rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Journal of Intercultural Managementhttps://sciendo.com/journal/JOIMhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64722598215d2f6c89dbd71c/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/JOIM140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>The aim of the article is to verify the concept of whistleblowing, taking into account the literature on the subject and the EU Directive 2019/1937 and its understanding by Polish and Ukrainian respondents, i.e. those who belong to the EU and those who aspire to it and have grown up in different cultures.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>The research analysed literature in English and used qualitative methods in the form of an in-depth individual interview with Polish and Ukrainian managers.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>The research revealed that the understanding of whistleblowing in EU Directive 2019/1937 reflects years of discussion and goes beyond the original understanding of the term. Respondents understand the advantages and drawbacks of internal and external whistleblowing, the anonymity of the whistleblower and their position in the organisation.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Originality/Value</title> <p>The article clarifies the concept of a whistleblower and explains the problems with its interpretation and implementation, allowing for further discussion on its topic in a reliable way. The understanding of whistleblowing contained in the EU Directive and the respondents’ concerns are relevant to the implementation of the Directive, especially in areas that concern the whistleblower’s reliability and anonymity.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>Further research should be conducted among EU members and candidates for EU structures. Quantitative research will determine the acceptance of the issue and indicate the difficulties of implementation. Further research should focus on the reliability of non-employed whistleblowers and their anonymity.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00082023-10-12T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>This paper aims at uncovering the hampering and facilitating factors in intercultural communication that professionals encounter in their business relationships.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>The data collection process involved conducting individual interviews and two rounds of focus groups with professionals who shared their experiences in working with another culture. The transcripts were analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2012) with the assistance of Atlas.ti 9.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>The key challenges that emerged were differences in communication styles: too direct versus too indirect; misunderstandings and misconceptions when communicating in non-native languages; differences in business customs, such as separating business from private life versus blurred business and personal relationships; differences in decision-making and stereotyping.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value Added</title> <p>We offer a new perspective about existing models and theories of intercultural dimensions, highlighting the risks they entail when superficially generalized. Our paper contributes to professional practice by illustrating how language, differences in the communication style, business etiquette and stereotyping can prevent successful interactions. We show that business English may facilitate international communication but may easily become a source of misinterpretation.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>Intercultural flexibility can play a fundamental role in contextualizing communication and providing true meaning to businesses exchanges. Adjusting language, focusing on building trustful relationships and creating alignment processes can all be instrumental for more effective and successful business communication. Future research with business professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds would enrich our understanding of intercultural business communication.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00062023-10-12T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>The aim of the article is to present two issues; the concept of sustainability and the style of organisational leadership. The authors‘ goal is to demonstrate that a participative management style supports the implementation of the concept of organisational sustainability.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>The research method used to achieve the objective is a critical analysis of the literature, an analysis of secondary research and a review of good practice.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>As the presented examples of the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in specific companies show, the implementation of this type of idea is definitely conducive to the selection of a participative style of leadership.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value Added</title> <p>Active participation of subordinates in shaping the sustainable development strategy in the organisation and their awareness of the real influence on the vision is realised, to a very large extent determines the success of achieving the goals set by the leader (and worked out together with subordinates).</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>It is recommended to create a vision, according to which the company operates in the spirit of sustainable development, and to enable subordinates to actively participate in the implementation of the strategy and the systematic evaluation of its results.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00052023-10-12T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>The virtualization of the aesthetic experience influences the scope of artistry and creativity of visual artwork and the quality of participation in visual arts. Due to variances in perception qualities between individuals belonging to particular generations, this article aims to assess the impact of the participation form (physical/traditional or digital) on the aesthetic situation of recipients from certain generations. The quality of participation in visual arts was assessed using ten criteria.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>Quantitative data exploration from a survey undertaken using a digital instrument provided by SURVIO based on a worldwide sample from 22 countries (n = 87). Due to the relatively ephemeric character of the research problem, an additional qualitative analysis of the statistical results was performed.