Read the summary and the most important questions on Artikelen SHRM

• 1 Exploring cross-cultural skills for expatriate managers from chinese multinationals: congruence and contextualization

• What was the purpose of the article?

  To research whether international managers always need the same set of skills in different host countries. This article was focused on Chinese multinationals, due to the focus of previous research was Western expetriates.

• 1.1 Learning perspective

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• What is expetriate adjustment?

  The degree to which expatriates are psychologically familiar with the new environment and behaviour of the new culture.

• What is social learning theory? And what are the two states that are distinguished?

  Social learning theory is used to explain how acquisition and adaption of personal skills come about. It states individual learning as an internal process, but does not sufficiently capture the external contextual factors. 
  
  Learning is a central process of behavioural change and learning is a continuous interacting process.

• 1.2 Contextual perspective of cross-cultural skills

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• What are the main cultural factors that influence expatriate work behaviour?

  Collectivism-individualism ; power-distance
  Political stability and institutional maturity could affect Chinese expatriates.

• What was the main cause of the cross cultural work conflicts regarding Chinese expatriates?

  Authorian leadership style.

• 1.3 Findings

• What was the cause of the difference in importance of the skills?

  Contextual factors.

• What were the most common findings of Chinese expatriates, regarding the four cross-cultural skills?(difference between Western and Chinese) - Self-maintenance - Interpersonal skills- Perceptual skills - Communication skills

  Self-maintenance;
  
  Chinese had a lack of understanding the culture.
  
  Interpersonal skills;
  
  Chinese; work-center approach & high-power distance
  western: work-life balance
  
  Perceptual skills;
  Chinese: authorian leadership skills & Guanxi
  western: democratic leadership skills
  
  Communication skills;
  Chinese: indirect communication
  western: direct communication

• 1.4 Discussion and conclusion

• What were the two most important conclusions of the article?

  1. Managers need to learn specific skills depending on the country. E.g. Those working in Africa may need more self-maintenance skills while those working in Europe need more perceptual, interpersonal, and communication skills. 
  
  2. Expatriates need to realize the differences in terms of language, power-distance, and work habits. Those influence performance.

• What could Chinese expatriates do in order to develop their cross-cultural skills and have better cross-cultural adjustment?

  They need to design and deliver pre-departure and post-departure training programs. In particular host-language training is needed and also cultural-specific knowledge is needed.

• 2 Performance appraisal

• What was the purpose of the performance evaluation/appraisal article?

  The purpose was developing an effective Strenght-based performance appraisal model using positive psychology. The cause of this research was the finding that typical performanc appraisals ruined relationships rather and did not lead to performance improvement.