Allan Bird

Northeastern University | NEU · Center for Emerging Markets

Emerging markets are increasingly important to researchers and managers focused on helping multinational enterprises to thrive in often attractive yet unfamiliar environments. However, empirical knowledge about emerging markets is relatively under-developed when it comes to managing international talent, particularly with regard to the specific dem...

Researchers have been studying the effectiveness of people working across borders for decades, through many different disciplinary lenses. In management research, Intercultural Competence (ICC) developed mainly by theorizing about and studying a narrow set of cross-boundary interactions: professionals working outside their home country. Increasingl...

While international learning programs have received a great deal of attention and have been found to provide valuable learning experiences for participants interested in developing global leadership competencies (GLCs), they are resource-intensive and variably effective. This chapter examines the relatively unexplored use of assessment center (AC)...

Globalization has created an accelerated demand for globally competent managers, yet the gap between this demand and the supply of globally oriented, competent graduates is growing. As a result, the mandate for effectively internationalizing business school curriculum is increasing. Yet, given the costly structures required to provide international...

The capstone of our global competency model is a set of skills that involves exerting influence over others by leveraging the organization's systems. Such ability to manage the organization's systems in order to exert influence relies heavily on the interpersonal skills of mindful communication and creating and building trust. The three systems ski...

Our French and German managers find themselves bumping up against the reality of working in the “brave new world” of globalization. Despite all the ballyhoo and commotion about new business models, networked organizations, virtual teams, technological advance, and the like, the real work still has to be done in the trenches by managers who must rel...

Over the past 2 decades CEO surveys have consistently identified a shortage of global leadership capability as a limiting factor in global expansion. At the same time, business schools have also come to recognize the need to develop global leadership in their graduates. The Global Leadership Expertise Development (GLED) model proposes a framework a...

While the global leadership literature has grown rapidly over recent years, the context in which global leadership occurs remains ill-defined and under-conceptualized. This lack of contextualization risks equating global leadership roles that are qualitatively very different and prevents sufficient clarity for empirical sampling. To foster more coh...

Grounded in institutional theory, this study investigates the differential adoption and internalization of high-investment human resource (HR) values by local companies and by subsidiaries of US firms located throughout South Asia; and the impact of these HR values on firms’ performance. In line with our predictions, results suggest that US subsidi...

This article develops a taxonomic model of expatriate identities based on the concepts of the self, national culture and existing literature on acculturation and cultural identities. Drawing from previous literature scattered in different disciplines, we clarify the conceptualization of monocultural, multicultural, global and cosmopolitan identity...

Business schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the challenges of a complex business environment. Students should graduate with the capability to effectively work in other cultures and with people from different cultures. Simply providing students with the opportunity to visit or live in other cultures or to connect with people from...

Admitting large numbers of international students appears to be a competitive strategy for business schools to survive in recent times. Yet, in the face of globalization pressures and the increasing number of international students, it remains unclear how cross-cultural diversity should be best addressed in management education. Business schools ar...

Based on a review of multiple literatures, a comprehensive content domain of essential intercultural competencies for effective global leaders is presented. This domain is then used to guide the development of the Global Competencies Inventory (GCI), a 160-item self-report measure that assesses the degree to which individuals possess the intercultu...

Grounded in institutional theory, this study investigates the differential adoption, internalization, and effectiveness of high- investment HR values by indigenous companies and by subsidiaries of U.S. firms located throughout South Asia. Results suggest that MNC subsidiaries have a higher rate of adoption of high-investment HR values compared to i...

Prior empirical investigations in global leadership are typified by a content approach using surveys or interviews. Research on how global leaders perceive and respond to their work context is scant. This investigation focused on global leadership as a form of expert cognition in the domain of global change. We employed applied cognitive task analy...

While scholars have begun to develop the conceptual foundations of global leadership, few attempts have been made to unify the plethora of existing definitions. We argue that the lack of a precise, rigorous and commonly accepted definition of global leadership limits the field's conceptual and empirical progress. Building on recommended practice fo...

We focus on the extreme complexity of the global context in relation to global leadership expertise. We relate how the subjects in a qualitative study of expert cognition in global leaders describe their work context. Our goal is to build a foundation for a theoretical argument as to what distinguishes domestic/traditional leadership from global le...

Global leadership has been frequently heralded by writers and executives as the key to sustained competitive advantage on the part of organizations. In addition, it is clear that the possession of leadership qualities and the display of leader behavior are requirements for individuals attempting to progress in their careers. It is important for asp...

Various economic activities ranging from individual-level consumption to global corporation’s mergers and acquisitions are subject to cultural force (DiMaggio, 1994). Culture refers to “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another … [and] includes systems of values” (Hofstede, 1980: 25). It...

