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"This book systematically investigates intercultural experiences of Polish managers and specialists delegated by their multinational company (MNC) on an international assignment to China. The book employs narrative inquiry to explore language, intercultural communication, collaboration, learning, and expatriate adjustment in the MNC. This approach offers new insights into intercultural experiences, communication, and cultural challenges faced by an under-researched group of professionals exposed to intensive collaborations with the local managers and employees. The findings also illustrate how the expatriates learned to better navigate the multicultural and multilingual business context and what factors facilitated and inhibited their learning and adjustment. Encouraging the qualitative, context-sensitive examination of expatriate-local personnel interactions, the book will be an invaluable source for scholars and practitioners interested in, among others, novel approaches to investigating language and intercultural communication in international business, cross-cultural management, qualitative cross-cultural research, as well as for lecturers and students interested in Central Europe and China"--

This study explored relationships between an individualism-collectivism orientation as well as communal orientation and the perceptions of Chinese employees (n = 20) from an MNC of intercultural communication. On the basis of previous research, we hypothesised that this group of employees would display a tendency to focus their attention on the actions, knowledge and needs of their co-workers. To verify this hypothesis, the employees were surveyed in a Chinese subsidiary of a European top manufacturing company. We administered Individualism and Collectivism Scale, Communal Orientation Scale and an original questionnaire survey collecting data about participants' opinions of cultural diversity, communication problems, and stereotypes in intercultural interactions. A correlation analysis showed that although collectivists expressed positive attitudes to cultural diversity, they accentuated a need for respecting their own cultural values. Both collectivists and communally-oriented employees were not emotionally involved in communication with co-workers from other cultures. Whilst collectivism was moderately associated with focusing on norms at a workplace, communal orientation was proven to be related to maintaining and regulating relationships within a professional group.

This study examines the personal opinions of Chinese employees working in a multicultural environment on the relationship between cultural diversity and the efficacy of their communication in a multicultural environment. To better understand the connection between cultural background and efficient business communication, we conducted a questionnaire survey in 2014 among 20 employees from a Chinese subsidiary of a European top global manufacturing company. Analyses showed that even if the respondents expressed negative effects of cultural differences on communication, they also manifested positive attitudes toward intercultural interactions. Moreover, ignoring or even disrespecting the different cultural values of interactants were regarded as basic barriers in intercultural communication, and such barriers can be avoided when a different cultural background is respected. Although cultural differences were considered to hinder the respondents' performance and often to be a source of dissatisfaction, they did not discourage them from entering into intercultural communication.

The key problem in studies of marketing objects (e.g., brands, political parties) is the lack of agreement on the universal dimensions through which such objects are perceived, as well as on methodologies allowing their identification. As a result, researchers often use structural models (and instruments) that lack ecological validity. We offer a solution to that problem by presenting a methodology that draws on lexical research and which has allowed researchers to establish universal dimensions of personality perception in psychology. By discussing the theoretical and methodological tenets of the multilevel lexical approach to exploring images of marketing objects, we also overcome another problem of neglecting the hierarchical structure of the phenomena and data.

Research linking parental practices with children's social development yields inconsistent results, warranting culture-sensitive models to explain the various trajectories of child development. This study explores disciplinary practices and perceptions of disciplinary situations among nine Chinese mothers. Thematic analysis of interview data refined a model of parental practices that considers Chinese mothers' references to emotions and various strategies used in discussions with their children. Recurring cultural patterns focused on the child's emotions and positioned the child as a central figure. Moreover, the model revealed that constructing the child as a mature or immature agent reflected the transformation model of social development, while self-perceptions as a dominant agent in the parent-child relationship suggested traditional aspects of Chinese culture in their concept of upbringing. Future research could validate this model on Chinese families functioning in diverse cultural environments, as well as multicultural and expatriate families in China and other national cultures.

This paper examines the cross-cultural universality of the structural model of (voter) perception of political parties (PPP) in three ex-communist countries with party-centered systems, but with different economic and cultural backgrounds, and different levels of democracy development. We conducted a confirmatory study of a five-dimensional structure of PPP, which had been established through lexical research, using data from voters in Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. The structure involved personality-related dimensions (Strength, Disagreeableness, and Integrity) and non-personality dimensions, such as worldview (Left Wing vs. Right Wing) and evaluation (Backwardness vs. Modernity). The study revealed the configural and metric invariance of the structure of PPP. Its dimensions explain political preferences in each country at the individual level, but also differentiate between PPPs at the between-country level, both in the group of supporters and opponents of political parties. We linked voter perceptions with political preferences by presenting a five-factor model of PPP established on a valid and reliable psychometric inventory.