distinction, or lack thereof, between relationship and task-focused forms of conflict. Furthermore, the results demonstrated an interaction effect such that both European Americans and Koreans prefer to proactively address and resolve task conflict, whereas only European Americans perceive that it is relatively unnecessary to address relationship conflict to achieve task performance. Study 3 confirmed that these cultural patterns have behavioral implications, such that Americans were more likely than East Asians to join a group talented but likely to experience relationship conflict. Together, results showing cultural asymmetries in how people make sense of relationship conflict suggest important implications for interpersonal and intra-group dynamics in intercultural contexts.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41262/1/1038-JSanchez-Burkes.pd

Cultural Impressions of Professionalism

Two studies with working managers and corporate recruiters examined evidence that impressions of professionalism are influenced by cues of whether one appropriately minimizes personal referents at work, particularly within certain industrialized cultures. Study 1 showed that proportion of office objects symbolic of one's personal life differentiated the mental image of a professional versus unprofessional worker. This effect was moderated by experience living in the U.S., suggesting this standard for professionalism may be culturally bounded. Study 2 showed that for American but not foreign job candidates, adherence to this minimization ideology led to more favorable recruiting evaluations. Implications for cultural imprints on organizational dynamics are discussed.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41265/1/1041-JSanchez-Burkes.pd

Fluidity and Performance in Intercultural Workplace Interactions: The Role of Behavioral Mirroring and Relational Attunement

This article examines the perceptual and behavioral dynamics underlying intercultural interactions at work. Specifically, this paper studies how culture-based differences in relational attunement differentially affect how U.S. Anglos and U.S. Latinos perceive workplace interactions. In a field experiment conducted at a Fortune 500 headquarters, Anglo and Latino managers interacted with a confederate in a business interview who did (or did not) engage in behavioral mirroring unbeknownst to the participant. Results show that the level of mirroring affected participants' experiences and actual performance (evaluated via videotape by third-party experts) and that these effects were moderated by cultural group membership. Stronger effects were observed across mirroring conditions for Latinos than for Anglos. A second laboratory experiment provides evidence that culture based differences in relational attunement is a causal mechanism underlying these effects. These results demonstrate how performance in intercultural workplace interactions can be compromised even in the absence of overt prejudice.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41264/1/1039-JSanchez-Burkes.pd

Cultural Training Based on a Theory of Relational Ideology

A field experiment examined the effects of an intercultural training intervention based on the construct of Protestant Relational Ideology (PRI). The experiment, like drug trial research, compared the effectiveness of the novel PRI intervention with an intervention previously shown to be successful. People working on consulting projects with colleagues in China or Chile received either PRI-based training or the well-established and popular cultural assimilator training. Results show that compared to cultural assimilator training, relational ideology training is more effective in improving managers’ success in completing project objectives and affective adjustment during cross-cultural ventures. The study shows that important practical and theoretical benefits can be gained from integrating theoretical advances in cultural psychology into cross-cultural training.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39161/4/907-JSanchez-Burks-rev2006.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39161/1/907.pd

Unpacking Rapport: The Role of Behavioral Coordination and Culture in Workplace Interviews

This paper examines the influence of non-verbal coordination and culture on perceptions of interpersonal rapport and candidate performance in job interview settings. Mock interviews were conducted on-site at a Fortune 500 company using a 2 x 3 experimental design. Anglo and Latino midlevel managers were interviewed by a confederate who enacted one of two possible levels of nonverbal coordination. Our results show that low levels of behavioral coordination on the part of an interviewer reduce candidates’ self-esteem and perceptions of interpersonal rapport; increase their anxiety and the time candidates take to respond to interview questions; and lower performance evaluations for both self- and expert third party-ratings. Our results also show that these effects are moderated by culture but not gender, with stronger effects found for Latino men than for Anglo men or women. Theoretical implications and practical ramifications for workplace diversity and the development of interpersonal rapport and improved collaboration are discussed.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39164/4/911.pd

