MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND NEW THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
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r Academy of Management Annals 2021, Vol. 15, No. 2, 345–376. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0138 MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND NEW THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK WILLIAM W. MADDUX University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill JACKSON G. LU Massachusetts Institute of Technology SALVATORE J. AFFINITO Harvard University ADAM D. GALINSKY Columbia University As globalization has become a defining issue for business and society, an increasing amount of research has examined how multicultural experiences affect a variety of psy- chological and organizational outcomes. We define “multicultural experiences” as expo- sure to or interactions with elements or members of a different culture(s). We then provide a comprehensive review of the literature and detail how multicultural experien- ces impact intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational outcomes, including crea- tivity, psychological adjustment, intergroup bias, trust, morality, leadership effectiveness, and individual or firm performance, exploring key mechanisms and boundary conditions that have also emerged. We then present a new theoretical frame- work—the “Structure–Appraisal Model of Multicultural Experiences”—that organizes the overall pattern of findings and provides a roadmap for future research. The structure part of our model proposes that deeper multicultural experiences produce integrative processes that transform intrapersonal cognition, whereas broader multicultural experi- ences activate comparative processes that influence interpersonal attitudes and behav- iors. The appraisal part of our model suggests that these intrapersonal and interpersonal effects are only likely to occur when appraisals of one’s multicultural ex- periences are positive rather than negative. We conclude by discussing practical impli- cations for individuals and organizations, as well as future directions for researchers to consider exploring. Globalization is perhaps the defining issue for business and society in the 21st century. Techno- The current article as well as some of the empirical re- logical advances have made it as easy to connect search reviewed herein was supported by many people and organizations. In particular, the authors would like to with someone halfway across the world as with thank Jeanne Brett and her Dispute Resolution Research someone halfway down the hall. Increasing con- Center at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwest- tact with people from other cultures, and the in- ern University, for supporting the initial stages of this re- herent interdependence of the modern world, search program, and for creating an ideal intellectual means that globalization is transforming how we environment during her decades of leadership at the think about business, society, and even our basic DRRC. Thanks also to the INSEAD Research and Develop- humanity as fellow denizens of a single shared ment Committee and to the INSEAD Social Science Re- planet. Ongoing global challenges like climate search Center. We appreciate the financial assistance of change, international trade wars, race relations, the Edward M. O’Herron family and the Kenan–Flagler and pandemics highlight the fundamentally inter- Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel connected nature of society for individuals, Hill, during the writing of this article. We also thank Peter Jin, Mingyue Pan, and Tianfang Yang for their research groups, and organizations. Even the various forms assistance. of backlash to globalization from politicians and 345 Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted without the copyright holder's express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles for individual use only.
346 Academy of Management Annals July governments over the past several years have only Even more often, researchers have not chosen to de- served to underscore how quickly the world is be- fine the construct at all. One reason may be that, coming “flatter” with each passing year (Friedman, given the inchoate nature of the growing literature, 2005). different papers have focused on different aspects Luckily, social science research is rising to the of multicultural experiences (e.g., living abroad, challenge of needing to adopt a fundamentally global bicultural identity, cultural diversity of one’s perspective to understand the growing complexities professional network) that were not necessarily of the world. In particular, there has been a growing conceptualized as part of a larger overarching con- body of research examining the potential effects of struct of multicultural experiences. In addition, re- multicultural experiences on a variety of individual searchers (including ourselves) may intuitively and organizational outcomes. Spurred on by an intro- view the construct quite broadly. At the end of the ductory paper on the topic published more than a de- day, we believe that scholars are interested in any cade ago, one that outlined emerging research and all ways in which experiences with other cul- showing that multicultural experiences can lead to tures can have a reliable impact on important psy- higher levels of creativity (Leung, Maddux, Galin- chological and organizational outcomes. In other sky, & Chiu, 2008), this fast-growing area of research words, researchers seem to have implicitly agreed has now been taken up by scholars across to an approach allowing explorations of whatever myriad disciplines, including social psychology, in- aspects of multicultural experiences might be of dustrial–organizational psychology, developmental academic and practical interest—an inductive ap- psychology, management, international business, proach to construct definition that is often found entrepreneurship, and strategy. No longer focused at the beginning stages of research programs exclusively on creativity, this research has now (McGuire, 1997). explored how multicultural experiences affect In their original paper on multicultural experien- innovation and entrepreneurship, psychological ces, Leung and colleagues (2008: 169) provided an adjustment, group and team dynamics, moral deci- initial definition of the construct of multicultural sion-making, personality and self-concept change, experiences, which they termed “all direct and in- interpersonal trust, leadership ability, intergroup direct experiences of encountering or interacting bias, and multinational firm performance. This range with the elements or members of foreign cultures.” of inquiry across both topics and levels of analysis Similarly, a decade later, Tadmor, Hong, Chao, and highlights the increasing importance of multicultur- Cohen (2018: 398) defined the construct as al experiences for psychological and organizational “experiences in which individuals interact with researchers. people and/or elements of foreign cultures,” while The remainder of this article is structured as