becoming ambicultural: a personal quest…ibs.nankai.edu.cn/files/file/20150630/becoming...

2013 Presidential Address

BECOMING AMBICULTURAL:A PERSONAL QUEST, AND ASPIRATION

FOR ORGANIZATIONS

MING-JER CHENUniversity of Virginia

In many ways management theory and practice, like life, are anchored in opposites.Dichotomies abound: East and West, global and local, research and teaching, schol-arship and practice, among many others. But are they truly oppositional? Taking abroad view of “culture” as a concept that encapsulates all human affairs, I proposethat an “ambicultural” perspective and approach offer a way to integrate the bestqualities of what may appear to be irreconcilable opposites. Expanding on my August2013 Academy of Management presidential address, I suggest that guideposts togaining this perspective can be found in both my personal journey and my experi-ences in research, teaching, and professional service and that “becoming ambicul-tural” is a process that individuals and organizations alike can undergo to bridgedivides and unite “opposites.” In this article I connect the ambicultural view toimplications for management and organization research, for professional and per-sonal growth, for the future of the Academy, and for attainment of a balance andenlightenment transcending differences. My research in competitive dynamics offersan example of ambicultural integration of Chinese philosophy and Western socialsciences.

If the business world is, in fact, “growingsmaller”—a phenomenon evidenced by the glo-balization of commerce and accelerated by dig-ital interconnectivity—it is a new world stillmarked by old divides. East and West, competi-

tion and cooperation, technology and manufac-turing: these are but a few among many entitiesperceived and perpetuated as opposites. Theidea of “ambiculturalism” advances the per-spective that dichotomies can be integrated byseparating the wheat from the chaff—extractingthe best and culling the worst to produce a bet-ter, optimized, even enlightened result, be itproduct, service, management practice, or hu-man behavior. The effect of an ambicultural ap-proach to business, education, and life is a bal-ance that can close the chasms separatingformer “opposites.”

The construct of culture has been studied ex-tensively in the management literature. In thespirit of Confucian tradition (Ku, 1920), I take acapacious view of culture, or “wen” (文), a broadnotion that encompasses all human affairs.1 In

This article is dedicated to my East-West mentors, MasterAixinjueluo Yu-Yun and William H. Newman. I am gratefulto Stephen Carroll, Jr., Y. P. Chan, Don Hambrick, AdelaideKing, Leigh Anne Liu, John Michel, Danny Miller, Jan Rivkin,Anne Tsui, Nancy Urbanowicz, Andy Van de Ven, and JimWalsh for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of thepaper. I thank Kelly Mitchell of the Academy of Managementand Wan-Chien Lien, Hao-Chieh Lin, Wenchen Lin, andChen Zhang for their technical and logistical support for myspeech, as well as my son Abraham, who created the globalmontage audiovisual tour that was shown at the conclusionof the Sunday program, and my wife, Moh-Jiun, whose firstAcademy attendance in my twenty-five plus years of confer-ence participation gave me immeasurable moral support. Ialso thank Charles F. Tucker, Jr., for his friendship andprofessional assistance and support over the years. Thanksalso are due to the participants of the Darden-McIntireCORE Seminar at the University of Virginia. Financial sup-port from the Darden Foundation and the Batten Institute,University of Virginia, is gratefully acknowledged. The fullvideo of my speech may be viewed at the Academy of Man-agement’s video library and my personal website, www.mingjerchen.com.

1 According to Ku, who offered one of the most authorita-tive English translations and interpretations of Confucius’thoughts, “When true moral being and moral order are real-ized (致中和), the universe then becomes a cosmos andall things attain their full growth and development(天地位焉，萬物育焉). . . . The virtue by which the universeshall become a cosmos is called wen (fulfillment)” (1920: 15).

