Integrating Research on Acculturation into Organizational Scholarship: Two Empirical Studies and a Construct Development Effort

Abstract

The overarching objective of this dissertation is to offer a more comprehensive and profound understanding of how the concept of acculturation can be applied within scholarship on organizations. Through processes of acculturation, individuals experience affective, behavioural, and cognitive changes. Indeed, acculturation can influence values, ideology, and beliefs that are usually very difficult to change. Under the influence of foreign culture, entrepreneurs, managers, and employees can make different decisions and exhibit different behaviours than their peers without such influence—decisions and behaviours that may have profound effects on their organizations. Currently, however, the concept of acculturation has limited presence in the organizational literature. This is surprising because many outcome variables pertinent to organizations and their members seem to be naturally connected with the concept of acculturation, particularly in this era of global integration. Combined, the three studies in my dissertation expand scholarship at the acculturation-management nexus in two key ways. The first is by introducing new theoretical constructs to help address important conceptual and methodological limitations evident in extant research. The second is by empirically investigating the effects of different acculturation experiences on outcome variables of interest to organizational scholars; specifically, corporate social responsibility/performance at the firm level and organizational commitment at the individual level. My work also possesses notable practical implications for human resource management, immigration policy-making, and the selection of international or exchange students.