Mentoring in Startup Ecosystems

Effective mentoring programs are very difficult to structure and execute, even with the best intentions and reasonable budget. In this report we conduct a multi-institution empirical analysis of mentoring in startup ecosystems to determine what helps entrepreneurial teams and mentors thrive in mentorship programs. We survey the perspectives of mentees, mentors and university and accelerator program administrators. Our empirical findings reveal that personality and the malleability of entrepreneurial skills among the mentee and the mentor matter. Further we find that university programs lag behind non-university accelerator programs along several important dimensions, when it comes to matching mentees to mentors and providing support during the program and following up after the completion of the program. We provide several prescriptive recommendations for students, startup founders, mentors and program administrators, and outline a research agenda for studying mentoring in entrepreneurial ecosystems.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139028/1/1376_Sanchez-Burks.pd

Embodied Metaphors and Creative “Acts”

Creativity is a highly sought after skill. To inspire people’s creativity, prescriptive advice in the form of metaphors abound: We are encouraged to think outside the box, to consider the problem on one hand, then on the other hand, and to put two and two together to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances on body-mind linkages under the emerging vernacular of embodied cognition, we explored for the first time whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem-solving. In five studies, findings revealed that both physically and psychologically embodying creative metaphors promote fluency, flexibility, and/or originality in problem-solving. Going beyond prior research that focused primarily on the kind of embodiment that primes preexisting knowledge, we provide the first evidence that embodiment can also activate cognitive processes conducive for generating previously unknown ideas and connections

9. Managing cross-culture conflicts: a close look at the implication of direct versus indirect confrontation

the leader of a multicultural software development team was frustrated. the american and european members of the team were delivering on time, but he was getting nothing from the Japanese members. Multiple meetings with the Japanese members generated seeming commitment but no follow-up. the team leader, an indian, located in singapore considered two alternative strategic approaches to resolve this conflict. one approach he considered was to contact the head of it in Japan to find out why the work was not being done. Ultimately, however, he decided to try a different approach. He asked the european team members to prepare a presentation of their progress on the project. He then went to Japan and invited the entire Japanese it division of the company to attend the europeans' presentation. after the presentation he went back to singapore without holding substantive meetings with the Japanese team members. Within a week he had a request from the Japanese team members to have the Japanese team's completed work featured in the next corporate presentation. -An example of successful indirect confrontation from our research this chapter is about the meaning, cultural significance, and consequences of direct versus indirect confrontation of conflict. the distinction between direct and indirect confrontation captures important culturally driven differences in how meaning is expressed and received when parties are in conflict. Conflict occurs when at least one party in an interdependent relationship perceives differences in interest

Ascetic Protestantism and cultural schemas for relational sensitivity in the workplace.

Three cross-cultural studies examined the relationship between exposure to ascetic Protestantism and relational sensitivity in work and non-work contexts. Each successive study refined and elaborated the hypothesis derived from Weber (1904/1930) that cultural ties to ascetic Protestantism is associated with limited relational sensitivity in work settings, but that this sensitivity increases in informal, non-work settings. Employing different experimental paradigms, each study assessed relational sensitivity using measures of attention to relational cues in communication. Study 1 showed that European American men attended more to indirect meaning in a text conveying a worker's performance evaluation than did East Asian men or women. In Study 2, European American and Korean MBAs were primed with either a work context or a nonwork context. On a survey measure of indirectness, an interaction was obtained such that European Americans reported attending less to indirect meaning in conversations with a co-worker than with an acquaintance whereas the reverse was true for the Koreans. Study 3 revealed a similar pattern for European-Americans raised as ascetic Protestants versus Catholics. To manipulate a work or casual context, half of the participants dressed in business shirts and ties and discussed a business case and half dressed in Hawaiian shirts and played a card game. All participants then completed a modified Stroop task in which they were to judge the meaning of a spoken word while ignoring the affective tone of voice. When primed with a work context, Protestants were more able to ignore affective tone of voice than were Catholics. When primed with an informal non-work context, Protestants were less able to ignore vocal intonation and did not differ from Catholics. Implications for the dynamics of intercultural miscommunication are discussed.Ph.D.Individual and family studiesPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyPsychologyReligionSocial SciencesSocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131859/2/9938408.pd