fol- Vora, Martin, Fitzsimmons, Pekerti, Lakshman, lows. First, we examine and update the definition of and Raheem (2019: 500) conceptualized it as “the “multicultural experiences” and explain its relevance degree to which someone has knowledge of, identi- for past and future work. Second, we review key em- fication with, and internalization of more than one pirical findings across intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal culture.” Given the scope of the findings and organizational outcomes, including critical medi- that have now emerged, one goal of the present arti- ators and moderators. Third, we distill key themes cle was to revisit these definitions in light of what across this growing literature and present a new theo- we know about the construct looking back over the retical model—the Structure–Appraisal Model of totality of findings across more than a decade of Multicultural Experiences—that helps explain wheth- new research. In particular, we wanted to ensure er, when, why, and how multicultural experiences the current definition of the construct was inclu- shape individual and organizational outcomes. Final- sive of the variety of work done across different ly, we discuss practical implications of existing find- disciplines and the myriad empirical instantia- ings and suggest directions for future research. tions of the construct to date, while also being like- ly to include relevant future work on the topic as well. THE INS AND OUTS OF MULTICULTURAL Based on the literature reviewed herein, we de- EXPERIENCES: DEFINITIONS, fine multicultural experiences as exposure to or OPERATIONALIZATIONS, AND OUTCOMES interactions with elements or members of a differ- To date, scholars have defined the construct of ent culture(s). This definition is similar to prior “multicultural experiences” fairly inclusively. definitions, with a few notable differences. First,
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 347 and as we elaborate on more toward the end of the term “polycultural” because researchers have typ- paper, we chose the phrase “different cultures” in- ically referred to this construct as an ideological stead of foreign or societal cultures because the approach to diversity that emphasizes the mixing relevant culture that makes a given experience together or integration of multiple cultures on “multicultural” could exist both inside and out- identity and knowledge (and is contrasted with side national boundaries, and thus need not be colorblindness and multiculturalism as other conventionally considered “foreign” or need not ideological approaches to diversity; Morris, Chiu, involve another “societal culture.” Second, we & Liu, 2015). In addition, to our knowledge, omitted the phrase “direct and indirect” that was “polycultural” has not been used to describe spe- used in Leung et al.’s (2008) definition because cific types of experiences with other cultures.1 Fi- we are unaware of any extant research that has nally, we did not select the term “foreign culture” differentiated multicultural experiences in terms because foreign cultures represent only one type of directness. We also do not include the terms of cultural experience, which potentially pre- “identification” or “internalization” in our con- cludes experiences with different cultures that ex- ceptualization as Vora and colleagues (2019) did, ist within national boundaries. Importantly, and because each term could be conceived as either an as we discuss in more detail toward the end of the outcome variable or moderator variable, rather paper, we believe that some of the outcomes and than a defining feature of multicultural experien- mechanisms reviewed here may apply across a va- ces. Finally, instead of “knowledge,” used by Vora riety of contexts involving different cultures as et al. (2019), we chose the word “exposure” be- well as different ingroups and outgroups, includ- cause the multicultural experiences studied to ing those involving different races, genders, reli- date have involved an individual’s or an organiza- gions, organizations, as well as different cultural tion’s own experiences with different cultures, regions within a single country. and it is not yet clear whether secondhand knowl- We believe that the term “multicultural experi- edge of another culture is sufficiently meaningful ences” also inclusively and accurately captures the enough to produce meaningful psychological or range of operationalizations used in the literature to organizational consequences. date, including but not limited to the following: We also took the opportunity to reexamine the (a) speaking two or more languages (e.g., Lambert, term “multicultural experiences” itself. As we began Tucker, & d’Anglejan, 1973; Simonton, 2000); (b) this review, we considered possible alternative psychologically identifying with two or more coun- terms, including “foreign cultural,” “cross-cultural,” tries or cultures (e.g., Cheng, Sanchez-Burks, & Lee, and “culturally diversifying” experiences. We decid- 2008; Nguyen & Benet-Martınez, 2013; Tadmor et al., ed to maintain the term “multicultural experiences,” 2012); (c) having various types of experiences in dif- for several reasons. First, the word “multi,” by defini- ferent countries or cultures (e.g., Cao, Galinsky, & tion, means more than one (Merriam-Webster, n.d.), Maddux, 2014; de Bloom, Ritter, K€ uhnel, Reinders, and a “multicultural experience” fundamentally & Geurts, 2014; Godart, Maddux, Shipilov, & Galin- involves, at minimum, the interaction of one’s sky, 2015; Lu, Quoidbach, Gino, Chakroff, Maddux, own culture with individuals or elements of a dif- & Galinsky, 2017; Lu, Swaab, Galinsky, in press; ferent culture. For example, even a simple experi- Maddux & Galinsky, 2009; Yamakawa, Khavul, ence like an American traveling to India involves Peng, & Deeds, 2013); (d) having relationships the interaction of two different cultures: the trav- with individuals (Lu, Hafenbrack, Eastwick, eler’s home culture (the United States), which is Wang, Maddux, & Galinsky, 2017) or alliance part- the cultural lens through which the experiences is ners (Fernhaber, McDougall-Covin, & Shepherd, interpreted; and the host culture the traveler is vis- iting (India), which represents a different cultural environment that is being subjectively experi- 1 It is important to differentiate the term “multicultural experiences” from “multicultural ideology,” which is a enced. We also chose not to use the term “cross- term used in the intergroup relations literature to refer to cultural” because this term is usually used in a a mindset of recognizing and appreciating cultural differ- comparative fashion and typically involves con- ences across (especially racial) groups (e.g., Wolsko, Park, structs that differentiate national cultures, such as Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2000), usually as opposed to a the different average levels of individualism ver- “colorblind ideology,” which is a strategy of ignoring cul- sus collectivism in different cultures (e.g., Hof- tural group differences (especially those involving racial stede, 1980). Furthermore, we chose not to use the differences).
