Anne-Marie Søderberg presents new article at ‘4th Global Communication Forum’ in China

A paper by professor Anne-Marie Søderberg and professor Verner Worm entitled ‘Chinese and expatriate managers’ narratives on communication and collaboration in subsidiaries in China’ will be presented at the ‘4th Global Communication Forum’ in China. The conference is held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University from the 29th-30th of September under the theme ‘Global Cities in eTimes: Urban Design, Creativity, Collaboration’.

The purpose of the paper is to explore how expatriate and Chinese managers reflect upon and learn from critical, cultural encounters. The paper is based on in-depth interviews in China with 29 expatriate managers and 39 Chinese managers working in Danish, multi-national companies. The interviews revealed that the dominant perspective in international business literature on expatriates and local managers as people living in separate worlds with different values must be revised. In both groups the managers were widely travelled, flexible and open-minded, and not only ready for, but also capable to conduct cross-cultural leadership. Whereas many cross-cultural management studies have focused on differences between Chinese and Western values, this paper provides insight into well-educated Chinese and expatriate managers’ perceptions of similarities and differences and their strategies of coping with them. The findings presented in the paper may be relevant for multinational companies in their selection and development of culturally intelligent expatriate and local managers through global talent management programs as well as mentoring and coaching of expatriates and inpatriates.

The research for the paper is conducted as part of the research programme ‘Cultural Intelligence as a Strategic Resource’. Click here to read the article.