� Academy of Management Review2014, Vol. 39, No. 2, 119–137.http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0493

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this conception culture is both a way of think-ing—following, for example, “the collectivemental programming of human mind” (Hofstede,1980: 16)—and a mode of action—“patterns ofbehavior” (Kroeber, Kluckhohn, & Untereiner,1952) or “communication” (Hall & Hall, 1990).Considered as a social construct, cultures maybe demarcated by geography (e.g., East andWest), industry (business and nongovernmentalorganizations), professional groups (academicsand practitioners), or disciplinary groups (econ-omists and sociologists) or by managementpractice and strategy (competitive and coopera-tive), to name a few (Liu, Friedman, Barry, Gelf-and, & Zhang, 2012). Ambiculturalism is in-formed by these various conceptions of cultureat multiple levels of analysis in differentcontexts.

Delineating the defining features of ambicul-turalism helps distinguish the concept from re-lated ideas, such as biculturalism (Benet-Martinez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002; Mok & Morris,2012) or multiculturalism (Fitzsimmons, 2013;Parekh, 2000; Taylor, 1991), yin-yang (Fang, 2011;Li, 2012), dialectic thinking (Lewis, 2000), andambidexterity (Smith & Tushman, 2005). Wemight consider the distinctions in two ways.First, in terms of context and level of analysis,ambicultural is multilevel and varied in na-ture—it can be applied to the individual, group,firm, and society—whereas the context for bicul-tural or multicultural, for instance, is typicallynational or ethnic and ambidexterity appliesmainly to individual and organizational levels(O’Reilly & Tushman, in press). Second, ambicul-turalism has both strong behavioral tendencies(Swidler, 1986) and cognitive roots, whereasmulticulturalism and bicultural identity aremore cognitively rooted. Given its action orien-tation, ambiculturalism, as implied in the title ofthis article, is a continuous act of becoming,with emphasis on the process of learning andgrowing, rather than an arrived at or ideal stateof being. The root of the prefix “ambi,” meaning“around” and “both,” conveys an active and on-going striving for expansiveness andinclusiveness.

Ambiculturalism aims to integrate and opti-mize the best of two (or more) “cultures” while

eliminating the worst; thus, the ambiculturalperspective recognizes not only the strengthsbut the pitfalls of Western and Eastern (repre-sented here by Chinese) business models (Chen& Miller, 2010). Further, ambiculturalism empha-sizes the merits of both/and integration as op-posed to either/or division; thus, the notion ofparadoxical synthesis (and/or interdependence)of opposites (Chen, 2008; Jay, 2013; Poole & Vande Ven, 1989; Smith & Lewis, 2011), with philo-sophical roots in Eastern, yin-yang, and holisticthinking, is essential to the ambicultural con-cept.2 In this vein, ambiculturalism implies bal-ance and integration not only of geoeconomiccultures, such as East and West or global andlocal, but across a wide range of “opposites,”such as teaching and practice or profit and non-profit organizations. Finally, boundary condi-tions exist for this concept such that the focalentities should have the necessary knowledgeand appreciation of each culture and recognizethe potential merit of blending the two, be mo-tivated to integrate cultures, and possess a com-petence to do so.

In this article I take the position that the worldis rife with divisions; that these divides can beaddressed, bridged, and reconciled through anambicultural approach akin to the one I havesought to follow in my life; and that embracingthe idea of ambiculturalism promises profoundimplications—both immediate and long term—for organizations, business managers, andscholars. The example of my personal and pro-fessional journey should not be interpreted as abiographical review; rather, it provides a casestudy to put forward the promising idea of am-biculturalism, especially from a processviewpoint.

The article begins with my ambicultural jour-ney as an individual learner and a scholar incompetitive dynamics (a field that exemplifiesambicultural application in the academicarena). I then discuss my organization-buildingeffort within the broad context of the Academy of

Similarly, from I Ching (the Book of Change): “Observe thehuman world to enculturate people (觀乎人文以化成天下).”

2 Chen and Miller identify qualities of ambiculturalismas, among others, “an ability to see the wisdom and strengthin other cultural and business paradigms; . . . dedication tointegrating global awareness into everyday ac-tions; . . . ability to balance social good and self-interest; . . . commitment to continued learning . . . and, ul-timately, to reaching the pinnacles of professionalachievement and humanity” (2010: 22).

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Management community. I conclude with re-search and managerial implications of the ideaof ambiculturalism.

