Dr Heidi Wechtler

Why do some MNEs manage to thrive amidst global disasters? Amidst the most tumultuous of unprecedented global disasters, some MNEs still seem to thrive. While the MNE-disaster response literature often considers responses as deliberately planned actions, some organizations can simply find themselves at the ¿right place at the right time¿ during disasters. Yet not all that MNEs seem able to leverage favorable chance events hidden within a disaster context. Accordingly, in this study, we apply the emerging theoretical lens of serendipity to theorize MNE disaster response, illustrated by Chinese MNE's responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. While disasters are expected to be detrimental to MNEs, this unprecedented crisis has shown mixed effects. We collect 89 articles from Caijing¿an authoritative business magazine in China and conducted a qualitative analysis of manager-oriented discourse to investigate how the MNE managers made sense of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. We use the emerging serendipity perspective to recast and interpret reasons behind these mixed outcomes, drawing attention to why some MNE managers were able to ¿connect the dots¿ and perceive value in the unexpected. Overall, we advance a timely introduction of serendipity to the MNE disaster response literature and build a preliminary bridge between theory, practice, and chance.

Purpose: Drawing on follower-centric leadership theory, the study examines the role of perceived homophily between the leader and the follower, follower's individual-level power distance orientation (PDO) and follower's perceived employability in moderating the effects of authoritarian and benevolent paternalistic leadership (BPL) on followers' turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The study analyzes a sample of 403 white-collar Russian employees. Findings: Whereas both leadership styles generally decrease followers' turnover intentions, they operate differently. Authoritarian leadership (AL) is more effective among followers with higher follower-leader homophily and PDO, whereas BPL is effective only among followers with low perceived homophily and PDO, and more effective among followers with higher perceived employability. Originality/value: The study extends research on non-participative styles of leadership, their effects and boundary conditions.

Employee wellbeing represents a profound management challenge for both leaders and HR professionals, and both transformational leadership (TL) and high performance work system (HPWS) are assumed to play important roles in tackling this challenge. However, we know little about their unique and relative importance in promoting wellbeing. To shed light on this methodologically, theoretically and practically important issue, we draw mainly on leadership substitutes theory. Based on a comprehensive mediation model we examine whether HPWS substitutes the assumed relationships between TL and employee emotional exhaustion. Our study answers to three important calls for research: to examine the joint effects of leadership and HPWS, to examine their health-related impact, and to pursue more theory contesting research in management studies. Based on data from 308 white collar employees working under 76 middle-managers in five Finnish organizations our study points to the incompleteness of previous siloed research on both TL and HPWS, sheds new light on their relationships with wellbeing, and suggests ways to develop both TL and HPWS theory, thus providing important guidance for future research on their effects.

Disasters ¿ natural or manmade ¿ are on the rise with far-reaching implications for international business (IB) actors and transactions. While the Covid-19 pandemic has generated much academic interest for its impact on business in general, little effort has been made to consolidate the fragmented research on disasters more broadly in the field of international business. Therefore, it is important and urgent to consolidate the existing knowledge to provide a solid basis for future research. We systematically review 132 articles published between 1991 and 2022 and critically evaluate the nascent but rapidly growing literature at the intersection of disasters and IB. Our examination of the different types of disasters (natural and manmade) shows two separate streams: (1) a dominant MNE-centric stream of strategic IB research which regards disaster as an exogenous shock impacting MNE strategies, responses, and resilience, and (2) an emergent stream which places disaster as a more central, embedded phenomenon of investigation impacted by MNEs and other global actors. Our systematic review highlights the gaps in this literature and concludes with a discussion of the intersection of IB-disasters in relation to the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to suggest directions for future research.

