Richard W. Brislin’s research while affiliated with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and other places

The term “sojourner” refers to an individual who travels to another culture for a specified period of time to achieve a particular goal. Sojourners do not intend to permanently settle in another culture and plan to return to their culture of origin after completing the goals of their journey. Much of the research on sojourners has focused on the topics of acculturation, adaptation, and adjustment. All three involve continuing processes that result in changes in the sojourners in response to contact with a different culture. A number of individual- and societal-level factors may influence these processes, resulting in the experience of greater positive outcomes or greater challenges. If sojourners embrace the challenges of intercultural experiences, acculturation, adaptation, and adjustment, there are benefits that may await them. To optimize sojourners' intercultural experiences, a variety of cross-cultural training and education programs have been designed and advocated, and these have been documented to produce positive outcomes.

In recent years, a growing number of scientific careers have been brought down by scientists' failure to satisfactorily confront ethical challenges. Scientists need to learn early on what constitutes acceptable ethical behavior in their professions. Ethical Challenges in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences encourages readers to engage in discussions of the diverse ethical dilemmas encountered by behavioral and brain scientists - allowing scientists to reflect on ethical issues before potentially confronting them. Each chapter is authored by a prominent scientist, who describes a dilemma, how it was resolved, and what the scientist would do differently if confronted with the situation again. Featuring commentary throughout and a culmination of opinions and experiences shared by leaders in the field, the goal of this book is not to provide 'correct' answers to real-world ethical dilemmas. Instead, authors pose the dilemmas, discuss their experiences and viewpoints on them, and speculate on alternative reactions to the issues.

Although a variety of terms have been used to conceptualize and define power across various disciplines, the most traditional and prevailing conception views power in terms of a potential to influence others. In everyday language, power refers to getting one's own way, to having “clout.” Power permeates various aspects of human existence, such as family, friends, jobs, and community. Power differentiation appears to be a universal factor of social life driving the functioning of social institutions. The need for power is one of the basic motivators of individual behavior. In a seminal cross-cultural study involving 20 societies, identified power as one of 10 universal individual values or principles guiding individual selection and evaluation of behavior or events. Individuals who value power endorse social status and prestige, and power differentiation, as well as control and dominance over people. Research on power identified a variety of sources of power as well as a number of outcomes of power across individual and cultural levels of analysis, which we discuss below. Keywords: social influence; power-distance; cultural values

The construct of cultural intelligence has recently been introduced to the management literature as an individual difference that may predict effectiveness and a variety of interpersonal behavior in the global business environment. This construct has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross-cultural interactions. However, progress has been limited by the adequacy of existing measures. In this chapter, we describe the development and preliminary validation of a web-based assessment of cultural intelligence based on our conceptualization of cultural intelligence. Full-text is available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S1535-1203(2012)0000007011

Cultural intelligence (CQ) represents advancement in the area of international human resources management and cross-cultural training. An experiential approach to CQ training is developed and analyzed. A diverse, multicultural group of over 370 participated. General self-efficacy and contextual aspects related to Contact Theory were found to be significant to training outcomes in CQ development. In crafting the most effective CQ training and education, organizations and international human resources staff can benefit from understanding individual and contextual influences. Our experiential approach to CQ education appears to hold promise and adds to the literature by producing a specific approach.

As Japan enters the new century, pending workforce shortages – a function of low birth rates and an aging population – increase the need to address gender issues in organizations. Throughout the past four decades, the number of female workers in Japan has been growing, although full-time female participation in the Japanese workforce remains below the levels of some other industrialized nations. Despite the growing importance that the Japanese female labor force is expected to play, relatively little is known about women's attitudes toward work motivation in Japan. Using a two-factor, Herzberg intrinsic/extrinsic approach to motivation, we examine the applicability of such a model in Japan, and compare the attitudes of female and male workers, as well as management and non-management. Our findings include: (1) support for the applicability of a Herzberg, two-factor model in Japan; (2) Japanese men in the workforce tending to value intrinsic motivators more than extrinsic factors; (3) female workers in Japan rating extrinsic factors higher than their male counterparts; and (4) managers' opinions of what motivates employees not constituting a refined match to those of female employees, especially with respect to extrinsic motivation. In multi-gender Japanese organizations, management will potentially benefit from a better understanding and functional integration of important gender nuances into their motivation strategies.

The construct of cultural intelligence, recently introduced to the management literature, has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross cultural interactions. However, at present, no generally accepted definition or operationalization of this nascent construct exists. In this article, we develop a conceptualization of cultural intelligence that addresses a number of important limitations of previous definitions. We present a concise definition of cultural intelligence as a system of interacting abilities, describe how these elements interact to produce culturally intelligent behavior, and then identify measurement implications. Full-text is available from: http://ccm.sagepub.com/content/8/2/123 or by contacting one of the authors

The results of this study suggest that marketing strategies need to be adjusted to changing cultures. Culture affects marketing decisions regarding product, price, promotion and place (the 4 Ps). Many marketing studies have been reported based on Hofstede's seminal work on national culture (1980). Marketing managers need to be cautious about assuming the validity of the Anglo cluster equating the cultures of the United States (U.S.) and Canada. We should recognize that national cultures are changing in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, as well as most other countries in the world. Our findings for a very recent sample of people attending executive and MBA programs would seem to apply to the upwardly-mobile business class. Contrary to the ubiquitous Hofstede data found in textbooks, we found no significant differences in Power Distance between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Our findings regarding differences in Uncertainty Avoidance show that Mexico did not have a significantly higher mean than the U.S., but that the U.S. had a higher mean than Canada. The U.S. and Canada did not differ significantly on Individualism/Collectivism. Our results suggest that caution should be taken in automatically assuming cultural parity between the U.S. and Canada and that established cultural positions between the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member nations may be changing.

Major social changes of the twentieth century include international air travel, global business expansion, increased migration across national boundaries, and recognition of the civil rights of various minority groups. This means that individuals will frequently come into contact with people from other nations and from other cultural groups within a large and diverse nation such as the United States or Canada. When people consciously prepare for such contact, they may benefit from intercultural communication training programs.