Purpose Research on expatriation and global leadership has been characterized by wide variations in defining what constitutes intercultural competence. Greater progress can be achieved if a comprehensive definition of the intercultural competence domain can be established, particularly with regard to the specific context of global leadership. This...

Research on global leadership, expatriate adjustment and performance, and adaptive performance suggests that tolerance for ambiguity is positively related to performance in the global work environment and in cross-cultural settings. A critique of existing measures of the construct of tolerance for ambiguity is presented, followed by a report of the...

This study examines predictors that lead to effective individual learning of global management competencies on expatriate assignments and the transfer (i.e., the application of those competencies) in new assignments upon repatriation. A structural equation model based on data from 305 Japanese repatriates identifies linkages from organizational sup...

With a growing cadre of people conducting business across the U.S.–Mexico border, there is a need for information about the negotiation orientations they are likely to encounter. While information on negotiating orientations is available, it is often anecdotal, stereotyped, and contradictory. Empirical work that systematically compares Mexico and t...

In this chapter we examine careers in a global context. The field of international human resource management (IHRM) may be divided into two main research streams: (a) the comparison of national cultural variation in HR practices and/or the comparison of national cultural variation in people’s attitudes and behaviors; and (b) the study of internatio...

Technical report for the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale, developed by The Kozai Group, Inc.

Empirical work systematically comparing variations across a range of countries is scarce. A comprehensive framework having the potential to yield comparable information across countries on 12 negotiating tendencies was proposed more than 20 years ago by Weiss and Stripp; however, the framework was never operationalized or empirically tested. A revi...

This paper investigates national and organizational cultural influences among managers in three types of companies: Japanese companies in Japan, South Asian domestic companies and Japanese subsidiaries/joint ventures in South Asia. The findings suggest that a Japanese parent company's culture tends to have a much stronger influence with Japanese co...

A growing body of literature has emphasized the important role of international assignments in helping create a more globally competent management cadre. Indeed, the competencies acquired through international assignments can often be a significant source of competitive advantage for firms. However, for employers to derive benefits from a repatriat...

In this era of increased global cooperation, a growing number of negotiators conduct business in multiple countries and, therefore, need access to a systematic comparison of negotiating tendencies across a wide range of countries. Empirical work systematically comparing variations across a range of cultures is scarce. A comparative analysis of nego...

Liaison positions in an overseas subsidiary represent a vital link to the parent company. Staffing this position constitutes a critical HRM decision. Based on exploratory interviews conducted with personnel managers and foreign employees, we examine an emerging approach to meeting this staffing need which entails hiring non-Japanese as employees of...

With the well-established presence of the global marketplace, the need for managers who are globally competent and have knowledge about global business practices, cultures and networks is increasing. Researchers have shown that firms can acquire such knowledge through their human resources, particularly by building a cadre of repatriate managers wh...

The rise of globalization is accompanied by an increase in alliances and collaboration. While firms are gaining in expertise and cultural sensitivity, some initiatives founder as people fail to fully consider culture’s impact. We adopt a cultural sense-making approach to intercultural collaboration, presenting a framework for analyzing cultural dif...

In this chapter, we show how our understanding of global leadership can be enriched by applying research on expert decision making. We review Klein's model of expert decision making and other research on expert cognition. Then we apply these findings to show how the decision-making processes of expert global leaders might differ from those of novic...

The December 2003 special issue of the Journal of International Management sought to initiate a dialogue on globalization and the role of the global corporation (Bird and Stevens, 2003). We attempt to carry that dialogue forward by responding to several objections that were raised by critics in that issue. Their comments prompted us to take a fresh...

In the more than 25 years since Hofstede's seminal work on culture first appeared, cross-cultural research has explored seemingly all aspects of behavior. With regard to cross-cultural negotiating behaviors, there is an embarrassment of riches. As data continue to accumulate, the search for a comprehensive synthesis seems not only appealing as a me...

One of the major effects of globalization is the creation of a new and identifiable class of persons who belong to an emergent global culture. As membership in this new global culture rises, many critics find a distinct threat to national cultures, resulting quite possibly in their eventual obsolescence. In this paper, we consider the trends drivin...

Difficulties in the Japanese economy for more than a decade have raised questions about its vitality and about the current level of entrepreneurship in Japan. Some scholars ques-tion the presence of entrepreneurial spirit in Japan, while others question the supportiveness of the entrepreneurial environ-ment. We review the historical development of...

The papers that comprise this Special Issue represent a variety of attempts at exploring the potential contributions to careers scholarship that might emerge from applying concepts and models from the so-called "new sciences," a term widely used to denote a large area of enquiry in the physical and complexity sciences. This article introduces the s...