The study combines an emic and etic perspective to test the relationships between three different (Western and non-Western) leadership styles, that is, transformational, authoritarian, and benevolent paternalistic, and follower emotional exhaustion in a high-power distance context of Russia. It employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyse a sample of 403 followers to middle-level managers in Russian organizations. The analysis finds only transformational leadership to be generally negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. However, under conditions of high individual-level power distance orientation among followers, this association diminishes whereas that of authoritarian leadership and exhaustion increases. Benevolent paternalistic leadership is unrelated to emotional exhaustion. The study extends research on the relative importance of Western and non-Western leadership behaviors for employee wellbeing in high-power distance contexts and on how this importance differs across followers, thus highlighting the role of follower expectations in determining the effectiveness of leadership. It points toward the need for future research to simultaneously test the contingencies and relative importance of paternalistic, authoritarian, transformational, as well as other leadership styles in various cultures as well as to continue exploring the moderating influence of various cultural value orientations on these leadership styles¿ follower effects.

We examine the extent to which CEO facial characteristics matter in media coverage of firms implicated in corporate wrongdoing. We build on literature discussing that leaders¿ faces may convey subjective behavioral expectations and that outsiders often over-rely on facial cues when making social judgments. We situate these insights in the context of corporate wrongdoing, where information incompleteness may be particularly high, potentially prompting outsiders to draw on CEO facial characteristics in forming their social judgments. Drawing on Expectancy Violations Theory, we hypothesize that firms led by CEOs expected to be more trustworthy, as inferred from their lower facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), will draw greater attention and more negative opinions from the media in the wake of corporate wrongdoing. Results of an experiment (Study 1) where CEO fWHR was digitally manipulated support this counterintuitive logic, while findings based on an archival study of corporate wrongdoing of US firms from 2003 to 2016 (Study 2) partly generalize the rationale in the field setting. Our findings suggest that subjective expectations inferred from CEO faces may serve as part of a complex and underexamined source of variation in media coverage of misconducting firms. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

Purpose: In this study, the authors use the actor-network theory (ANT) as a theoretical framework to better understand constructing learning as part of the networking process to produce innovations. Focussing on the antecedents of innovation within three teams in an engineering company, the authors propose a framework to enhance understanding of the innovative processes. The authors apply ANT to examine how informal learning is distributed amongst human and non-human actors. Design/methodology/approach: Based on 27 interviews in a large Australian engineering company, the authors' qualitative investigation shows that innovation can have very different antecedents. The authors mobilised ANT as the authors' vantage point to explore inanimate actors and their effect on social processes or, more specifically, networks and informal learning. Findings: The authors propose a framework to better understand innovative processes by exploring the network aspects of non-human actors and their connection to learning. More specifically, findings contribute towards a more granulated understanding of how networks, learning and non-human actors contribute towards innovations in organisations. Practical implications: This study has three significant implications for managers and organisations looking to improve their innovation processes. Firstly, fostering open communication is essential for developing successful innovation processes. Secondly, a close relationship with the customer and/or the final users has often been found to positively contribute to innovation processes. Finally, intrateam motivation is also critical when it comes to creating an environment that supports innovation processes. Originality/value: Surprisingly, leadership, communication and motivation did not give the best innovative outcome as the authors expected. Challenging traditional theorisations, low teamwork spirit and high individual performance orientation were some of the powerful drivers of highly innovative teams.

Objectives: Whilst mass vaccination is suggested as an important means to contain COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination policies across many countries have systematically excluded some groups of population, especially migrants. This study aims to document the impact of diversified vaccination strategies as a preventative and control measure for the health and safety of the wider population within a country. Methods: We selected five countries that have experienced the changes in migrant inflows to the most extreme among OECD countries in 2020: The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. We conducted an extensive qualitative documentary analysis focused on policies and interventions implemented in these countries since January 2020 till the end of September 2021. We also analyzed publicly available epidemiological data (released by the governments and other international organizations). Results: We find that achieving migrants¿ health and vaccination equity is not without challenges, and a failure to address those multiplicity of concerns may result in a vicious cycle for the vulnerable population at the fringes of our economy. Migrants continue to face extenuating circumstances with higher risks to their health and safety, when they are excluded or disadvantaged in vaccination policies. The more inclusive and proactive the governments are in consideration of diversity of migrant populations, the better they can manage the pandemic, which leads to overall societal benefit of ensuring public health. Conclusions: Equity-based policies can mitigate disparities in access to vaccination and healthcare, thereby reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

