September 27, 2019

Research centre promotes better understanding of human workplace interactions

Centre will focuses on cross-cultural management theory and practice

The University of Wollongong Faculty of Business’s newest research centre, the Centre for Cross-Cultural Management (CCCM), was officially opened on Friday, 27 September.

Cross-cultural management involves managing work teams in ways that considers the differences in cultures, practices and preferences of individuals within an organisation in a global business context.

Leading US academic Distinguished Professor Wayne Cascio, Robert H. Reynolds Chair in Global Leadership at the University of Colorado, Denver, delivered the keynote speech at the launch event. A world-renowned expert in management and human resources, Professor Cascio also took part in a panel discussion.

The Centre will promote interdisciplinary research into the influence of culture on human relations, work-related outcomes, interpersonal experience, and identity construction in organisational settings.

Research themes include human resource management, business ethics and leadership, technological and digital revolution, identity construction and interpersonal experience, and immigration, diversity and wellbeing.

CCCM Director Professor Mario Fernando said the Centre will conduct original research, engage in industry consultation, and promote better understanding of human interactions in the workplace to inform scholarship and policy decision-making.

“CCCM aims to become a leading research centre dedicated to advancing, applying and promoting theory and practice on cross-cultural and intracultural management in organisations,” Professor Fernando said.

“It will develop research across global and local scales of influence and action concerning the intersection of culture with class, gender, ethnicity, religion, language, sexual orientation, technological and digital revolution, and other emerging sites of human interaction.”