AMBICULTURAL LEARNING ON THEEAST-WEST DIVIDE—AND BEYOND

Two cultures and continents—Eastern andWestern, Asia and North America—define thecontext for my life. In my career I have sought tobridge research and teaching, pursuing, usuallysimultaneously, diverse and sometimes conflict-ing activities alongside my academic research:teaching of all kinds, professional and commu-nity service, and managerial practice. Through-out my life and career, I have strived to be anambicultural learner, an aspiration formedthrough my early life experience.

A Personal Journey and Aspiration

A modest beginning gave me a view of theworld from the fringes. I was born and raised inone of the most undeveloped towns in Taiwan,where I lived with my family until the age ofseventeen. Today, although my thoughts andactions continue to be informed by the marginalperspective of my youth, I see through an expan-sive prism. For this I have the mentoring of twoinspiring role models to thank, one in the East inmy early life, the other in the West as I made myway through an academic and professionalmaze that was as new and incredible to me asNew York City compared with my hometown.

Before I left Taiwan, it was my good fortune tostudy the Chinese classics with a masterteacher, Aixinjueluo Yu-Yun (愛新覺羅·毓鋆), anephew of the “Last Emperor” of China (Chen,2002). Master Yu himself was a “student” for acentury, and he taught for more than sixty yearsuntil his death, in 2011, at the age of 106.3 Underhis tutelage I had the opportunity to read theoriginal work of sixteen of the most famous phi-losophers from the era considered the peak of

ancient Chinese civilization (772–222 BC). Thisincluded intensive immersion in Sun Tzu andmyriad interpretations of his work, which laterwould profoundly influence my research in com-petitive dynamics. Although the term manage-ment was foreign to Master Yu (this was not aconcept he ever articulated), what he taught mewas management of humanity.

In the West I was fortunate and honored to bementored by William H. Newman during the lasttwelve years of his life. The sixth president ofthe Academy of Management, Bill was a giant inthe management field, both as an academic anda practitioner (the Academy’s prestigious awardfor “best paper based on a dissertation” isnamed in his honor). Before going on to distin-guished tenures at the Wharton School and Co-lumbia Business School, Bill started his careerin the business world as a protégé of JamesMcKinsey.4 Among the many words of wisdomand values Bill passed on to me, I took to hearttwo pieces of advice in particular. The first was“Be yourself, and aspire steadfastly to the high-est levels of integrity and dignity.” This princi-ple helped me to think clearly when I foundmyself in situations of confusion or when I facedtough professional challenges. Bill showed mehow to keep my standards up, and not at theexpense of others. The second indelible lessonhe imparted was the ability to see beyond cur-rent horizons and past the unseen. In a practicalsense, this translates into a capacity for seeingthe opposite in adverse situations.5 Throughthese life lessons Bill reminded me of my owncultural heritage, and I often perceived him asmore “Chinese” than many of my Chinesefriends.6

The juxtaposition of images of my East-Westmentors, Master Yun-Yu and Bill Newman (Fig-ure 1), symbolizes the genesis of my ambicul-tural makeup.

3 In addition to teaching hundreds of now well-accom-plished students in Taiwan over six decades, including thecurrent prime minister of Taiwan, Master Yu also taught andmentored many renowned sinologists in the United States,among them Peter K. Bol, of Harvard University; DonaldMunro, of the University of Chicago; Nathan Sivin, of theUniversity of Pennsylvania; and Frederic Wakeman, Jr., ofthe University of California, Berkeley.

4 James McKinsey was founder of the management con-sulting firm McKinsey & Company.

5 Bill’s pragmatic wisdom captured an idea, now familiarin the West, expressed etymologically in the Chinese wordfor “crisis,” which in one translation combines the two “op-posite” characters for danger and opportunity. In this con-notation every adversity holds the seed of opportunity.

6 Within the authentic Confucius tradition, “Chinese” isconsidered a way of thinking rather than a term defined byethnicity. Please see the Great Learning (Da Xue大學), one ofthe Four Books (四書).

