“Without trust, we can’t really do any work”: workplace trust and communication among expatriates and host nationals

IF 1.9 4区管理学 Q3 MANAGEMENT Cross Cultural & Strategic Management Pub Date : 2024-08-20 DOI:10.1108/ccsm-07-2023-0131

Mizuki H. Wyant, Ioana A. Cionea

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

Scholars acknowledge that trust relationships between expatriates and host nationals are important; however, previous research has demonstrated that one’s culture affects how individuals define trust, which can influence how trust is developed between expatriates and host nationals. In addition, trust can affect communication between expatriates and host nationals in many ways. Therefore, this study examined how US host nationals and Japanese expatriates conceptualized trust in the workplace as well as how trust affected their daily communication.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 32 participants (16 US Americans and 16 Japanese) working in a multinational manufacturing company participated in semi-structured, individual interviews. A modified version of constant comparative analysis was employed to analyze the data.

Findings

Both groups of participants identified competence and skills, teamwork and collaboration, and open/honest communication as defining features of trust in the workplace, although there were some explanations regarding trust that were influenced by participants’ culture. Further, trust between US host nationals and Japanese expatriates affected their communication strategies, such as information flow and mentoring communication.

Originality/value

This study contributes to literature on the relationships between expatriates and host nationals by providing a culturally nuanced understanding of trust in the workplace. Additionally, findings from this study offer practical recommendations for multinational corporations for how to socialize and train their employees to enhance their work experience with one another.

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"没有信任，我们就无法真正开展工作"：外派人员与东道国国民之间的工作场所信任与沟通

目的学者们承认，外派人员与东道国国民之间的信任关系非常重要；然而，以往的研究表明，个人的文化会影响个人对信任的定义，从而影响外派人员与东道国国民之间如何建立信任。此外，信任还会在很多方面影响外派人员与东道国国民之间的交流。因此，本研究探讨了美国东道国国民和日本外派人员如何看待工作场所中的信任概念，以及信任如何影响他们的日常交流。设计/方法/途径在一家跨国制造公司工作的 32 名参与者（16 名美国人和 16 名日本人）参加了半结构化个人访谈。研究结果两组参与者都认为能力和技能、团队精神和协作以及公开/诚实的沟通是工作场所信任的决定性特征，尽管有一些关于信任的解释受到参与者文化的影响。此外，美国东道国国民和日本外派人员之间的信任也影响了他们的沟通策略，如信息流和指导性沟通。此外，本研究的结果还为跨国公司提供了实用建议，即如何对员工进行社交和培训，以增强他们彼此间的工作体验。

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来源期刊

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

12.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Cross Cultural & Strategic Management (CCSM), is dedicated to providing a forum for the publication of high quality cross-cultural and strategic management research in the global context. CCSM is interdisciplinary in nature and welcomes submissions from scholars from international business, management and other disciplines, such as anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology. The goal of CCSM is to publish discerning, theoretically grounded, evidence-based and cutting edge research on issues relevant to all aspects of global management. CCSM is especially interested in theoretical and empirical papers that investigate new and unique ideas and/or are multilevel (micro-meso-macro) and/or are multidisciplinary in nature. Research papers submitted to CCSM are expected to include an answer to the question: What is the contribution of this paper to the literature and the field of international business and managing in the global context? CCSM accepts theoretical/conceptual and empirical papers based on quantitative and qualitative research endeavors that advance our overall knowledge of international business. This includes research that yields positive, neutral or negative findings as long as these studies are based on sound research methodology, and have a good command of the theory/literature that pertains to the phenomena under investigation. These studies should also provide a more in-depth interpretation of the reason(s) for the findings and include more detailed recommendations for future research directions.