Much of our cross-cultural training and research occurs within the framework of bipolar cultural dimensions. While this sophisticated stereotyping is helpful to a certain degree, it does not convey the complexity found within cultures. People working across cultures are frequently surprised by cultural paradoxes that do not seem to fit the descript...

This article outlines a typology of approaches to the design of international human resource management (HRM) systems in multinational corporations based on a ten-year study of Japanese affiliates in the United States, Europe, and Asia. After outlining four different approaches based on the dimensions of parent company imprint, problem attribution,...

This paper examines the compensation of CEOs of large, publicly held Japanese firms. Our findings suggest that CEO pay in Japan is determined by a complex mix of organizational, individual, and economic factors. Specifically, our findings indicate that CEO pay is driven strongly by a CEO's tenure in a firm, as well as by a firm's size and capital s...

For much of the history of international business, academics have focused on the foreign direct investment decision. While the decision to expand overseas is an important one, it is only the first step in a long journey for multinational company (MNC) managers. Setting up the necessary systems for managing the overseas affiliate and ensuring that i...

This study examines linkages between business strategy and human resource management (HRM) strategy in Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S. It investigates whether or not fit between a subsidiary's business strategy and its HRM strategy is associated with higher performance. The data show that subsidiaries with matched strategies performed better than...

The paper identifies similarities and differences in the emphases and patterns that U.S. and Japanese managers attribute to a set of 22 generic competitive methods. It highlights the different ways that Japanese and American managers combine these methods to form general business strategies. Using factor analyses and smallest space analyses, the st...

This study examines linkages between business strategy and human resource management (HRM) strategy in Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S. It investigates whether or not fit between a subsidiary's business strategy and its HRM strategy is associated with higher performance. The data show that subsidiaries with matched strategies performed better than...

This paper argues for a reconceptualization of careers as repositories of knowledge. Careers are visualized as accumulation of information and knowledge rather than simply progressions of work experiences. This definition is considered in light of theories which characterize organizations as knowledge creators. The paper then applies this perspecti...

This study demonstrates how demography theory can be extended to non-U.S. settings by developing a comprehensive model of factors that vary across nations and that may moderate the link between demographic characteristics and organizational outcomes. We propose that constraints on variation as well as sociocultural and organizational processes mode...

The experience of Japanese corporations can contribute to understanding the dynamics of IT and organization interaction. Key areas of interest included issues of control, decision making, organizational learning, and inter-organizational relations. An investigation of 17 firms concluded that IT may enhance and/or exasperate standard organizational...

A quasi-experiment involving a Japan area studies training program was used to explore a conceptual model of the effects of area studies training programs on factors related to cultural adjustment. Training increased subjects' factual, conceptual and attributional knowledge. Associations were also found between knowledge changes and attitudinal cha...

Students often have little knowledge of and appreciation for the crosscultural andorganizational changes associated with aninternational assignment. This paper describes apersonal computer program designed to make students more sensitive to the adjustments that may be needed due to the cultural differences between home and host cultures. It also ex...

Managers often have little knowledge concerning the cross-cultural and organizational changes they can expect to encounter when they are sent abroad. Describes a personal computer program designed to make managers more sensitive to the adjustments that are needed due to the cultural distance distinguishing the new and their home country. It also ex...

Despite increased participation in international markets, poor performance and failure rates of US. expatriate managers remain high. Major factors contributing to failure include a manager's inability to adjust to the job, inability to adjust to the new culture, or a manger's spouse and family's inability to adjust to the new assignment. Strategies...

This paper explores the sources of Japanese CEO power and the processes through which power is acquired. Japanese CEOs realise two types of power, positional and personal. Positional power derives from strategic contingencies which encompass the office CEO. It also arises from institutional dimensions of the office's role within an organisation and...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1988. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-160). Photocopy.

Abstract Japanese management,practices have received considerable attention and notoriety over the past fifteen years as Westerners have searched for an understanding of Japan's meteoric economic success. As Japan's foreign direct investments have skyrocketed in the last few years attention has shifted from what the Japanese are doing at home to wh...

In this study we investigate the perceptions of US and Japanese managers toward advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) using data collected from l60 American Firms and l25 Japanese firms. We examine the importance managers from these countries attribute to l8 AMTs such as computer-aided design and flexible manufacturing systems in light of two com...

We relate Hofstede's cultural values dimensions to negotiating behavior in six countries using a 12 dimension framework. To test relationships between the cultural values and negotiating dimensions we undertook a systematic review of prior work on negotiating behaviors Japan and five of its major trading partners: the USA, Germany, China, Mexico an...