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Between these periods of profound mentor-ship, I was shaped by a formational experiencethat was essential to my scholarly progressionand enabled me to begin to bridge my East-Westgap. As a newly arrived foreign student in the1980s at the University of Maryland, the onlydoctoral program that admitted me, I was aidedimmeasurably by faculty members who took meunder their wing and taught me both the profes-sional skills and humanity concerns that haveserved me in the years since.7 These scholarsalso helped me adjust to my new home as Ilearned the nuances of Western culture and so-cial customs. With their assistance and throughobservation and disciplined practice, I made myfirst big strides toward ambiculturalism.

The fusion of East and West would come tocharacterize my academic and professional tra-jectories. Since graduating from the Universityof Maryland, I have taught at schools whosehistories are intertwined with those of Americanfounding fathers and presidents: Columbia Uni-versity, the University of Pennsylvania, and theUniversity of Virginia. I was placed at the heartof American tradition—it is impossible to liveand work in New York, Philadelphia, and Char-

lottesville without being acutely aware of thelegacies of Hamilton, Franklin, and Jefferson,leaders both of their times and ahead of theirtimes (with aspirations that appear, through thelens of history, as quite ambicultural). Mygrowth as a balanced business academic is duein large measure to my life in these academiccommunities. The contrasting and sometimesopposing experiences I had at these institu-tions8 caused me to be deeply concerned aboutthe divides in academia, in business, and inhuman lives. At the same time these experi-ences also prepared me for undertaking ambi-cultural drives on multiple fronts.

By way of illustration, a few years ago I spokeat several large global forums. In Buenos Aires,São Paulo, and Milan, the biggest concern ex-pressed by Western business leaders was the“China threat.” I ended the trip on the other sideof the globe at a meeting in Beijing, where LarryLang (the provocative finance expert/business

7 These scholars include Samuel Kotz, Alan N. Nash, thelate Frank T. Paine, and Lee E. Preston, as well as StephenCarroll, Jr., Martin J. Gannon, Kenneth G. Smith, CurtisGrimm, Edwin Locke, and Katherine Bartol. The list of men-tors should also include Mary Waldron, assistant director ofthe Maryland doctoral program, and her family.

8 There are interesting contrasts among these schools.Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania/Wharton, for instance, are research institutions, while teach-ing is paramount at University of Virginia/Darden. AtDarden, case and book writing are recognized as research;at Columbia and Wharton, to a great extent only publica-tions in four leading journals are considered research.Darden maintains an open-door policy; posting office hoursis taboo, since faculty members are expected to meet withstudents at any time, unlike a more conventional policy,where office hours are seen as a sign of responsibility.

FIGURE 1My East-West Mentors: Yu-Yun (1906–2011) and William H. Newman (1909–2002)


celebrity known as “China’s Larry King”) gave atalk titled, “The Colonization of China by West-ern Multinational Firms.” Thus, in both hemi-spheres I found myself in an unanticipated am-bicultural role. To Western audiences I wascompelled to explain that in adopting such col-orful expressions as “China threat,” they shouldconsider factors A, B, and C; to Chinese audi-ences I suggested that they take into account X,Y, and Z before accepting “loaded” generaliza-tions about either China or the West. Consider-ing if not necessarily incorporating the other’sview is the first and perhaps most essential steptoward becoming ambicultural.

In aspiring to “make the world smaller,” Ihave tried steadfastly to follow a tenet of Con-fucian tradition: learning equates to practice(學行合一) and thinking equates to action(知行合一). Applying this principle requires oneto bridge pedagogy and practice. Thus, my life’saim has been to answer one big question: Howcan we transcend from “either/or” to “both/and”—and ultimately become ambicultural? Mywork in competitive dynamics, the focus of myresearch over the past three decades, offers anexample of ambicultural application in thescholarly arena.

Professional Path: Competitive Dynamics Asan Ambicultural Drive

Competitive dynamics is one of the majorlines of research that has emerged in the stra-tegic management field (Hambrick & Chen,2008). Interest in competitive dynamics contin-ues to rise because of recent theoretical andempirical advancements, such as Lamberg, Tik-kanen, Nokelainen, and Suur-Inkeroinen (2009),Markman, Gianiodis, and Buchholtz (2009),Kilduff, Elfenbein, and Staw (2010), Livengoodand Reger (2010), Zhang and Gimeno (2010), andTsai, Su, and Chen (2011), to name a few. Forinstance, Chen and Miller (2013) reconceptual-ized competitive dynamics using a multidimen-sional framework and expanded the researchdomain into cooperative and relational modesof interfirm competition, taking into account awide range of stakeholders with the aim of“raising all boats.” Witnessing and contributingto the emergence of this topic from a phenome-non (MacMillan, McCaffery, & Van Wijk, 1985) toa theoretical perspective (Chen, 1996; Chen &Miller, 2012) have been infinitely rewarding.

