Volumen 8 (2016): Heft 3 (September 2016)

The paper focuses on the analysis of the organizations in the tourism sector, in particular, the travel agencies in the state of Queretaro, México, through a modern and flexible perspective that comes from the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and it reviews how these agencies have expanded as organizations and what have been the effects on their processes. The investigation is based on a qualitative study that allows to realize the lack of awareness of the owners and companies’ managers on the influence of technology in their businesses. They are aware of the two main advantages that they have in order to compete with online businesses: first, the information they provide first hand to their customers and secondly, the safety it gives to their clients by purchasing at an established agency. On the other hand, they are not aware of the low financial investment (such as in the use of social networking) and the high acceptance of technology by consumers. As a result it is of extreme importance to provide training that allows the opportunity for change, which is increasingly necessary due to the overwhelming competition from online agencies.

The study includes an analysis and results of a Deliberately Developmental Organization (DDO) effort in an academic department. In this studyKegan and Lahey’s conception of a DDO is coupled with the Circular Questioning technique to deepen the intensity of the employees’ participation. The ultimate goal of a DDO is to enhance the employees’ personal development and thus improve the organization. The authors point to the communication perspective as a way to understand the centrality of dialogue in the DDO process. It was found that Circular Questioningas a means of intervention allowed the members to generate new thoughts and actionsthus building an understanding of their interdependence. It was clear their communication acted as a constitutive force, shaping the lives of the interactants and their future understanding and work in the organization.

Interaction is a vital part of every business transaction. In creating an international agreement, communication being an important assignment can be very demanding. In business negotiation, interactions do not only evolve within the business and customers but also with the dealers and every stakeholders that is included in the business transaction. More and more transactions are cross-cultural in their nature. Cross-cultural negotiation is prone fail as the individuals involved in these transactions are ignorant on how to pact with individuals of different cultures. This paper seeks to explore differences in cross-cultural negotiation between Polish and Chinese business people.

Virtual teams are usually geographically dispersed and consist of members from different countries and cultures. They influences internal communication processes and can cause personal conflicts, misunderstandings or lack of trust. Intercultural diversity is also significant for goal setting and team effectiveness. The aim of this article is to check if virtual team members appreciate the cultural diversity or rather suffer from lack of team cohesion and mutual understanding. The article presents research conducted among specialists from IT sector who have experience in working in virtual teams. They perceive intercultural collaboration in virtual teams as the opportunity to exploit the potential of specialists from all over the world but they also point to some challenges related to cross-cultural virtual teamwork.

This paper is aimed to explore how international mobility (IM) practices are used to support the development of cross-cultural competences in two Polish-based subsidiaries providing business services within MNCs¹. It is based on case study analyses, which allowed to include different points of view, i.e. head of HR, Polish ex-assignees, and co-workers of foreign assignees. Research reveals differences in terms of cross-cultural competence content and the manner in which it is enhanced by IM practices.

The main goal of the article is to present some selected research findings on HRM business practices in local subsidiaries of multinational corporations in Central Europe in the after-recovery time from the worldwide economic crisis. The main subjects of interest are these kinds of behaviors, activities and opinions which are exhibited by these organizations in association with the business strategies they follow and as a result of their responses to the global economic changes. The article covers such issues as: generic business strategies, competitive factors, centralization and decentralization of HRM at the corporate and local level, responsibility of decisions, critical areas of HRM, competencies of HRM managers and the importance of HRM knowledge flows. The research was conducted in 2016 and the respondents were asked about their HRM practices in a previous year. The presented research findings come from five countries: Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. Although one of the final inferences says that expanding the formulated conclusions on the whole population would not be valid because of the selection, structure and size of the research sample, the conducted research has some cognitive value, especially that this field of knowledge and practice has been poorly recognized so far.

The main goal of this paper is to present results of research that addresses the issue of attitudes towards working in both multicultural and single culture teams among Polish and Chinese students. The relationship between those attitudes and factors that includes individual experiences of research participants as well as characteristics of team tasks was analyzed. The research was conducted with students of one Polish and one Chinese technical university as participants. Research findings indicate that there are several important similarities as well as differences in preferences of two analyzed groups. The most important differences pertain to stronger preference of Polish students towards working in a single-culture team when the task requires assuming responsibility, trust and mutual understanding of team members. Additionally, the declared level of experience in single-culture and multicultural team was differently related with preferences towards these two kinds of team among Polish and Chinese participants. Obtained results may be utilized in order to develop recommendations for effective educational efforts aimed at developing multicultural teamwork competencies of future managers and specialists from both of these countries.