The End of History and the Last Man

Giant strides in information technology at the turn of the century may have unleashed unreachable goals. With the invention of groupware, people expect to communicate easily with each other and accomplish difficult work even though they are remotely located or rarely overlap in time. Major corporations launch global teams, expecting that technology will make "virtual collocation" possible. Federal research money encourages global science through the establishment of "collaboratories." We review over 10 years of field and laboratory investigations of collocated and noncollocated synchronous group collaborations. In particular, we compare collocated work with remote work as it is possible today and comment on the promise of remote work tomorrow. We focus on the sociotechnical conditions required for effective distance work and bring together the results with four key concepts: common ground, coupling of work, collaboration readiness, and collaboration technology readiness. Groups with high common ground and loosely coupled work, with readiness both for collaboration and collaboration technology, have a chance at succeeding with remote work. Deviations from each of these create strain on the relationships among teammates and require changes in the work or processes of collaboration to succeed. Often they do not succeed because distance still matters.

Distance matters

We enhance the theoretical precision of cultural intelligence (CQ: capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings) by developing and testing a model that posits differential relationships between the four CQ dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural) and three intercultural effectiveness outcomes (cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance in culturally diverse settings). Before testing the model, we describe development and cross-validation (N = 1,360) of the multidimensional cultural intelligence scale (CQS) across samples, time and country. We then describe three substantive studies (N = 794) in field and educational development settings across two national contexts, the USA and Singapore. The results demonstrate a consistent pattern of relationships where metacognitive CQ and cognitive CQ predicted cultural judgment and decision making; motivational CQ and behavioural CQ predicted cultural adaptation; and metacognitive CQ and behavioural CQ predicted task performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our model and findings.

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Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making, Cultural Adaptation and Task Performance

The third way: the renewal of social democracy

“Culture and personality” was a focus of anthropology and psychology in the first half of the 20th century. It was concerned with traditional and preliterate societies and drew many of its constructs from psychoanalysis. In this article, we note that taxonomies of personality traits and cultural values developed independently since 1980 have created new possibilities for exploring the topic. The Five-Factor Model of personality is a universally valid taxonomy of traits. The IBM study (conducted by Hofstede) dimensions of culture represent a well-validated operationalization of differences between cultures as manifested in dominant value systems. In reanalyses of recently reported data, mean personality scores from 33 countries were significantly and substantially correlated with culture dimension scores. We discuss environmental and temperamental explanations for these associations and suggest directions for future research, including replications, experimental simulations, acculturation studies, and rese...

Personality and Culture Revisited: Linking Traits and Dimensions of Culture:

Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business

The British National Health Service (NHS) has experienced various phases of reform and reorganisation during the last 15 years. During this time it has been suggested that the role of the patient is analogous to that of the consumer. Meanwhile there has been increasing application of the techniques of health economics. This paper examines the rationale for these developments, placing them in wide historial context, and arguing that far from being a passive consumer of pre‐packed healthcare, patients ought to be considered as partners in a continuing process of inquiry, in accordance with John Dewey’s philosophy of instrumentalism. As a result it is argued that the present commodification of healthcare in the UK should be halted, in order to preserve and build on the achievements of the NHS.

Are patients really consumers

An important challenge for the future is focusing on sustainability in life and business. The three elements of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), defined in 17 factors by the United Nations (UN) as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), may, therefore, be the main drivers of business competitiveness and opportunity recognition. The main aim of the article is to identify the awareness level of sustainability and sustainable development goals in the context of business opportunity areas by analysing the results of a survey of organisations in six countries (Finland, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Spain, and Turkey). A multilingual questionnaire, administered in six participating countries, was used as a collection tool to determine the organisation’s level of awareness regarding the SDGs. A research questionnaire was filled in by 238 respondents, providing a cross-cultural view of their attitudes, knowledge, and future interest in sustainability and the SDGs. The obtained results indicate differences in the approach to sustainability issues, the scope of knowledge, interest, competencies in sustainable development and SDGs, and the content of implementation of sustainability and SDGs in organisations in different sectors, regions and countries. Further statistical evaluation of the research hypotheses states the significant relationship between the two variables: sustainable strategy and the designation of a responsible employee in each organisation rs = 0.677 (α = 0.05). It is essential to eliminate the gap in the cross-cultural approach and knowledge in engaging with sustainable strategy and its implementation in current and future organisation activities in the context of sustainability and SDGs, in order to enhance opportunities for the growth of sustainability-focused entrepreneurship across different sectors and countries.

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Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Business Opportunity Recognition: Analysis of an Awareness Questionnaire among Organisations

The 80th anniversary of the birth of Douglas Fitzgerald Dowd was in December 1999. His long and distinguished career has been characterized by a fruitful marriage of scholarship and activism. Firmly on the political Left, Dowd belongs within an indigenous American tradition of dissenting radicalism whose most famous-perhaps notorious-representatives are Thorstein Veblen and C. Wright Mills. Taking care neither to \"mumble\" like the former nor \"shout\" like the latter,l Dowd has been an articulate and persistent critic of the American experience for more than 40 years, engaging both students and the wider public. In 1997, he published his semiautobiographical economic history of twentieth-century America [Dowd 1997a]. It exemplifies Dowd's scholarly engagement in public life, meshing together the personal, the professional, and the political. Dowd is among the now dwindling number of critical public intellectuals willing to engage in current controversy with the aim of enfranchizing those for whom the political process would remain otherwise remote and even irrelevant. This distinguishes his political economics from a typical enlightened liberalism, which would attend primarily to economic needs without due consideration of power relations or other cultural factors. But he has also been careful not to faU into the trap that afflicts many on the Left, often with disastrous consequences--mistaking arrogance for moral superiority and/or scientific exactitude. His socialist humanism mirrors that of Tony Benn and E. P. Thompson in British politics. Of course, Dowd has been informed by the uniquely American experience, and he has, in tum, attempted to use that experience to contribute to the broadening and deepening of democracy in the United States. His political economic philosophy be-

Michael Keaney

Papers

Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business

Are patients really consumers

Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Business Opportunity Recognition: Analysis of an Awareness Questionnaire among Organisations

The Radical Political Economics of Douglas F. Dowd

Book Review: Social Democracy, Laissez-faire, and the “Third Way” of Capitalist Development: