West Meets East Summary

Article 8

Nam, K., Cho, Y. & Lee, M. (2014). West Meets East? Identifying the Gap in Current Cross-Cultural Training Research. Human Resource Development Review, 13(1), 36-57.

The authors provided an examination of current studies and papers relating to CCT by identifying the major themes discussed and emerging concerns to be addressed. An integrative literature review method was adopted and the authors limited their review to 42 studies that directly relate to CCT.

The authors found several major themes on CCT literature including theories and conceptual frameworks (cultural value framework, social learning theory, etc.), expatriate adjustment, CCT method and the effectiveness of CCT. Concerns were raised nonetheless, regarding the lack

A. & Harrison, J. A. (2013). The Influence of Cross-cultural Differences on Job Interview Decisions. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(18), 3512-3533.

This article provides an examination, using past literature, of the interview process through the lens of Hofstede’s framework of national culture (Hofstede, 2001) and how unintentional discrimination occurs against foreign job applicants. The authors aimed to utilise this paper to explore the relationship between cultural differences and applicants’ performance in job interviews, an understudied area as previous literature focused on more obvious employment barriers such as recognition of foreign work experience, credentials and so forth.

The authors concluded that cultural differences between interviewers and interviewees increases potential misunderstandings and misinterpretations, therefore resulting in poor ratings for foreign job applicants. It is also noted in the article that misunderstandings are attributed to both parties involved. Hence, while the responsibility to overcome cultural barriers to compete with local applicants are on the foreign applicants themselves, organisations bears the onus to provide cross-cultural training for interviewers to better interact with foreign applicants. It is evident that the authors conducted extensive research relating to the topic and clearly explained the effects of culture on the interview process. Despite of that, there is a lack

Organisations should implement CCT for employees, to prepare them for interactions with people from different cultures. In developing successful CCT programs, HR personnel may refer to available studies (e.g. Nam, Cho & Lee, 2014; Wurtz, 2014) to achieve the greatest results. Foreign employees must also be proactive in understanding or perhaps alter their behaviours to local norms to avoid conflicts and not simply rely on organisational efforts.

Several papers have proposed that different views on HR affects the development and implementation of cross-cultural management policies (Alcazar, Fernandez & Gardey, 2013; Bonache, Trullen & Sanchez, 2012). While the universalist approach where a best HR policy exists for implementation may be applicable in the past, the influence of culture due to globalisation means that HR policies must now be altered and modified to fit different cultural context as the needs of people