Intercultural Knowledge Sharing Between Expatriates and Host-country Nationals in Vietnam: A Practice-based Study of Communicative Relations and Power Dynamics

Heizmann, Helena; Fee, Anthony; Gray, Sidney J.

doi:10.1016/j.intman.2017.06.002

Cited by 74 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Even though some papers (e.g. Heizmann et al, 2018;Wang and Guan, 2018) have shown the effect of national culture on learning processes in organizations at the individual level, we did not identify similar studies that connected unlearning with national culture.…”

Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 59%

Unlearning at the Individual Level: An Exploratory Case Study in a High Power Distance Country

Wilbert¹,

Durst²,

Ferenhof³

et al. 2018

jim

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This paper presents a case study that addresses factors that influence unlearning at the individual level. These factors were studied in a public sector organization located in a country characterized by high power distance. The case organization went through a change process of a daily routine caused by the introduction of a new technology. Data were collected through semi structured face-to-face interviews with shop floor agents in the state of Santa Catarina/Brazil. The results highlight the strong influence of the support of formal leaders on the unlearning process of individuals, suggesting that managers operating in a high power distance environment have to make bigger efforts compared to their counterparts in small power distance settings to promote unlearning processes of employees. The study advances the limited body of knowledge regarding unlearning in general and unlearning at the individual level in particular. It also stresses the influence of the national cultural dimension on the unlearning process of individuals.

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Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 59%

Unlearning at the Individual Level: An Exploratory Case Study in a High Power Distance Country

Wilbert¹,

Durst²,

Ferenhof³

et al. 2018

jim

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show abstract

“…Moreover, whereas expatriates were given a basic Mandarin course, Chinese employees received no such English-language training by the MNC. Proficiency in a shared language is critical for the exchange of explicit and tacit knowledge (Mäkelä et al 2007;Welch et al 2005), and so is the role of expatriate managers in this exchange (Gamble 2003;Heizmann et al 2018). Given that cultural distance has a negative effect on knowledge exchange due to culture-based misunderstandings and reduced communication (Ambos and Ambos 2009), more equal distribution of language skills could have enhanced such exchange.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in the case of local personnel's low competence in the company language and expatriates' low competence in the host language, the locals who act as translators or information nodes may engage in gate-keeping behaviors, manage information flow (Marschan-Piekkari et al 1999;Selmer and Lauring 2015), and filter or even change its contents and intent to their advantage (Peltokorpi 2007;Piekkari et al 2013). Thus, expatriates become dependent on such locals (Marschan-Piekkari et al 1999;Peltokorpi and Vaara 2014;Heizmann et al 2018). Local personnel using a host language instead of the company language may in turn lead to negative perceptions of local personnel and to expatriates' frustration, resentment, and sense of exclusion (Peltokorpi 2007;Wright et al 2001).…”

Section: Previous Research On Expatriate-local Personnel Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Piekkari 2006). The scarcity of case studies dealing with communication at the subsidiary level (see, e.g., Heizmann et al 2018;Peltokorpi 2007) calls for further investigation of how cross-cultural collaboration is fostered in a multicultural business setting. Although it has been wellestablished that cultural values and language play a role in expatriate-local personnel interactions and expatriates' general adjustment, there is still a lack of knowledge concerning several issues.…”

Section: Previous Research On Expatriate-local Personnel Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intercultural communication within a Chinese subsidiary of a Western MNC: Expatriate perspectives on language and communication issues

Wilczewski

Søderberg²,

Gut³

2018

Multilingua

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This study investigates Polish expatriates’ stories of encounters with local personnel in a Chinese subsidiary of a Western multinational company. A narrative analysis of the stories produced important insights into Polish-Chinese communication in an intra-subsidiary context. Low proficiency in the host language was a serious obstacle to expatriate socialization and a source of expatriates’ exclusion and social isolation in the workplace, which often led to stress, frustration, and negative attitudes toward collaboration with local personnel. Language-related issues prevented the expatriates from acquiring information from Chinese superiors, learning about problems within a team, and participating in decision-making. The findings of this case study relate to communication challenges in the Chinese subsidiary, expatriates’ accounts of how they overcame communication difficulties, and their reflections on what fostered and hampered intercultural communication.

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“…However, although the expatriate's failure rate may not be as high as often reported [7], the impact they have is often far from ideal [8]. The failure of an expatriate is a major problem not only from the perspective of the employee himself, but also from the perspective of costs associated with the failure abroad [9,10]. Therefore, companies should be highly motivated to prepare expatriates for their new position in an effort to minimize possible failures.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the employment of expatriates as high-performance workers in terms of their impact on selected areas of the company.

Coculova

Tomčíková

2020

SHS Web Conf.

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The central topic of the paper is human resource management in multinational companies as one of the consequences of globalization. The paper particularly focuses on the use of expatriates as high-performance workers. The aim of the paper is to provide an analytical view of the work of this type of employees in branches of multinational organizations operating in Slovakia. The paper presents research results aimed at analyzing the employment of expatriates in branches of multinational companies in terms of selected features (size of branch, how long the company operates on the Slovak market and number of branches of an multinational company) and finding statistically significant links between the time an expatriate spends in the country and the impact he/she has on selected aspects of the company, namely innovation and new knowledge, his/ her share in addressing business challenges and on relationships at work from the perspective of branch managers of multinational companies. The research was conducted between January and May 2019 using a standardized questionnaire method on a sample of 138 managers of branches in which expatriates worked. The obtained data were processed by the methods of descriptive statistics and Chi-square test, through which three research hypotheses were tested.

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Intercultural Knowledge Sharing Between Expatriates and Host-country Nationals in Vietnam: A Practice-based Study of Communicative Relations and Power Dynamics

Cited by 74 publications

References 64 publications

Unlearning at the Individual Level: An Exploratory Case Study in a High Power Distance Country

Unlearning at the Individual Level: An Exploratory Case Study in a High Power Distance Country

Intercultural communication within a Chinese subsidiary of a Western MNC: Expatriate perspectives on language and communication issues

Analyzing the employment of expatriates as high-performance workers in terms of their impact on selected areas of the company.

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