348 Academy of Management Annals July 2009) from foreign countries; (e) being a part of mul- experience” OR “travel experience” OR “cross-cul- ticultural social or professional networks (Chua, tural experience” OR “intercultural experience” 2018; Shipilov, Godart, & Clement, 2017; Wang, OR “working abroad” OR “living abroad” OR 2015); (f) working in multicultural teams (Jang, “traveling abroad” OR “studying abroad” OR 2017; Tadmor, Satterstrom, Jang, & Polzer, 2012); “intercultural relationship.” This query returned (g) being exposed to contrasting cultural primes about 20,000 results, with the most relevant article (e.g., Chang, Cheng, Wu, Wang, & Hung, 2017; (sorted by Google Scholar) being Leung et al.’s Cheng & Leung, 2013; Cheng, Leung, & Wu, 2011; (2008) review. Leung & Chiu, 2010); (h) being a firm with experi- We then narrowed down the set of articles based ence in foreign markets (e.g., Barkema & Shvyrkov, on the following criteria. First, we mostly limited 2007); and (i) the sum of different aspects of multi- our review to articles published since 2008, as it is cultural experiences, such as having parents from common practice to bound a review around the pub- different cultures and appreciating foreign food or lication of a seminal article (e.g., Clough, Fang, Vissa, music (Leung & Chiu, 2010; Tadmor et al. 2018; & Wu, 2019). Second, we targeted our focus on re- Tadmor, Hong, Chao, Wiruchnipawan, & Wang, search published in the top journals across a variety 2012). of fields, including but not limited to management In terms of the effects of multicultural experiences, (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Administra- the most widely studied outcome continues to be tive Science Quarterly, Organization Science), creativity and its conceptual cousins, innovation applied psychology (e.g., Journal of Applied Psy- and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, scholars have chology, Organizational Behavior and Human also examined a host of other outcomes, including Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology), cross- psychological adjustment (e.g., Demes & Geeraert, cultural psychology (e.g., Journal of Cross-Cultural 2015; Geeraert & Demoulin, 2013), self-concept clari- Psychology), social psychology (e.g., Journal of Ex- ty (Adam, Obodaru, Lu, Maddux, & Galinsky, 2018a, perimental Social Psychology, Journal of Personality 2018b), personality change (Greischel, Noack, & and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psy- Neyer, 2016; Zimmermann & Neyer, 2013), moral de- chology Bulletin), general psychology (e.g., Psycho- cision-making (Lu, Quoidbach, et al., 2017), general- logical Science), sociology (e.g., American Journal of ized trust (Cao et al., 2014), leadership effectiveness Sociology), and strategic management (e.g., Strategic (Lu et al., in press), intergroup bias (Affinito, Mad- Entrepreneurship Journal, Strategic Management dux, Antoine, & Gray, 2020; Tadmor et al., 2018; Journal). We also examined highly cited articles Tadmor, Hong, et al., 2012), and firm internationali- within this initial set to ensure that our search had zation (e.g., Fernhaber et al., 2009; Yamakawa et al., not missed any significant work. Third, we removed 2013). most articles that were not empirical and kept only What is now clear, compared to when this re- those theoretically relevant to the scope of this re- search started in earnest more than a decade ago, is view. Fourth, we removed articles that did not actu- that there are many different types of multicultural ally measure or theorize about multicultural experiences that affect a wide range of individual experiences or were not relevant to our proposed re- and organizational outcomes. In the next section, view upon closer inspection. Last, we supplemented we turn our attention to a systematic review of this initial search process with a periodic Google these findings. Scholar search to be able to identify new papers ap- pearing during the drafting of this article. This search left us with 145 articles for formal review. LITERATURE REVIEW To provide the clearest possible picture of how Prior to conducting our review, we sought to multicultural experiences affect different outcomes, identify the appropriate collection of articles rele- we decided to organize outcome variables across vant to understanding the current state of the liter- three levels of analysis: intrapersonal, interpersonal, ature. To do so, we based our review process on and organizational. This structure allowed us to ex- existing recommendations for systematic reviews amine emergent empirical and theoretical themes of a particular scholarly literature (Aguinis, Rama- within and across these different outcomes, which ni, & Alabduljader, 2018). We started by using was particularly useful in allowing us to construct a Google Scholar to search for articles that contained novel theoretical model, which we present toward search terms most related to our main construct of the end of the paper. Table 1 presents a summary of interest: “multicultural experience” OR “foreign articles included in our review.
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 349 TABLE 1 Summary of Empirical Studies on Multicultural Experiences Aspects of Multicultural Outcomes Experiences Citation(s) Intrapersonal Creativity, innovation, and International experiences Cho & Morris (2015) entrepreneurship Fee & Gray (2012) Godart et al. (2015) Maddux, Adam, & Galinsky (2010) Maddux & Galinsky (2009) Tadmor et al. (2012) Multicultural background or Chang, Hsu, Shih, & Chen identities (2014) Cheng et al. (2008) Mok & Morris (2010b) Puente-Diaz, Toptas, Cavazos-Arroyo, Wimschneider, & Brem (2020) Saad, Damian, Benet- Martınez, Moons, & Robins (2013) Tadmor et al. (2012) Tadmor, Satterstrom, et al. (2012) Multilingualism Kharkhurin (2010) Krizman, Marian, Shook, Skoe, & Kraus (2012) Lee & Kim (2011) Leikin & Tovli (2014) Onysko (2016) Multicultural relationships and Chua (2013) networks Chua (2018) Chua & Jin (2020) Lu, Hafenbrack, et al. (2017) Perry-Smith & Shalley (2014) Qin & Estrin (2015) Shipilov et al. (2017) Multicultural groups Jang (2017) Tadmor, Satterstrom, et al. (2012) Organizational multicultural Godart et al. (2015) experiences Wrede & Dauth (2020) Psychological adjustment International experiences Adam et al. (2018b) Demes & Geeraert (2014, 2015) Firth, Chen, Kirkman, & Kim (2014) Fisher & Hutchings (2013) Geeraert & Demoulin (2013) Geeraert, Li, Ward, Gelfand, & Demes (2019) Greischel, Noack, & Neyer (2019) Hong, Fang, Yang, & Phua (2013) Takeuchi, Wang, Marinova, & Yao (2009)