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>The participation form (online or in-real) in visual arts determines participation quality level of the aesthetic situation of particular generations. Significant differences exist among generations in online and in-real participation in visual arts and between particular forms of participation. This article did not look for the reasons for these differences; only additional comparative qualitative research can try to reveal them.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value Added</title> <p>It is the first analysis of the impact of digitalization of visual arts from the perspective of visual arts consumers’ behavior based on the components of aesthetic situation theory.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Implications</title> <p>The research results should be of interest to: 1) Visual arts creators looking for the optimal way of distributing artworks among recipients from different generations; 2) Visual arts managers and marketers for a multi-layered understanding of generation-diversified visual arts recipients’ perspectives and their preferences about participation in visual arts in-real or digitally; 3) Visual arts customers (recipients) who wish to compare their own views about participating in visual arts with those of other recipients belonging to certain generations.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00072023-10-12T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objectives</title> <p>The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been a significant focus of environmental, social and governance sustainability research. Diversity management is one of the challenges faced by corporate governance in achieving SDG 4, 5, 8, and 10. However, rapid demographic changes in the global workforce create significant challenges for human resource development professionals when focusing on diversity management. This paper aims to define the different perspectives of diversity management to avoid sustainability distortions such as social washing and pinkwashing, which promote the perception that policies or products of a given company are socially responsible.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>The analysis of the existing literature can provide the information necessary to answer the research questions using rigorous scientific research methods. In the present study bibliometric analysis was used to enable a thorough and reliable analysis of knowledge on the topic and the identification of future progress. Bibliometric analysis was used to investigate the final pool of 126 peer-reviewed articles.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>Contributions include advancing the understanding of diversity management, highlighting the dominance of communication bias, and strengthening the connection between social sustainability and the individual by identifying social exchange theory as a tool for explaining the ongoing changes in corporate governance.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value added</title> <p>The paper aims to answer research questions related to the journals relevant to the study of diversity management, the geographical structure of the research flow on diversity management, and the possible implications for future research on this topic.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>In light of the clusters identified, it is recommended that forthcoming researchers explore the fitting theories that can be used to elucidate the phenomenon of diversity management. In addition, interdisciplinary research can facilitate a deeper understanding of issues concerning identity and gender, thereby enhancing the knowledge of diversity among managers. The paper recommends that future studies emphasize the differences in diversity management between national and multinational companies expanding the knowledge by conducting multiple case studies.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00022023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Purpose</title> <p>This study aims to verify the efficiency of economic, organisational, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability performance.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>Disclosure analysis and 2-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) examining the efficiency of sustainability engagement of listed banks in Poland, Croatia, and Romania disclosed in the annual and CSR/sustainability reports for 2015–2018.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>There are apparent differences between the efficiency of sustainability engagement in the banking sectors of the three countries examined in the study. Banking sectors in all these countries are on different stages of their paths to value creation via the efficiency of sustainability engagement.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Practical implications</title> <p>The results of this study may help compare sustainability engagement and understanding of the further directions of sustainable development in the banking sector in both the analysed and other countries, as well as in other institutions from other sectors. These results may be important for the decision-makers in determining the actions focused on improving efficiency on the way to value creation.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Originality/value</title> <p>Since only a limited number of studies examine the efficiency of sustainability engagement, especially in CEE countries, little is known about value creation, understood as the efficient use of the resources and activities concerning sustainability. This paper contributes to filling in this gap. It also proposes an alternative approach, analysing the relationship between sustainability engagement and value creation based on efficiency rather than on the direct impact on financial results giving ambiguous results. This approach may be extended to different sectors and other countries.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00042023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>This study derives from the postulates of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein &amp; Ajzen, 1975) and the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) to explore the impact of vloggers on customers interested in beauty products. Particularly, this study examines whether the attitude toward vlogger’s recommendations impacts the attitude toward the brand advertisement, and what their influence on consumers’ purchase intention is.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>This study applies a cross-sectional mono method of quantitative analysis. The data collection was assisted with the use of survey by questionnaire built on Qualtrics and distributed in China. We use partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse the data and test the proposed hypothesis.