Purpose: Using social influence theory, this study examines the relationship between self-initiated expatriates' (SIE) political skill, as a measure of their social effectiveness, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA). It also tests whether the host employer's psychological contract (PC) fulfillment mediates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Partial least square structural equation modeling (covariance-based SEM) technique is employed to analyze a sample of 209 SIEs. Findings: The study finds SIEs' political skill positively and significantly associated with SIEs' work-related adjustment. The relationship with interactional adjustment is only marginally significant. It also finds that SIEs' PC fulfillment mediates the relationship between SIEs' political skill and work-related adjustment. The mediation is marginally significant for the relationship between SIEs' political skill and general living adjustment. Originality/value: The study adds to the literature on expatriates' skills and CCA by theorizing and testing the hitherto unexplored role of SIEs' political skill in their work and non-work CCA. It also theorizes and examines the host employer's PC fulfillment as a mediating mechanism, through which SIEs' political skill facilitates their CCA. Finally, it advances the literature on political skill by testing the construct's application in the cross-cultural and non-work domain.

Extant research on expatriation in high-stress environments where stress is caused by ongoing and unexpected natural crises remains limited. Drawing on stress theory, in this study, we develop a model to examine the stress-inducing effects of intra-family concerns and workplace discrimination on the intentions to leave the host country among expatriates in the high-stress environment of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We also explore whether gender and the level of work adjustment moderate the propensity of intra-family health concerns and workplace discrimination to induce psychological stress. Based on our analysis of 381 expatriates living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we find the model to be generally supported. We also reveal an intriguing moderating effect of work adjustment on the relationship between intra-family health concerns and psychological stress. Overall, the analysis is among the first ones to shed light on the role of natural crises¿ stressors in defining expatriate outcomes.

Based on a sample of 189 expatriate managers working for a non-profit organization (NPO), we pursue two objectives in this paper. First, we address the lack of knowledge on expatriates working in the non-profit sector by exploring their dominant career anchors. Our analysis reveals that the dominant anchors are internationalism, dedication to a cause, and lifestyle. Second, we draw on person-environment fit theory to theorize and test the previously unexplored linkages between expatriates¿ career anchors and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA). Our analysis shows that different career anchors are positively associated with different dimensions of CCA: autonomy, security, dedication to a cause, and pure challenge with general living adjustment; dedication to a cause, pure challenge, and internationalism with interactional adjustment; and functional competence, managerial competence, pure challenge, and internationalism with work adjustment. Overall, the study is one of the first attempts to explore career anchors and their linkages to CCA among expatriates in NPOs.

In this study, we use socioemotional selectivity theory to shed light on the role of expatriates' age in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates on assignment. We test our hypotheses using hierarchical regression models and a sample of 254 French expatriate managers. Our analysis reveals a number of interesting findings. First, we find that age is a facilitator of regulation and utilization of emotions on general living adjustment and of regulation of emotions on interactional adjustment. Second, our complementary analyses show that expatriates' prior expatriation experience affects the relationship between EI and CCA differently and less prominently than age. Overall, our analysis is one of the first attempts to provide a more detailed theoretical understanding of the relationships between age, expatriation experience, EI and CCA in the context of expatriation.

The study examines the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates on international assignments. Based on a sample of 269 French expatriates operating in 133 countries, our analysis finds a significant and positive relationship between EI and expatriates' general living, interactional and work-related CCA. Additionally, it shows that cultural similarity only facilitates general living adjustment and not interactional or work adjustments. Finally, our analysis reveals an interesting interaction effect between gender and the ability to appraise and express emotions. the influence of the latter on all three dimensions of CCA tends to be slightly stronger for male than female expatriates. The study offers important practical implications for organizations concerning the identification and development of successful expatriates. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.