350 Academy of Management Annals July TABLE 1 (Continued) Aspects of Multicultural Outcomes Experiences Citation(s) Multicultural background or Abe (2018) identities Ward, Tseung-Wong, Szabo, Qumseya, & Bhowon (2018) Multicultural relationships and Repke & Benet-Martınez (2018) networks Personality, self, and International experiences Biemann and Braakmann (2013) individual performance Georgakakis, Dauth, & Ruigrok (2016) Greischel et al. (2016) L€ udtke, Roberts, Trautwein, & Nagy (2011) Maddux et al. (2014) Moal-Ulvoas & Taylor (2014) Tadmor et al. (2012) Wolff & Borzikowsky (2018) Zhu, Wanberg, Harrison, & Diehn (2016) Zimmermann & Neyer (2013) Multicultural background or Abe (2018) identities Chen & Bond (2010) Mok & Morris (2009) Mok & Morris (2010a) Multilingualism Gao, Zika, Rogers, & Thierry (2015) Keysar, Hayakawa, & An (2012) Krizman et al. (2012) Multicultural groups Brodbeck, Guillaume, & Lee (2011) Interpersonal Trust International experiences Cao et al. (2014) Multicultural background or Chua et al. (2012) identities Multicultural groups Mortensen & Neeley (2012) Tenzer, Pudelko, & Harzing (2014) Communication competence Multicultural background or Backmann, Kanitz, Tian, identities Hoffmann, & Hoegl (2020) Jang (2017) Lu et al. (in press) Morality International experiences Lu, Quoidbach, et al. (2017) Multilingualism Costa et al. (2014) Geipel, Hadjichristidis, & Surian (2015) Geipel, Hadjichristidis, & Surian (2016) Intergroup bias International experiences Affinito et al. (2020) Tadmor et al. (2018) Tadmor, Hong, et al. (2012) Multicultural relationships and Barlow et al. (2012) networks Multicultural background or Huff, Lee, & Hong (2017) identities Saleem, Dubow, Lee, & Huesmann (2018) Tadmor, Berger, Brenick, Abu- Raiya, & Benatov (2017) Tadmor et al. (2018) Tadmor, Hong, et al. (2012) Multilingualism Singh, Quinn, Qian, & Lee (2020)
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 351 TABLE 1 (Continued) Aspects of Multicultural Outcomes Experiences Citation(s) Leadership International experiences Carpenter, Sanders, & Gregersen (2001) Dragoni, Oh, Tesluk, Moore, VanKatwyk, & Hazucha (2014) Lu (2018) Lu et al. (in press) Roth (1995) Organizational Internationalization International experiences Barkema & Shvyrkov (2007) Bruneel, Yli-Renko, & Clarysse (2010) Fernhaber et al. (2009) Li, Yi, & Cui (2017) Xia, Boal, & Delios (2009) Yamakawa et al. (2013) Foreign acquisition or International experiences Garcıa-Canal and Guillen (2008) investment Matta & Beamish (2008) Zhou & Guill en (2015) Performance International experiences Godart et al. (2015) Kulchina (2017) Li, Zhang, Li, Zhou, & Zhang (2012) Oldroyd, Morris, & Dotson (2019) Reuber & Fischer (1997) Salomon & Martin (2008) Wrede & Dauth (2020) Yang, Li, & Delios (2015) Multicultural groups Gong (2006) Haas & N€ uesch (2012) Kirkman, Cordery, Mathieu, Rosen, & Kukenberger (2013) Kearney, Gebert, & Voelpel (2009) Kilduff, Angelmar, & Mehra (2000) Lo, Wang, & Zhan (2020) Lu et al. (in press) Nielsen & Nielsen (2013) Wrede & Dauth (2020) INTRAPERSONAL OUTCOMES basic idea at the same time—that a variety of differ- ent types of multicultural experiences might stimu- The Effects of Multicultural Experiences on late creativity. In retrospect, creativity was an Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship obvious topic of interest given the widespread but The research on multicultural experiences was empirically untested assumption in a variety of jumpstarted by an introductory article on how multi- fields—art, education, business—that multicultural cultural experiences affect creative processes and experiences were important for various types of outputs (Leung et al., 2008). This article was a collab- skills and abilities. For example, many educational oration between two independent research teams institutions have implemented study-abroad pro- that coincidentally had been examining the same grams for decades; multinational companies
352 Academy of Management Annals July regularly send their employees on international as- can enhance creativity. For example, watching back- signments; and artists in many fields implicitly as- to-back slideshows comparing Chinese and American sume that it is necessary to spend a year abroad in cultures can lead participants to exhibit more creativi- Paris or Rome or Buenos Aires or Kyoto to enhance ty than those watching slideshows depicting only one one’s creative development in music composition, culture (Cheng & Leung, 2013; Cheng et al., 2011; painting, or writing (Leung et al., 2008; Lu, Martin, Leung & Chiu, 2010). Usova, & Galinsky, 2019). Other research has focused on more specific types Thus, the Leung et al. (2008) introduction initiated of multicultural experiences. For example, a variety a long-overdue empirical investigation into the un- of studies now shows that creativity increases when derlying assumption behind these claims. To under- individuals live abroad (Fee & Gray, 2012; Maddux stand how different aspects of multicultural et al., 2010; Maddux & Galinsky, 2009), work abroad experiences could lead to higher levels of individual (Godart et al., 2015), and, in some cases, study creativity, the authors leveraged the “creative cogni- abroad (Cho & Morris, 2015) or travel abroad (de tion approach” (Ward, Finke, & Smith, 1995), a theo- Bloom et al., 2014). For example, Maddux and Ga- retical framework that suggested that creativity linsky (2009) found that the amount of time MBA could be studied and understood by examining the spe- students lived outside their home country predicted cific inputs and outputs to the process. After reviewing creativity on a variety of tasks assessing insight, di- the literature on creativity, Leung and colleagues (2008) vergent thinking, and convergent thinking, and this postulated that multicultural experiences might acti- effect was mediated by the level of cultural adapta- vate a variety of psychological processes that would be tion participants engaged in during their time in the important for the creative process, in particular by host country. Follow-up research by Maddux et al. stimulating a willingness to seek out new ideas, (2010) found that deep learning about the new cul- providing exposure to new concepts, inspiring the ture was also a key driver of increased creativity fol- development of new insights, and encouraging a re- lowing living abroad experiences. Longitudinal examination of one’s own cultural beliefs. With research subsequently found increases in creativity dozens of relevant papers published in the interven- for expatriate workers following stints working ing years, these predictions have now generally abroad (Fee & Gray, 2012). These effects of living been supported, and we now have a much deeper abroad also extend to institutional creativity. For ex- understanding about the specific individual and ample, in the context of the global fashion industry, contextual factors that facilitate or hinder creativity Godart and colleagues (2015) found that the more during and following different types of multicultur- time creative directors—the de facto leaders of the al experiences. world’s top fashion houses—had spent working Effects of foreign experiences on creativity. abroad in their careers, the more creative their com- “Creativity” is defined as the production of ideas that panies’ fashion collections were rated to be by in- are novel and useful (Amabile, 1983), and a number of dustry experts. findings now suggest that creativity reliably increases The evidence for enhanced creativity is more when individuals are exposed to multicultural ideas, mixed when examining