Farh Crystal I C, Liao Hui, Shapiro Debra L, Shin Jiseon, Guan Olivia Zhishuang
Michael G. Foster School of Business.
Robert H. Smith School of Business.
J Appl Psychol. 2021 Apr;106(4):582-598. doi: 10.1037/apl0000647. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
How can employees of multinational corporations (MNCs) who are dispersed in various locations around the globe feel included? Integrating social capital theory and the MNC literature regarding resource and status differences between employees located in headquarter (HQ) versus non-HQ (i.e., subsidiary) country locations, we examined the role of the focal employee's professional advice ties and specifically their centrality as a source of advice to HQ contacts in enhancing inclusion. Moreover, we assessed the efficacy of two agentic strategies (i.e., cross-border work and access to well-connected site leaders) in facilitating the formation of inclusion-enhancing professional advice ties and whether their impact depends additionally on the focal employee's location inside or outside HQ country locations. Testing our predictions in a sample of 362 MNC employees dispersed across 33 sites, our findings showed that being central as a source of professional advice to HQ contacts enhanced employees' perceived inclusion. We also found that although employees in non-HQ countries suffered a "geographic disadvantage" in building professional advice ties to HQ contacts, these employees gained centrality as a source of professional advice to HQ contacts when they engaged in work that required cross-border interactions, especially when they also had site leaders who were well-connected. For employees located inside HQ countries, their professional advice ties to other HQ contacts were facilitated by having well-connected site leaders. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings and provide practical recommendations for enhancing the inclusion of MNC employees based on whether they are located inside or outside of HQ countries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
分散在全球各地的跨国公司（MNC）员工如何才能感到被包容？整合社会资本理论以及关于总部（HQ）与非总部（即子公司）所在国员工之间资源和地位差异的跨国公司文献，我们研究了核心员工的专业建议关系的作用，特别是他们作为向总部联系人提供建议的来源的中心性在增强包容性方面的作用。此外，我们评估了两种主动策略（即跨境工作和接触人脉广泛的站点负责人）在促进形成增强包容性的专业建议关系方面的效果，以及它们的影响是否还取决于核心员工在总部所在国境内还是境外的位置。在对分布于33个站点的362名跨国公司员工的样本中检验我们的预测，我们的研究结果表明，作为向总部联系人提供专业建议的来源处于中心地位可增强员工的感知包容性。我们还发现，尽管非总部所在国的员工在与总部联系人建立专业建议关系方面面临“地理劣势”，但当他们从事需要跨境互动的工作时，尤其是当他们还有人脉广泛的站点负责人时，这些员工作为向总部联系人提供专业建议的来源获得了中心地位。对于总部所在国境内的员工而言，有人脉广泛的站点负责人有助于他们与其他总部联系人建立专业建议关系。我们讨论了研究结果的理论意义，并根据员工是在总部所在国境内还是境外，为增强跨国公司员工的包容性提供了实际建议。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