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>Vloggers have a considerable impact on customer perceptions due to their proximity to customers who often portray vloggers as ‘friends’ and value their opinions. This study shows that it is not the perceived usefulness of shared information or vloggers trustworthiness that matter when forming the followers’ attitude towards vloggers, but more attention should be given to information quality and the perceived benefits of information derived from vlogs. The strongest relationship in this study showed to be the one between the attitude towards a vlogger and the attitude towards a brand, which emphasizes the importance that content creators can have in building brand awareness.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value added</title> <p>This article provides a clear picture on exploring the impact of vloggers on customer perceptions. The results of the research can be used to guide companies on how to use vloggers in their marketing campaigns.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>Considering the growth of social media and the various forms of content available, the companies should know how to apply those new media in their marketing strategies. As the importance of traditional media seems to decline, mostly among younger generations, those new medias are growing, and their application brings new opportunities and challenges.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00012023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <sec><title style='display:none'>Objective</title> <p>This paper examines the association between audit committee characteristics and the cost of debt, with the aim of gaining new insights on how this corporate governance mechanism contributes to the reduction of debt costs.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Methodology</title> <p>Using a sample of FTSE 100 companies listed in 2018 and 2019, our study investigates how audit composition and characteristics, such as financial and industry expertise, gender, tenure and diligence affect audit committees’ oversight role, and therefore the impact on the companies’ level of risk and the cost of debt.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Findings</title> <p>The results show that overall audit committee’s characteristics do not impact the corporate cost of debt, except for the gender of the audit committee’s chair. Companies with audit committees managed by a chairwoman experience a lower cost of debt. The results also confirm that external auditors influence the cost of debt. As additional test, we conducted a principal component analysis to construct a corporate governance index of audit committee´s characteristics, and we obtained similar results. Overall, the study results seem to suggest that the cost of debt is more significantly influenced by external auditors than by the characteristics of the audit committee.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Value Added</title> <p>This paper contributes to the literature on corporate governance by showing how audit committees characteristics affect the cost of debt.</p> </sec> <sec><title style='display:none'>Recommendations</title> <p>This study improves the understanding of the way debtholders may assess audit committee’s characteristics and auditors when assessing companies’ financial risk and the corporate cost of debt.</p> </sec> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/joim-2023-00032023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0018<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: The purpose of the article is to study current trends in the field of language policy.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: Analysis of normative documents concerning the teaching of foreign languages in the European Union</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: The main trends of language policy are life-long learning, students’ mobility, multilingualism, using English as lingua franca, the use of information and communication technologies for the formation of foreign language competence.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: Analysis of the current trends in the development of foreign language competence in higher education.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: The study of world trends in the training of specialists in general and language policy in particular.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00182018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0021<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: Tourist regions are characterized by a very high complexity and micro-enterprises are the largest group of entities which determine the competitiveness of the destination. However, management of such businesses has a strong specificity. The goal of this paper is to identify the capabilities of managing competitiveness and marketing of this group of entities.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: Literature review, examining and discussing the current knowledge regarding the competitiveness of family tourist micro-enterprises.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: On the one hand, small companies have significant limitations compared to larger companies. However, the family nature of the company allows for high flexibility of management. Decisions can usually be made faster and easier, which means that they are able to adapt their offer to the expectations of customers faster and better than large entities. Also, an atmosphere of hospitality and friendship can be easily created. What is more, cooperation with other local entities should result in the ability to offer higher value to consumers.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: Authors, on the bases of literature review have proposed a model that shows relations as an element of building competitiveness of a family tourist micro-enterprises. It appears that these firms have unique opportunities to develop relationships with their customers. Cooperation, quality and communication have been described as key variables responsible for this process, that should result in generating the benefits of re-selecting the services of the company as well as giving them positive recommendations.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: In the area of family businesses in tourism, there is still lack of empirical studies. That is why, the issues presented in this work should be subjected to empirical verification. Future research should concentrate on the specificity of managing a tourist family micro-enterprise and on possible sources of competitive advantage of a tourist family micro-enterprise in the eyes of customers. Especially, described model should be empirically verified.