foreign travel. For example, people, or environments. One of the first empirical in- Maddux and Galinsky (2009) did not find a signifi- vestigations into this possibility involved the develop- cant effect of time traveled abroad on creativity, pre- ment of the Multicultural Experience Survey (Leung & sumably because higher levels of cultural adaptation Chiu, 2010), which measures a variety of different as- and learning about the host culture are more likely to pects of multicultural experiences, including time occur during living abroad experiences rather than spent outside one’s home country, general level of ex- during foreign travel (Maddux et al., 2010; Maddux posure to foreign cultures, number of foreign lan- & Galinsky, 2009). However, other work has found a guages spoken, parents’ birthplaces, and the country positive impact of foreign travel on creativity (de of origin of participants’ five favorite cuisines, friends, Bloom et al., 2014). As will become clearer when we and musicians. To date, multiple studies have shown review mechanisms and boundary conditions be- that individuals who score higher on this scale (or a low, what appears to be more important than the dis- similar scale; Narvaez, Endicott, & Hill, 2017), exhibit tinction between whether one is technically living more creativity (Leung & Chiu, 2010; Puente-Diaz versus traveling abroad is the particular psychologi- et al., 2020; Tadmor, Satterstrom, et al., 2012). Further- cal orientation individuals adopt while abroad, and more, researchers have shown that even a relatively the specific details of the cultural context individu- brief time contrasting elements from different cultures als encounter during their time in another country.
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 353 Effects of multicultural identities on creativity. endorsing “polyculturalism” (the ethos of fostering in- Multicultural experiences tend to have a strong effect tercultural interaction; Morris et al., 2015) has been on creativity when they lead individuals to incorpo- found to promote higher levels of creativity compared rate two or more cultural identities into their over- to “multiculturalism” (the ethos of preserving separate all self-concept. Sometimes called “biculturalism” cultural traditions; Cho, Tadmor, & Morris, 2018). or “multicultural identity integration” (e.g., Berry, Effects of multilingualism on creativity. Some of Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006; Nguyen & Benet- the earliest work on whether multicultural experien- Martınez, 2013), this process involves psychologically ces affect creativity involved bilingualism or multilin- identifying with both home culture and host cultures, gualism, and a range of findings continues to suggest and making explicit connections between those iden- that speaking two or more languages is associated tities. And a variety of work now shows that creativity with creativity (Chang et al., 2014; Kharkhurin, 2010; is enhanced when these different cultural identities Lambert et al., 1973; Lee & Kim, 2011; Onysko, 2016; are more rather than less psychologically integrated Simonton, 2000). Indeed, the empirical link between (Saad et al., 2013; Tadmor et al., 2012). multilingualism and creativity was one of the reasons The effects of multicultural identity integration that scholars initially postulated that other types of are often most apparent on tasks specifically relevant multicultural experiences might also be important for to cultural identities (Cheng et al., 2008; Mok & creativity. Recent work suggests that the creative bene- Morris, 2010a). For example, when Cheng and col- fits of speaking multiple languages can be explained leagues (2008) gave food ingredients to different by broadly enhanced executive functioning in the participants and asked them to come up with crea- brain that has an array of downstream consequences tive dishes, Asian American biculturals displayed for basic cognitive abilities such as attention, percep- more creativity on the task, but only when the ingre- tion, and memory (van Dijk, Kroesbergen, Blom, & dients were related to Asian and American cultures. Leseman, 2019; cf. Nichols, Wild, Stojanoski, Battista, & The creativity of biculturals may also depend on Owen, 2020). In addition, bilingualism seems to which particular cultural identity is salient at the produce enhanced creativity as soon as early child- time, and whether that cultural identity is associated hood (Leikin & Tovli, 2014), although it may de- with higher levels of creativity (Mok & Morris, pend on the specific task and cultural context 2010a). (Kharkhurin, 2010) and the specific type of creative Other evidence indicates that an integrated bicultur- thinking involved. Although findings examining al identity—one in which individuals retain strong specific types of creativity, such as divergent and psychological connections to both home and host cul- convergent creativity, are somewhat mixed across tures—can positively impact creativity in general, these studies, the overall effect of multilingualism rather than being limited to creativity in domains spe- being associated with higher levels of creativity cur- cifically relevant to one’s cultural knowledge. For ex- rently appears to be reasonably robust. ample, Tadmor et al. (2012) found that MBA students Effects of multicultural relationships and net- who strongly identified with two different countries works on creativity. Research has also established showed enhanced creativity on a variety of general that the creative benefits of multicultural experien- creativity tasks that did not depend on specific ces extend to close interpersonal relationships, in- cultural knowledge—an effect that was mediated cluding romantic, platonic, and work relationships by integrative complexity (Tadmor & Tetlock, 2006; with people from other cultures. Using a longitudi- Tetlock, 1983). The positive effect on creativity also nal design over a 10-month MBA program, Lu, extends to multiple social identities across a variety of Hafenbrack, and colleagues (2017) found that MBA different social groups beyond just national groups students who dated students from other cultures (Steffens, Gocłowska, Cruwys, & Galinsky, 2016). In- exhibited increased creativity at the end of the pro- terestingly, some theoretical work has postulated that gram, even after controlling for personality and these effects will occur more strongly when the inte- demographic variables. In another study examining grated identities are more inconsistent with one anoth- 2,226 professional repatriates who had previously er because integrating those inconsistencies requires worked in the United States, frequency of contact more effort and more integrative complexity, leading with American friends following repatriation posi- to more lasting psychological changes (Gocłowska & tively predicted workplace innovations and entre- Crisp, 2014). preneurial entry (Lu, Hafenbrack, et al., 2017). Endorsing ideologies that promote identity integra- Individuals embedded in more culturally diverse tion also leads to enhanced creativity. For example, social networks also tend to be more creative than
