Positive intercultural management in the fourth industrial revolution: managing cultural otherness through a paradigm shift

Abstract

The authors argue that a paradigm shift in intercultural management is needed to withdraw from a problem-oriented perspective – stressing the differences and difficulties of intercultural interactions – and foster a solution-oriented, positive psychology perspective, taking PP1.0 and PP2.0, the first and second wave of positive psychology, into account. This Positive Intercultural Management (PIM) perspective, thereby provides new directions to intercultural management during the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The article contributes to filling the void of PIM by demonstrating and promoting the positive, complementary and synergistic experiences in intercultural management interactions. On the basis of negotiated culture and intercultural synergy, the article describes and discusses positive factors contributing to PIM, such as interculturally competent actors; organizational structures such as intercultural tandems; and negotiated processes mediated by boundary spanners. It further addresses previously discussed challenging issues, such as cultural othering and awareness in intercultural management. Practical implications relate to key actors in PIM, such as managers or consultants, who need to change the perspective from problem-focused to solution-orientated PIM in international and global management contexts, in order to steer intercultural negotiation processes so that they promote complementarity and synergy.

Keywords:

• Boundary spanning
• cultural complementarity
• intercultural management
• intercultural synergy
• intercultural tandem/dyads
• negotiated culture
• organizational management
• positive psychology (PP1.0 and PP2.0)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Emic describes a methodical, culture-adapted approach to (inter)cultural research in which researchers take a stand within the system (Pike 1954, Berry 1989). It is about a deeper interpretative understanding of a cultural system. Due to the specificity of situations and behaviours (contextualisation), the culturally specific Emic approach in most cases does not permit a cross-cultural comparison. The opposite, the Etic approach, assumes that compared phenomena are universal, i.e. independent of culture, and that researchers thus take a stand outside the system. Cultural peculiarities are thus largely neglected (Headland, Pike, & Harris. 1990).