Charles M. Vance

Forms of host-country national learning for enhanced MNC absorptive capacity.

Purpose – Aims to examine within the theoretical construct of absorptive capacity several forms of host country national (HCN) learning, leading to improved productivity in the foreign operation, and ultimately yielding more effective knowledge generation and flow throughout the multinational corporation (MNC).Design/methodology/approach – Used open‐ended exploratory field interviews with 51 host country human resource and middle managers in 49 different MNC foreign subsidiaries with headquarters in six different countries. Learning needs in three major employee levels of operative, supervisory/middle management, and upper management were examined. Notes from the interviews were recorded by hand and combined and analyzed for evidence of potentially beneficial forms of HCN learning using procedures of domain and theme analysis in taxonomy development.Findings – A total of 12 categories of potentially beneficial forms of HCN learning were identified and discussed relative to their contributions to increased...

Accounting for Differences in Norms of Respect A Study of Assessments of Incivility through the Lenses of Race and Gender

Incivility, an often ignored but potentially destructive workplace behavior, represents violations in norms of respect. The authors propose that norms of respect may not be shared within a work place and that variations in norms are reflected in the way individuals assess uncivil behavior toward others. Tests are carried out for variations in personal norms of respect with data from observers of the behavior by professional men toward a professional woman. Results from this study suggest that males and females may have different thresholds at which they perceive a vio lation of their norms of respect. Furthermore, perceptions may be affected by observers’ social identification (by race and sex) with either the perpetrators or the targets of incivility. The authors discuss implications from the study for perpetuating workplace inequalities.

Cross‐national assessment of service quality in the telecommunication industry: evidence from the USA and Germany

The successful standardization of service quality in the telecommunication industry across multiple nations demands, as a precondition, that the countries in question expose similar service quality dimensions and that the importance of these dimensions to overall satisfaction with the service is also similar. Investigates if these conditions are met in the telephone services sector of the telecommunication industry in the USA and Germany. Confirmatory factor analysis results of various alternative dimensionalities provide the best support for a five‐dimensional conceptualization in both countries. However, the two countries differ in their respective importance evaluations of particular service quality dimensions, which make it difficult to provide a standardized service quality solution. Briefly discusses implications of these results in terms of effective service quality design and delivery for global competitiveness.

One size fits all in expatriate pre‐departure training?

Traditional expatriate predeparture training has been general in nature, neglecting the input of the respective host country workforce (HCW) in identifying specific work interaction demands for optimizing expatriate management performance. This study found that workforces from Mexico, Indonesia and the USA differed significantly in their perceptions of both positive and negative behaviors affecting their work performance. Accordingly, the paper calls for a significant change in research and practice to incorporate the voice of the HCW to develop more valid and effective predeparture training for expatriate managers to enhance their performance in the host country to which they are assigned.

With a Little Help from Their Friends: Exploring the Advice Networks of Software Entrepreneurs

This field interview study examined patterns and content of advice sharing networks among 20 software executives to provide a clearer understanding of how advice relationships are established, the types of advice that are shared and the role that relationships play in the support of information exchange and diffusion. Most advice relationships were formed from strong tie relationships, while systematic differences were found among the types of advice sought from advice relationships resulting from strong ties, business ties and weak ties. The preference of software executives for rich communication media supports the importance of establishing trust in advice sharing relationships.

Evidence of back‐home selection bias against US female expatriates

This study compared the perceptions of US, German, Korean, and Mexican managers on six different survey items assessing the business success viability of female US expatriates. The US managers’ perceptions were generally less positive than those held by their foreign counterparts who represented the actual foreign business environment in their regions, suggesting a possible unfounded selection bias against US women and an unnecessary career obstacle. Furthermore, gender played a significant role in the US sample in assessing the perceived viability of American US expatriates, with female US managers expressing a more favorable attitude.

A Comparative Study on the Use of Humor in the Design of Instruction.

This study examined the effects of three integrated and contiguous instructional designs using incongruity humor on the recognition and recall of information measured by immediate learning and retention tests. First graders in three classes (N=58) were randomly assigned to one of three humor design treatment groups and a control group. On two successive days prior to receiving a humor treatment, each group received a taped reading of a familiar story, which succeeded in the intended manipulation of subjects to low levels of arousal and interest across all groups. The three humor designs included a humor experience which was immediately followed by a serious presentation of new information (contiguous-immediate design), the same humor experience with a one week postponed presentation of the new information (contiguous-postponed design), and a presentation of the new information with humor interspersed within (integrated design). Results indicated that the two contiguous humor treatment groups had higher immediate memory and retention scores than the control group, particularly with regard to recall of the new information. The integrated humor treatment failed to have its intended humor reaction. Limitations of previous research, which generally does not support the instructional value of humor, are discussed in terms of basic theory and research in humor, motivation, and learning.

An Examination of the Nonlinear Thinking Style Profile Stereotype of Successful Entrepreneurs

This study begins to empirically examine whether successful entrepreneurs possess a high nonlinear (e.g., creative, intuitive) thinking style, as some researchers and popular stereotypes of entrepreneurs would suggest, or whether they possess a more balanced nonlinear and linear (e.g., rational, logical, analytic) thinking style. As predicted, 48 successful entrepreneurs reflected a much greater level of balance in linear/nonlinear thinking style than their professional actor (n = 33) (predominantly nonlinear) and accountant (n = 31) (predominantly linear) counterparts, as measured by a linear/nonlinear thinking style instrument. Implications are discussed for guiding future cognitive research and theory development in entrepreneurship, as well as providing direction to entrepreneurship education and training.

Strategic Upstream and Downstream Considerations for Effective Global Performance Management

In the context of balancing the dynamic tensions of duality and competing forces of convergence and divergence in global business management, this article examines various important company headquarters ‘upstream’ and local country unit ‘downstream’ processes and activities that must work in sync to build global synergies and effectively implement company strategy. Upstream processes and activities of global performance management considered here include strategic performance management integration and coordination, workforce internal alignment, knowledge management, and organizational learning. Downstream considerations include responsiveness to local conditions, sensitivity to cross cultural differences, establishment of the performance management relationship, and comprehensive training efforts.

Smart Talent Management: On the Powerful Amalgamation of Talent Management and Knowledge Management

One innovation that forever changed our world was the discovery of the dramatically new strength of materials obtained from the admixture of carbon and iron—resulting in steel. Both elements alone have their limitations in terms of material strength, but their unique characteristics in combination resulted in tremendous power that enabled the construction of our industrialized and post-industrialized worlds. We believe that in much the same way the useful concepts of talent management (TM) and knowledge management (KM) can be combined to form a powerful conceptual amalgamation contributing to an organization’s success in our competitive global marketplace. For want of a more precise and scientific label, we call this combination simply ‘smart talent management.’ We hope that this book will prompt further examination of the benefits of this combined focus on talent and knowledge management, including the development of useful definitions. But in this early stage we define our concept of smart talent management as the combined use of the distinctly different concepts of knowledge management and talent management to resolve human performance problems and to achieve organizational objectives. Our little play on words refers not to the effective management of only the top performers (i.e., the smart employees), but to the effective/smart integration of knowledge management (i.e., the ‘smarts’) into the paradigm. Smart talent management means the smart or effective management of all human resources, who embody an organization’s knowledge capital and capability in generating, acquiring, storing, transferring, and applying knowledge in support of company goals and objectives (competitive advantage). ‘Smart’ also corresponds to our emphasis of the strategic role of knowledge management in today’s organizations, and particularly within the human resource management (HRM) function. Our further