| Creativity in a cultural context |
| | Trevelyan, Rose | Australian Graduate School of Management | roset@agsm.edu.au | +612 9931 9361 |
| | This paper explores a culturally contingent model of creativity. Key mechanisms in individual and group creativity are compared across individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Differences in creativity across cultures are explored by examining attitudes towards the self, the group and the task in each cultural type and propositions for a contingency model of creativity are derived. Implications for managing creativity in a globalising business context are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Creativity; Culture |
| A Single Framework for the Ethical and Strategic Global Manager |
| | Reynolds, Scott J. | U. of Minnesota | sreynolds@csom.umn.edu | (612)-315-4360 |
| | The global manager conducts business at the intersection of cultures. As a result, he or she is often exposed to very unique moral dilemmas. To help the global manager cope with these difficult ethical decisions, scholars have developed a wide variety of international ethical theories and approaches. However, even though these theories and approaches can clarify even the most complicated of moral quandaries, generally they provide managers with few or no strategic insights. Therefore, I propose a framework of international ethics that integrates a powerful tension of morality, justice versus care, with the central tension of international strategy, integration versus local responsiveness. I argue that on a fundamental level, justice and integration are similar concepts, and therefore there is a set of actions that are both just and integrative. In the same fashion, I suggest that there are behaviors that are both caring and responsive. I then argue that the manager who acts in ways that are just and integrative or caring and responsive will be more likely to be both ethical and strategic. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the true art of ethically strategic behavior is knowing when to be just and integrative, when to be caring and responsive, and when to be both. Throughout, I provide examples to illustrate these arguments. Finally, I consider some advantages of the framework and some of its inherent limitations. |
| | Keywords: Ethics; International Strategy |
| Effect of Cultural Variation on the Behavioral Response to Declining Job Satisfaction |
| | Thomas, David C. | U. of Auckland | d.thomas@auckland.ac.nz | 64-9-373-7599 |
| | Au, Kevin | Chinese U. of Hong Kong | kevin@baf.msmail.cuhk.edu.hk | (852)-2609-7802 |
| | This study examined the moderating effects of culture on exchange relationships in organizations. In an experiment, we evaluated the responses to declining job satisfaction of participants (N = 352) in Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States. Drawing on the exchange theory notions of Hirschman (1970) and on an operationalization first demonstrated by Rusbult, Farrell, Rogers, and Mainous (1988) we found that members with different cultural orientations had different propensities to respond to declining job satisfaction with exit, voice, loyalty or neglect. Specifically, the cultural dimensions of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism influenced participant’s behavior. Also, cultural variability moderated the effect of some exchange variables on some behavioral outcomes. |
| | Keywords: Cross-cultural; Job satisfaction; International |