Although the intellectual development of com-petitive dynamics has been in the West, many ofits ideas can be traced to Chinese philosophy ortraditional systems of thought. The notion of “ir-reversibility” (Chen & MacMillan, 1992) can befound in a proverb about “sinking your boatbefore attacking your enemy” (破釜沉舟), and re-source-diversion strategies (McGrath, Chen, &MacMillan, 1998) correspond to the indirect com-petitive wisdom of “making noise in the Eastwhen attacking in the West” (聲東擊西). Stealthand selective attack (Chen & Hambrick, 1995)relate to “a small, nimble fighter who chal-lenges its giant opponent” (以小博大), and therival-centric perspective in competitor analysis(Tsai et al., 2011) puts to the test a well-knowndoctrine of Chinese military strategist and phi-losopher Sun Tzu: “If you know yourself andknow your opponent, you can win 100 wars”(知己知彼、百戰百勝). The list could go on. Thus,competitive dynamics—bridging Chinese tradi-tional thought and Western social science re-search—is a research topic that embraces andintegrates, equally, Eastern and Western ideasand practices.

More fundamentally, the ideas of duality andrelativity form the basis of Chinese philosophy.In Chinese ren (仁) means humanity, as well ascore, or the seed of a fruit. The character ren iscomposed of “two” (二) � “person” (人): no personexists except in relationship to another. Theidea of “self-other integration” (人-我-合)—whichregards two opposites (such as “self” and“other”) as interdependent, together forming atotality (“integration”)9—is a cornerstone of Chi-nese thinking (Chen, 2002). Making the intellec-tual connection to competitive dynamics, “self”can be equated to a focal firm or an action thefirm initiates, while “other” is analogous to acompetitor under consideration or a response itundertakes. Going a step further, competitionand cooperation may be seen as two sides of thesame coin, and their relationship of interdepen-dence is ambicultural in nature, as reflected inthe notion of competition-cooperation (Chen,

9 The idea of complementary or interdependent oppo-sites—expressed as “both/and”—is rooted in the ancientChinese concept of yin and yang. The origin of the Westernnotion of dichotomies—“either/or”—is found in the Aristote-lian logic of mutually exclusive categories, propoundedmore recently in the Hegelian/Marxian dialectics (Chen,2008; Lewis, 2000; Poole & Van de Ven, 1989).

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2008). In competitive dynamics duality providesthe philosophical foundation for the action-response dyad, while relativity forms the basisfor the pairwise comparison between firms(Chen, 1996), the two central premises of this lineof work. Because of the “relational” philosophi-cal foundation, the awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) and market commonality–resource similarity (MC-RS) perspectives can beused for both competitive and cooperative anal-yses and applications (Chen & Miller, 2013).

Methodologies and frameworks are integral toWestern social sciences, and Western businesspractices are standardized and quantifiable; asa result, many tools have been developed toresolve practical problems. In contrast, the Chi-nese (as broadly representative of Eastern cul-ture and philosophy), with a longer cultural leg-acy, tend to be more experience or action driven.

Differences notwithstanding, advantages canbe found in each. With its emphasis on dualityand relativity, competitive dynamics is an am-bicultural integration between Chinese philos-ophy and Western social sciences. To show howcompetitive dynamics optimally bridges Eastand West, philosophy and science, and scholar-ship and practice, Exhibit 1 organizes this line ofresearch along four domains (philosophy, sys-tematic knowledge, case studies, and tools).

Equally important, competitive dynamics pro-vides a promising platform for micro-macro in-tegration in management research (Chen &Miller, 2012). This is significant because microand macro divides have long presented a net-tlesome challenge for the management field.