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00212018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0023<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: Since more diverse audiences attend universities, nowadays, more advanced educational approaches are required. The current study explores the role of culture of learning transformations in facing this challenge. We employ the notion of ‘cultures of learning’ to draw attention to the socio-cultural, sustainable and competence-oriented aspects of key educational practices. We are focusing on advances in students’ learning-culture, which are implemented at the university: interdisciplinary, transformative sustainability learning and experiential learning.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: The paper considers practical issues related to the educational approaches, their benefits and limitations.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: The results of the observations indicated that students’ learning culture was highly affected by educational approaches.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: We highlight that mutual relations exist between learning-culture and teaching-culture and exactly the student-teacher dialogue should be changed to transform traditional learning in higher education.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: Interdisciplinarity and creativity can serve as the key factors in establishing a productive educational cycle that fosters a learning-culture based on students’ needs and values consideration.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00232018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0022<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: The article deals with the question of educational leadership and the understanding of that notion. That problem is relevant in the discussions on contemporary education, which is demonstrated by numerous publications concerning such areas as pedagogy, sociology of education or management. The attributes ascribed to an educational leader (personality traits, attitudes, values, etc.) are varied and arise from different experience of the authors and the applied research perspectives. The article presents the results of studies describing the characteristics of an ideal educational leader.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: The aim of the presented studies was to attempt to identify the set of traits ascribed to a contemporary educational leader and determine to what extent the respondents identify those traits as the ones they themselves possess. The studies have been based on the opinions and experience of the participants in the education system in Poland – graduates of senior secondary schools (2017). As the analysis of relevant literature on the subject does not allow one to present a uniform set of qualities of an ideal educational leader, the authors of the presented studies have selected 34 traits that are most frequently mentioned in scientific papers. Subsequently, during the first stage of the studies, a group of 22 experts was asked to select 17 descriptive categories (half of the presented set) that, in their view, most accurately describe an ideal educational leader. Afterwards, a sample of 108 respondents (graduates) was provided with a survey questionnaire where, using a five-point Likert scale, the participants evaluated the occurrence of a given trait/quality in the following contexts: A pedagogue – an ideal leader; A pedagogue – a leader from the past; Self-assessment with respect to a degree of possession of the listed qualities. The studies were conducted in Google Forms technology with the randomisation of all the studied qualities of a leader for each of the questions and each of the respondents. The constructed non-random purposive sample consisted of the graduates of general education, technical and vocational senior secondary schools from cities with population exceeding 500,000 inhabitants. Men constituted 27.8% of the sample.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: According to the respondents, the key traits in this case (a pedagogue – an ideal leader) included the ability to motivate others, psychological and pedagogical sensitivity and being a moral authority. The results relating to the educational leader from the past show a slightly different order of the key qualities resulting from the respondents’ own experience. The first place was taken by high intellectual capabilities. It was followed by the ability to motivate others and being a moral authority. When conducting self-assessment with respect to the listed leadership qualities, the participants indicated that the qualities they possessed to the greatest degree included psychological and pedagogical sensitivity, the ability to interpret other people’s expectations and the ability to plan the necessary changes. The achieved results also show that the averaged ( ) self-assessment regarding the degree of possession of all the leadership qualities in comparison to the qualities ascribed to an ideal leader is lower by 21.97%. At the stage of designing the studies, it may have been expected that more significant differences would be revealed between the imagined ideal type of a leader and the self-assessment of the graduates with respect to leadership predisposition/qualities.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: In summary, the applied quantitative method of measurement allows one to confirm the accuracy of the set of leadership qualities determined on the basis of the relevant literature on the subject. According to the opinions of the graduates taking part in the study (former participants of leadership relationships), it correctly describes an educational leader. That knowledge may have practical application, especially in the conscious building of leadership in the educational environment. This is because it may be assumed that the stronger the correspondence of the set of qualities of an educational leader with the expectations of the followers, the better the chance for the creation of an effective leadership relationship.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: The perspective of the “followers” who have their own individual experience with respect to relationships with “educational leaders” seems to be worth exploring further. The analysis of available publications on the subject in question gives grounds for posing a question to what extent the postulated image of the educational leader has any empirical foundations and to what degree it is rather a speculation or intuition of numerous authors.