354 Academy of Management Annals July those in less diverse networks, although this rela- through their communication deficits across mem- tionship is stronger in culturally relevant domains bers (Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt, & Jonsen, 2010). than more general domains (Chua, 2018). Network Effects of multicultural experiences on organi- ties outside teams and organizations are also impor- zational creativity and innovation. Extant research tant. In a study of 82 MBA project teams, culturally at the organizational level is also relatively limited, diverse network ties outside of the team were found but some work has found that multicultural experi- to facilitate team-level creativity, presumably be- ences can increase a firm’s capacity to create and in- cause team members were able to draw on more var- novate. For example, Barkema and Shvyrkov (2007) ied ideas and inputs coming from external sources to analyzed over 30 years of data on 25 Dutch firms and their team (Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2014). Interesting- found that a firm’s international experience (as mea- ly, employee attrition can contribute to company cre- sured by its number of prior foreign expansions) was ativity if the departing employees relocate to a positively tied to its strategic innovation (as mea- foreign competitor, presumably because the left-be- sured by firm investment in novel geographic loca- hind employees now have professional networks tions). Similarly, examining a sample of large that are more multicultural (Shipilov et al., 2017). German stock-listed firms, Wrede and Dauth (2020) Conversely, situations involving interpersonal ten- showed that firms whose top management teams sion or conflict—which some researchers have termed were more international—in terms of nationality, ed- “ambient cultural disharmony” (Chua, 2013)—can ucation, work experience, or board appointments— have a negative effect on subsequent creativity, an showed higher levels of firm innovativeness effect that is mediated by the belief that ideas from compared to firms with less top management different cultures are incompatible. Other work has team internationalization. And, as noted above, shown that the negative effect of different types of when creative directors of international fashion interpersonal conflict on creativity may depend on houses had more multicultural experiences, the particular gender makeup of the interpersonal their firms produced more creative fashion col- dyads. One study showed that, whereas relation- lections (Godart et al., 2015). ship conflict negatively affected both male and fe- Moderating variables. Despite the seemingly male intercultural dyads, task conflict increased robust effects of multicultural experiences on crea- creativity in female intercultural dyads, but de- tivity, multicultural experiences do not lead to in- creased creativity for male intercultural dyads creased creativity in all instances, and researchers (Chua & Jin, 2020). have identified a number of moderating variables that determine whether and how multicultural expe- Effects of multicultural experiences on team cre- riences will affect creativity. Perhaps not surprising- ativity. To date, only a limited amount of research ly, given its robust relationship to the creative has focused on multicultural experiences in team process in general, openness to experience (e.g., contexts. One study has found that the multicultural McCrae, 1987) is a key moderator for the link be- experiences of individual members can have a tween multicultural experiences and creativity “superadditive effect” on team-level creative output (Chen, Leung, Yang, Chiu, Li, & Cheng, 2016; Cho & (Tadmor, Satterstrom, et al., 2012). In a study involv- Morris, 2015; Leung & Chiu, 2008). For example, ing Caucasian–Asian dyads, those dyads with high Leung and Chiu (2008) found that the strongest link levels of multicultural experience overall (as mea- between multicultural experiences and creativity oc- sured by the Multicultural Experience Survey; curred for individuals high in openness to experi- Leung & Chiu, 2010) demonstrated higher creativity ence. Similarly, Chen and colleagues (2016) found on a group task. This effect held even when control- that individuals low in openness performed signifi- ling for individual levels of creativity, suggesting an cantly worse on creative tasks in situations involving additional effect of having multiple multiculturally cultural threat. Likewise, Cho and Morris (2015) experienced individuals interact in teams. The effect found the most positive effects of study abroad on of multiculturally experienced individuals within creativity for individuals high in openness to experi- teams may play a facilitative role in enhancing team ence and when freedom of choice was high. creativity, especially for larger multicultural teams Cultural metacognition also seems to play an impor- across longer periods of time. Because individuals tant role in moderating the effects of multicultural ex- with multicultural experiences have more flexible periences, and higher levels of the metacognitive communication skills (Lu et al., in press), they may component of the cultural intelligence scale (Earley & have enhanced abilities to guide multicultural teams Ang, 2003) have been shown to lead to greater idea
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 355 sharing and creative performance in multicultural deep experiences abroad did not (Godart et al., teams (Chua, Morris, & Mor, 2012). For example, in 2015). Thus, “depth” (the amount of time worked one study involving creative collaborations of food outside directors’ home countries) had the stron- recipes, Chua and colleagues (2012) found that, when gest impact on creativity, whereas “breadth” (the at least one member of a two-person team had relative- number of countries worked in) and cultural dis- ly high levels of cultural metacognition, this predicted tance were somewhat less important, although overall team-level creativity, an effect mediated by both could act as substitutes for boosting creativity higher levels of affect-based trust. By contrast, the in the absence of high levels of depth. “need for cognitive closure” (Webster & Kruglanski, 1994), which involves a strong cognitive preference The Effects of Multicultural Experiences on for stability and certainty, weakens the link between Psychological Adjustment multicultural experiences and creativity (Leung & Chiu, 2010). In a similar vein, some studies have found Although the primary focus of multicultural experi- that individuals high in need for cognitive closure feel ence research has been on creativity, multicultural ex- less favorably toward products involving cultural fu- periences have been found to have other important sion (De keersmaecker, Van Assche, & Roets, 2016). effects as well. Probably the next most common area of Research also shows that the specific aspects of investigation has involved effects on “psychological the particular environment in which