Crosscultural Management

Human Relations http://hum.sagepub.com/ Cross-cultural perception and power dynamics across changing organizational and national contexts: Curaçao and the Netherlands
Coen Heijes Human Relations 2011 64: 653 originally published online 23 December 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0018726710386394 The online version of this article can be found at: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/64/5/653

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human relations

Cross-cultural perception and power dynamics across changing organizational and national contexts: Curaçao and the Netherlands
Coen Heijes

human relations 64(5) 653–674 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0018726710386394 hum.sagepub.com

University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract In this article we study the role of power and power differences in cross-cultural perception. We do so by way of exploratory case studies in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the police in the Netherlands and Curaçao. We demonstrate how crosscultural perception between two specific ethnic groups, European Dutch and African Curaçaoans, changes depending on the amount of power imbalance in the various organizational and national contexts. With this article, we follow the call for research on the impact of power dynamics on cross-cultural perception, an approach that goes beyond the traditional,

Citations: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/64/5/653.refs.html >> Version of Record - Apr 18, 2011 OnlineFirst Version of Record - Dec 23, 2010 What is This? Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 human relations Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 654 Human Relations 64(5) description of national cultures as its basis (Tsui et al., 2007) Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 Heijes 655 This anthropological perspective has recently found its way into organization literature and has been extensively discussed by McSweeney (2008, 2009) Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 656 Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 Heijes Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 658 Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013 Heijes Downloaded from hum.sagepub.com at University of Hertfordshire on January 23, 2013