UNDERSTANDING BICULTURAL INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONS:
IMPLICATIONS AND OPPORTUNITY
CALL FOR PAPERS
SPECIAL ISSUE
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Guest Editors
David C Thomas, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Mary Yoko Brannen, San Jose Sate University, USA
Cross-cultural management research typically assumes that individuals have
only one cultural profile. However, given the changing patterns in the
world’s workforce it is increasingly possible that more employees and
managers will be bicultural. Biculturals have a dual pattern of
identification with different cultures. They have simultaneous awareness
of being a member of (and often an alien in) two cultures and therefore
typically have more cognitively complex cultural representations than do
monoculturals.
The ability of biculturals to operate within more than one culture raises
a number of interesting questions for cross-cultural management, such as:
• Can the subconscious and non-volitional way in which biculturals
learn a new culture be applied to developing global managers?
• Do biculturals possess unique skills and abilities that allow them
to function more effectively in global business environments?
• Are biculturals better able to cope with the potentially
conflicting organizational identities imposed by the multinational
enterprise?
• Can the way in which biculturals shift from one cultural context
to the other (called cultural frame switching) help to understand how
global managers can choose from a repertoire of behaviors to adapt
appropriately to the cultural context?
• Can the abilities of biculturals be leveraged to make learning and
knowledge transfer across contexts less arduous, and hence facilitate
global innovation?
While interest by psychologists in biculturals is growing rapidly, the
current state of knowledge about bicultural individuals provides more
questions than it does answers for cross-cultural management. This special
issue seeks both conceptual and empirical papers that address the
implications and opportunities presented by this new demographic for
organizations. Manuscripts should be submitted as an e-mail attachment to
Serap Yavuz at
ijccm@ku.edu.tr by 1 October 2008. Additional information
for authors can be found at
http://portal.ku.edu.tr/~ijccm/information_for_contributors.htm.