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00222018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0019<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: The article defines features of formation and development of corporate universities in the USA and Canada.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: The article analyzes the dependence of successful functioning of the corporate universities on the choice of adequate training technologies; explores the essence and potentials of project-based learning as action learning which is focused on personnel development, business development and effective management of changes.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: There is a close relationship between the performance of the functions of the corporate university and the forms, methods, learning technologies that are used in the learning process. Project-based learning is widely used in corporate universities in the United States and Canada; it provides an opportunity to gain managerial experience in real time, solves an important task of personnel development – formation of the ability to learn.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: The results of the research give ground to conclude that the corporate university in the US and Canada is a structural unit of a company, which performs certain functions that promote business efficiency.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: The project topic should be related to current or future changes in the company. The solution of the problem should include diagnosing of the problem, analysis, recommendations, implementation phase, as also cooperation with members of the company.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00192018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0024<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: Analyze of the characteristics and competitive strategies, dimension and structure that allowed Casa Ley to become a family economic group</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: The methods used: critical historical, analytical and descriptive. The following approaches were used: 1) regional, 2) historical and 3) corporate strategies and organizations. The regional approach considers that regional origin is an important factor in the economic and political practices of Mexican entrepreneurs. The second gives more weight to the historical origin and the conditions of emergence to establish the final configuration, the prevailing economic and political practices and the patterns of development of the groups. The third approach addresses the changing organizational structure of large modern corporations and their tendency to adopt more complex management structures and corporate morphologies</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: The main result is the marketing strategies implemented by Casa Ley, such as: introduction of services that add value to the company, creation and diversification of formats, brand creation, centralization of distribution systems and consumption incentives, consolidate the oligopoly structure of the trade sector. The comparative method is established to consider those situations in which the common characteristics of companies are combined in historical circumstances that precede the formation of large companies or groups in Mexico.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: It identifies the commercial strategies that have allowed the Mexican company of the retail sector in Mexico to become a consolidated family economic group.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: The Casa Ley family economic group has been consolidated using successful commercial strategies, limiting its development by not using financial resources that are available in the stock market. Considering the above, it is advisable to use this source of financing available for the business sector.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00242018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0025<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: the present paper aims to explore the main motives behind Cairo bank’s attempts to raise its senior bankers’ level of organizational resilience.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: after gathering and investigating all relevant literature about organizational resilience, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 of the senior bankers who work at Cairo bank at 6 October city, Giza, Egypt. All interviews were conducted in the Arabic language.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: the findings of this study show that senior bankers at Cairo bank, like many other Egyptian classes, struggle in a state of uncertainty and consider it the main motive behind their bank’s attempt to raise their resilience level. The pressure of stakeholders is, to a large extent, present, and there is a thought that fulfilling different societal obligations is a source for economic gains and accordingly, stakeholders’ pressure is a second motive behind raising employees’ organizational resilience. Furthermore, organizational culture adaptability and the tendency to responsively act in line with unpredicted events is a third motive. Finally, senior bankers’ loud voice in calling for continuous grants for education and training has come to be the fourth motive.</p><p><bold>Value added</bold>: the paper is considered the first to qualitatively investigate organizational resilience in Egypt.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: The researchers are of the view that the development of every departmental agenda for needed resilience is a priority for improving organizational capacity. Moreover, reformulating the bank’s values, operations and activities should also be considered to create a harmony between the external threats and the internal duties. Furthermore, there should be also an orientation to redefine the concept of “uncertainty” from time to time to include socio-political and socio-economic types of risk.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00252018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0020<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: The aim of the paper is to explore existing and emerging opportunities for academic mobility and ESL teachers’ professional development, to present the review of theoretical assumptions about intercultural competence, to provide recommendations on using effective strategies at group and individual levels to increase the effectiveness of ESL teachers training in general and intercultural competence formation in particular.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: This paper explores existing and emerging opportunities for academic mobility and ESL teachers’ professional development, presents the review of theoretical assumptions about intercultural competence.