Ariane Berthoin Antal

Negotiating Reality A Theory of Action Approach to Intercultural Competence

In an increasingly global business environment, managers must interact effectively with culturally complex people in culturally complex situations. The dominant stream of thought in international management literature frames this situation as a problem of conflict and offers generalized models of cultural difference as guides to ‘adaptation’ for avoiding conflict. This article offers an alternative approach to intercultural competence, ‘negotiating reality’, that engages cultural conflict as a resource for learning. Negotiating reality draws on concepts from action science and identity-based conflict to take a new look at the meaning of competence in intercultural interactions. This article analyses and critiques the approach to culture implicit in the dominant international management literature and the adaptation model. It then describes negotiating reality and the kinds of thinking and behaviour that must be adopted in order to put this approach to intercultural competence into practice.

Corporate social responsibility in France: A mix of national traditions and international influences

This article explores the dynamics of the discourse and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in France to illustrate the interplay between endogenous and exogenous factors in the development of CSR in a country. It shows how the cultural, socioeconomic, and legal traditions influence the way ideas are raised, the kinds of questions considered relevant, and the sorts of solutions conceived as desirable and possible. Furthermore, the article traces how expectations and practices evolve as a result of various social and economic factors within a country and, increasingly, as a result of global influences such as the international academic discourse, the international practices of multinational companies, nongovernmental organizations and trade unions, and initiatives of supranational organizations. The article closes with reflections about what can be learned from the French experience with CSR and how to stimulate such cross-border learning.

Types of Knowledge Gained by Expatriate Managers

What knowledge can expatriates bring back to their organizations on their return from jobs abroad?

Beyond CSR: Organizational learning for global responsibility

This contribution argues that it is time to move beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) to ‘global responsibility.’ As long as the field retains its old label, the learning agenda for organisations will be too narrow to address the full range of challenges for a sustainable world. It sets too small a stage, invites too few actors to participate and restricts the types of roles they can play. Global responsibility reframes the way issues are defined and the paths along which solutions may be found. After building the argument for the term, the contribution draws on research about organisational learning to identify the kinds of learning that organisations must become skilled at in order to tackle global responsibility. It then illustrates learning processes in a co-operative bank and an international non-governmental association, a multinational corporation, and a multi stakeholder platform created by the United Nations. These cases show how organisations are combining various types of learning and using physical and virtual learning spaces to generate knowledge for action. The contribution concludes by discussing how to increase the number of organisations engaging in such global responsibility and how to speed up their learning. To this end, lessons are drawn from experiences with the diffusion of voluntary and mandatory approaches to corporate social reporting over the past forty years.

Corporate social reporting revisited

The intensity and scope of attention to the (negative) impacts of business activities on the social and natural environment have waxed and waned over the past forty years. A revival of interest on a wide scale is visible and audible again today. Numerous organizations, including the United Nations, the European Commission, national governments, and public interest groups, are calling for business to publish reports documenting their impacts on society and the environment. What can be learned from the early years of work in the area of corporate social responsibility and responsiveness, and how must the methods be altered in light of the changes that have occurred in the way the topic is defined today and in light of the new media available, especially the internet? This article tackles these two questions first by recalling which of the original concepts were found particularly useful, outlining their key strengths and weaknesses, and then by exploring the factors that currently characterize the field.

Whither Corporate Social Reporting: Is It Time to Legislate?

This article reviews the development of corporate social reporting—its theoretical underpinnings, its conceptual frameworks, and its application in practice. Specifically, the usefulness and the actual use of the information contained in social reports are evaluated. In view of the experience to date and the current socio-economic conditions, a number of possible scenarios are discussed and policy options presented. The underlying challenge is to develop and institutionalize measures which ensure the usefulness and use of social reports. Doing this would make business more responsive to societal concerns by providing for the identification of information needs and for feedback processes, and by maximizing the reliability, credibility, and flexibility of reporting procedures.

Learning to negotiate reality: a strategy for teaching intercultural competencies

Intercultural competencies are more important for people in business than ever before. In this article, the authors present an approach they designed and used for developing “negotiating reality” as a key intercultural competence at an international business school in Europe. They outline the theoretical underpinnings from intercultural communication and action learning, on which their approach is based. Then, they describe the iterative process through which they guide students in group work, starting by analyzing a difficult intercultural situation they experienced and leading to role-plays in which they experiment with alternative responses. The teaching materials are in the text and appendices.

Business Perception of Contextual Changes Sources and Impediments to Organizational Learning

A firms ability to shape its policies to meet societal demands depends on how it perceives the opportunities and risks in its environment. The authors hypothesized that corporate culture plays a significant role in shaping organizational percep-tions. This article summarizes the findings of a study on how the organizational culture of a chemical firm headquartered in West Germany affected the evolution of its social and personnel policy from 1950 to 1989 given the changes in its sociopolitical environment during this period. The study shows that the culture of a company, by shaping its perceptions, plays a central role in determining the areas in which the organization is likely to be able to learn easily and those in which it is likely to resist changing its policies.

A Passion for Giving, a Passion for Sharing Understanding Knowledge Sharing as Gift Exchange in Academia

This contribution explores knowledge-based interactions among academics through the lens of gift exchange theory. Drawing from interviews conducted in France and Germany, it first reviews the diversity of contexts and reasons for knowledge sharing, then analyzes the processes and the implicit rules that govern them. The use of gift exchange theory brings to light several paradoxes inherent in interactions among members of the academic community, and it offers a fresh way of looking at power, status, and emotions in exchange processes.

Reflections on the Need for “Between Times” and “Between Places”

This article argues that a great deal of intellectual entrepreneurship happens in times and spaces that lie between institutions. Ideas are often born when people move from one context to another. During “between times” and in “between places” people come up with possibilities that might not fit within one institution alone. The realization of new ideas then requires combining energies and resources from different institutions, and it often involves pushing conventions aside, creating new space between existing institutions. The article explores the example of a business-and-research venture, CHOICE mobilitatsproviding GmbH, to illustrate the importance of multiple types of “between” and their significance for organizational learning.