the multicul- adjustment,” a general term used to describe a host of tural experience takes place are important in deter- interrelated outcomes including individuals’ levels of mining whether creative benefits eventually accrue. stress, well-being, positive affect and health, life satis- For example, multicultural experiences do not in- faction, and resilience (e.g., Nguyen & Benet-Martınez, crease creativity when they involve time in a foreign 2013; Ward & Kennedy, 1994). Although the results culture that is either overly similar to, or very differ- are not entirely consistent across studies, several pa- ent from, one’s home culture (Cheng & Leung, 2013; pers have demonstrated positive effects of multicul- Godart et al., 2015), when the experience is inter- tural experiences on psychological adjustment, both preted as threatening to one’s own culture (Chen during and following experiences abroad. These posi- et al., 2016), or when it is associated with conflict- tive effects occur despite the “culture shock” of being oriented relationships or environments (Chua, 2013; in a different culture, which has the potential to in- cf. Cheng et al., 2011). In addition, individuals from crease rather than reduce stress (Ward, Bochner, & tight cultures (Gelfand et al., 2011) have been found Furnham, 2001). to be less likely to engage in or succeed at foreign cre- For example, a recent meta-analysis revealed that, ativity tasks—an effect that increases when the cul- compared to monocultural individuals, bicultural tural distance between countries increases (Chua, individuals demonstrate better psychological adjust- Roth, & Lemoine, 2015). ment to life experiences in general, not just experien- The specific type of international work experi- ces abroad (Nguyen & Benet-Martınez, 2013). In ence may also matter. For example, one study addition, some research finds that “third-culture” (Godart et al., 2015) showed that the relationship children and adults—biculturals who grow up or between a firm’s creative director’s multicultural live in a third, non-parental culture—demonstrate experiences and the firm’s creative innovations better well-being, are more resilient, and are more (i.e., its publicly displayed fashion collections) adaptive both cognitively and affectively than non- showed (a) an inverted-U relationship with the third-culture individuals (Abe, 2018; Brimm, 2010). number of foreign countries the fashion house ex- Such positive effects may apply to recent immigrants ecutive had previously worked in (i.e., “breadth of as well, particularly when they blend their multiple experience”), and (b) an inverted-U relationship identities (e.g., Ward et al., 2018). For example, Berry with the cultural distance between home and host and colleagues (2006) found that immigrant adoles- countries. By contrast, time worked abroad (i.e., cents had an advantage in psychological adjustment “depth of experience”) was found to have a linear and school performance compared to non-immi- effect on creativity, though with some diminishing grants. Moreover, culturally diverse personal and so- returns observed. Moreover, there was a three-way cial networks have also been shown to promote interaction among breadth, depth, and cultural bicultural identity integration and psychological ad- distance, such that creative directors low on depth justment (Repke & Benet-Martınez, 2018). benefited from extra breadth or greater cultural A study by Geeraert and Demoulin (2013) is particu- distance, but creative directors with particularly larly illustrative of the effect of multicultural
356 Academy of Management Annals July experiences on psychological adjustment. These re- Takeuchi et al., 2009), which can lead to increased ex- searchers followed 162 Belgian adolescents during a patriate job satisfaction (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, one-year cultural exchange program and 182 control Shaffer, & Luk, 2005) and job performance (Kraimer, participants who did not go abroad. Subsequent analy- Wayne, & Jaworski, 2001). Finally, and similar to the ses revealed that those who had studied abroad aforementioned research on creativity, higher levels of showed increased levels of self-esteem and lower lev- cultural distance between home culture and destina- els of stress when measured during the trip as well as a tion culture have been found to be associated with year after their return, suggesting that multicultural ex- lower levels of psychological adjustment, especially periences can have a lasting effect on different aspects in situations involving chronically high levels of stress of personal growth. Similarly, Zhu and colleagues and uncertainty, such as the military in wartime (Fish- (2016) found that employees on expatriate assign- er & Hutchings, 2013). ments demonstrated an increase in adjustment over the first nine months of their international work as- The Effects of Multicultural Experiences on signments, with a steady increase in adjustment ap- Personality, Cognition, and Individual pearing for the first six months and a gradual leveling Performance off afterward. These results contrast to the U-shaped results postulated by earlier work in this area (e.g., Research has found that personality traits are not Sussman, 2000) and suggest a more gradual and stable static throughout the lifespan (McAdams & Olson, pattern of adjustment rather than a more varied experi- 2010) but instead can be affected and changed by sig- ence (i.e., an initial “honeymoon” period, followed by nificant life events (e.g., Boyce, Wood, Daly, & Sedi- a subsequent period of stress, followed by a final peri- kides, 2015). Research now shows that multicultural od of adjustment and stress relief). experiences can be one such life experience factor that Moderating variables. Not everyone adjusts to affects personality traits as well. While extraversion, multicultural experiences in the same manner. For openness to experience, and conscientiousness pre- example, multicultural experiences lead to higher dict whether people decide to undertake a study- levels of psychological adjustment when individuals abroad experience, the experience of studying abroad are higher in cultural intelligence and when the per- also leads individuals to become higher on openness ceived diversity climate in the host country is high to experience and agreeableness and lower on neuroti- (Volpone, Marquardt, Casper, & Avery, 2018), and cism following the experience (Greischel et al., 2016; these effects appear to be stronger for individuals L€udtke et al., 2011; Zimmermann & Neyer, 2013). Mir- who are considered minorities in their home coun- roring the findings on creativity and psychological ad- try. Moreover, other research shows that coming justment, foreign culture adaptation (measured from a tighter as opposed to looser home country through increases in international relationships and leads to better adaptation to a host country, an effect social support) accounts for these personality changes that is further moderated by individuals’ agreeable- (Zimmermann & Neyer, 2013). ness and honesty–humility (Geeraert et al., 2019). Personality changes may be facilitated by multicul- Contextual factors are also important moderating tural experiences because they have the potential to variables on psychological adjustment. Consistent change aspects of the self-concept in ways that are psy- with individual-level creativity findings demonstrat- chologically beneficial. For example, time spent living ing the importance of adapting to one’s host country abroad can enhance individuals’ self-concept clarity (Maddux & Galinsky, 2009), higher levels of social (Adam et al., 2018a, 2018b), which further leads to support from host country individuals and higher lev- two important organizational outcomes: it positively els of cultural adaptation are strongly associated with predicts career decision-making clarity, and it in- lower stress and better adjustment (Demes & Geeraert, creases alignment with 360-degree feedback received 2014, 2015). For those employees on international as- from peers (Adam et al., 2018a, 2018b), effects that are signments, higher levels of cross-cultural motivation, mediated by higher levels of self-discerning reflec- empowerment, challenge stressors, and affective com- tions. In other words, multiculturally experienced par- mitment are all positive predictors of adjustment to ticipants have been found to be more likely to think foreign cultures (Firth et al., 2014; Shaffer, Harrison, & about how their identity truly defines who they are as Gilley, 1999; Takeuchi et al., 2009). Similarly, subjec- individuals (Adam et al., 2018a, 2018b). tively perceiving organizational or family support dur- Bicultural identity may also drive changes to indi- ing these assignments leads to higher levels of viduals’ cognitive orientations and how they respond adjustment (Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi, & Bross, 1998; to the different ways in which information is
2021 Maddux, Lu, Affinito, and Galinsky 357 presented. Some evidence suggests that biculturals who had the highest levels of bicultural identity inte- with integrated identities show assimilative tenden- gration were found to have the best professional repu- cies when exposed to cultural primes or personality tations in their fields, and were promoted at faster inventories with various cultural elements (Chen & rates compared to Israeli Americans with less integrat- Bond, 2010; Mok & Morris, 2009) whereas biculturals ed bicultural identities (Tadmor et al., 2012, Study 3). with low identity integration show cultural contrast effects (Mok & Morris, 2009). Lower identity integra- Conclusions on Intrapersonal Effects tion may have benefits in group settings as well, with some evidence showing that low-identity-inte- Overall, it is clear that multicultural experiences grated biculturals are better able to resist group- affect important intrapersonal variables, including think than high-identity-integrated biculturals creativity, psychological adjustment, various as- (Mok & Morris, 2010b). Moreover, biculturalism has pects of the self-concept, and individual skills and been found to be associated with a more global rath- performance. Importantly, a review of the findings er than local cognitive processing style (Mok & Mor- across outcome variables has shown that many of ris, 2012). these effects are driven by increases in different Bilingualism also seems to produce lasting cogni- types of cognitive and behavioral flexibility, such tive changes by altering overall executive functioning as increased learning and adaptation, higher levels in the brain, affecting various cognitive skills includ- of integrative complexity, and enhanced executive ing enhanced attentional control, working memory, functioning. Indeed, some research has demon- metalinguistic awareness and abstract and symbolic strated that diversifying experiences in general, representation skills, as well as being associated with such as being exposed to unusual events or schema slower cognitive declines as a result of aging (Ade- violations (such as completing a mundane topic in sope, Lavin, Thompson, & Ungerleider, 2010; Baum- an unusual way), increase general cognitive flexi- gart & Billick, 2018; Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012). bility (Lu, Akinola, & Mason, 2017; Ritter et al., Multilingualism is also associated with the ability to 2012). However, there are also important individu- distinguish between a variety of physical sounds, in- al and contextual elements of these experiences cluding those involving music (Krizman et al., 2012). that seem to determine whether and to what extent Interestingly, the use of a foreign language seems to changes emerge. When multicultural experiences actually change our psychological perceptions of the facilitate openness, adaptation, learning, and cog- world overall by providing social and emotional dis- nitive complexity, they lead to higher levels of cre- tance from certain decisions and decision-frames ativity, psychological adjustment, and general (Hayakawa, Costa, Foucart, & Keysar, 2016; Pavlenko, performance. Conversely, situations involving 2017). As a result, foreign language use reduces sus- threat, close-mindedness, and conflict seem to pre- ceptibility to certain types of cognitive biases, such as vent such effects from occurring. framing decisions as gains versus losses (Keysar et al., 2012) and susceptibility to the “hot hand fallacy” INTERPERSONAL OUTCOMES (Gao et al., 2015). Finally, multicultural experiences may provide Humans are fundamentally social in nature, and benefits for various aspects of individual perfor- we derive much of our self-worth from the quality of mance. For example, individuals who spend time our interactions with others (Baumeister & Leary, working abroad have been shown to have higher sala- 1995). Our species evolved in small- to moderately- ries than those who do not (Biemann & Braakmann, sized group environments, and we continue to spend 2013). In addition, MBA students with higher multi- much of our lives in the modern world surrounded cultural engagement (i.e., adaptation plus learning of by other people, both at home and at work. As a re- the host culture) had more success in job interviews at sult, our relationships with friends, romantic part- the end of their 10-month program (Maddux et al., ners, and colleagues dominate a large part of our 2014). Higher levels of cultural intelligence (Earley & waking hours and the majority of our topics of con- Ang, 2003) have been shown to lead to higher joint versation (Dunbar, 2004). Given the importance of gain in negotiation contexts, ostensibly because high sociality for the human experience, the effect of mul- cultural intelligence negotiators are better able to rec- ticultural experiences on various interpersonal out- ognize value trade-offs in integrative negotiations comes has also received substantial attention from (Imai & Gelfand, 2010). Similarly, Israeli Americans researchers. In this section, we turn our attention to working in the technology industry in Silicon Valley these interpersonal effects.
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