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: Effective strategies of intercultural competence formation at group and the individual level were examined.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: The use of theoretical and practical conclusions of this paper would enhance the effectiveness of ESL teachers’ training in general and intercultural competence formation in particular.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: This paper provides recommendations on using effective strategies to achieve successful intercultural communication at group and individual levels.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00202018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0017<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: To propose a model for the creation of selected language practice games that will allow for multilingual families to engage in common activities in order to retain the multiculturalism factor amongst parents and their children.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: Ontological considerations based on sociolinguistic models in accordance with TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) and SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) Models.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: The preservation of this heritage among both children and adults can be achieved by allowing them to engage in various activities, allowing them to acquire multiple languages simultaneously and thus create a sense of national identity.</p><p><bold>Value Added</bold>: The presented methodological considerations are to be used as the basis for the creation of output results in an Erasmus+ financed project carried out at the University of Social Sciences (along with other European partners) entitled Multilingual Families Clubs: Promoting Linguistic and Cultural Heritage of Europe.</p><p><bold>Recommendations</bold>: activities for Polish multilingual speakers need to include those in the following languages: German, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00172018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0026<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p><bold>Objective</bold>: The aim of the research was to construct a theoretical model of competences of managers employed in health care institutions in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship.</p><p><bold>Methodology</bold>: The theoretical list of competences was based on the literature of the subject and the results developed during the workshop session with postgraduate students in the scope of management of healthcare entities. All respondents (266 persons) were health care workers and held managerial positions at various levels of organizations.</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: On the basis of the obtained results it can be stated that in the key competency model of the efficient manager dominates professional competence in the field of organization and management. These competences were also diagnosed with the greatest deficiencies that hinder effective work.</p><p><bold>Value Added:</bold> Results of the research enable the introduction of appropriate curricular content into the educational model of potential healthcare managers, hence improving management quality of medical organizations.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00262018-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0013<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The aim of the article is to present wellness programs as means leading to the creation of culture of health in organizations. The notion of culture of health is becoming increasingly important for companies as statistics show that the number of health-related work problems is steadily increasing. As a result, labor costs are systematically increasing. To tackle this problem, companies began to introduce health and wellness programs to improve the psychophysical health of their employees. The article includes an overview of the concept of health-promoting company culture. It also identifies factors determining its success among employees, defines factors that limit employee participation and presents good practices for disease prevention through employee-oriented programs. This article is based on a literature review, including both: literature and statistical data available in official data bases. In many cases, research confirms the usefulness of wellness programs in the process of building a corporate culture of health. It also shows factors limiting the usability of such programs, which leads to companies being able to develop and improve.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00132018-02-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-0016<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Objective – The main goal of the paper is to determine whether there are any identifiable patterns of HRM perceptions and practices when the factors recognized as the companies’ competitive advantages and results of their performance outcomes are juxtaposed in conjunction with their implications for HRM.</p><p>Methodology – The research was conducted in five Central and Eastern (CE) countries. The data collected from this region is used to provide a broader comparative context (descriptive statistics) as presented in the earlier article in this volume. This second part provides a more detail correlational analyses conducted on the data coming exclusively from local subsidiaries of MNCs operating in Poland.</p><p>Findings - In Poland the higher the appraisal of the quality of workforce and the quality of management as the competitive factors at the same time, the higher the level of decentralization. The correlation analysis in the scope of particular areas of performance evaluation and the ratings of critical subfunctions of HR in Poland allow to identify some general patterns.</p><p>Value added – The research has certain theoretical significance because its results provide some knowledge about the specificity of HRM in local subsidiaries of MNCs operating CE, and particularly exemplifying some regularities within HRM appearing in Poland. Furthermore, it identifies some patterns of HRM perceptions and practices at the local level of MNCs both in CE and Poland, and especially when the factors recognized as competitive advantages of local subsidiaries and the results of performance evaluations of these subsidiaries are reported in conjunction with their implications for HRM. All this makes an empirical contribution to knowledge about SIHRM in MNCs.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/joim-2017-00162018-02-14T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1