In retrospect, for more than twenty years Iwas focused on adhering to the Western socialsciences paradigm in my work on competitive

EXHIBIT 1Competitive Dynamics: An Ambicultural View

Duality and relativity: (ren or “core”) (two) (individuals) Self-other “integration” (He): - -

Philosophy

The action-response dyad The awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) perspective Pairwise competitor analysis based on market commonality and resource similarity (MC-RS) The opponent-centric view

The Battle for Logan Airport: AA vs. JetBlue The Battle of the Asian Transshipment Hubs: PSA vs. PTP

Cases

Tools AMC assessment

Your company is about to launch a new initiative (e.g., a new product or a price cut). Please apply the CD-AMC framework to anticipate your primary competitor’s response(s). How should you prepare for such a response?

Awareness Motivation Capability Overall

evaluation

Competitor A

Competitor B

Competitor C

Competitor D

Competitor E

MC-RS assessment

Please apply the MC-RS framework to identify and analyze the competitors of your company.

Marketcommonality

Low High

High

Low

Resource similarity

Systematic knowledge


dynamics. Looking back one day, I was sur-prised— even shocked—to discover the rele-vance of Chinese philosophy to my Westernsocial science research (Chen, 2002). Only thendid I realize the impact that ancient Chinesethoughts, particularly duality and relativity, hadon my research. (In an unrelated experience, Icame to realize how I had benefited from thework of the journalist Ted Koppel, the master ofincisive questioning whose groundbreakingtelevision news magazine, Nightline, I watcheddevotedly when I arrived in the United States[Chen, 2010]. His professionalism and interroga-tive approach influenced my research, teaching,and practical work.) Pulling from unconnectedpieces or even opposites thus has profoundlyenriched my intellectual and professionalgrowth. Likewise, to me, teaching in a classroomis no different from writing a paper or deliveringa business address—they are “one” and thesame thing (Chen, 2012); only the audience andformat are different.

In sum, divisions such as those separatingEast and West, micro and macro, scholarshipand practice, and philosophy and science areomnipresent. So then are opportunities for am-bicultural integration (see Exhibit 2), as I haveexperienced in my personal and professionaljourney.

DEVELOPINGAMBICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

A few years ago I mentioned to Andy Van deVen, of the University of Minnesota, that the titleof his book Engaged Scholarship (2007) was re-dundant in the Chinese context, to the extentthat it relates to scholarly interaction beyond

the borders of academia. In contrast to the “ivorytower” notion of academia, in the Chinese con-text a scholar must always be engaged, caringfor others and the community at large; in thisway theory is translated into practice. SomeWestern scholars have embraced a “broaderand more capacious” conception of scholarship,as Andy puts it, and he cites Boyer: “The work ofthe scholar also means stepping back from one’sinvestigation, looking for connections, buildingbridges between theory and practice” (1990: 16).In the East the scholar’s social role and missionhave been regarded as virtually sacrosanct foralmost 5,000 years. In accord with this ancienttradition, Chinese intellectuals, in fact, are notconsidered scholars until they “practice whatthey preach.” It is this ideal of “passion andcompassion” at the personal level (Tsui, 2013)that has so profoundly influenced academiathroughout Chinese history.

My own pursuit of scholarly responsibilitythrough engagement may be described as a bal-anced academic career, with equal emphasis onresearch, teaching, practice, and service (Chen,2010).10 As well as being involved in the Acad-emy of Management since my doctoral studies, Ihave made ambicultural efforts part of myscholarly mission to bridge gaps between Eastand West, research and teaching, and scholar-ship and practice. These initiatives include theChinese Management Scholars Community andvarious activities, such as scholar mentorship,in China and other parts of the world; the GlobalChinese Business Initiative; the InternationalConference on Competitive Dynamics; and theWangdao Management Program. Below I look atsome of these experiences.

Academy of Management

Without question, the most gratifying honorof my professional life was election in 2009 tothe presidency of the Academy of Manage-ment for the 2012–2013 term. Through this ser-vice I was given a unique opportunity to putmy ambicultural commitment into practice atthe intellectual and organizational levels in

10 For adopting this research-practice-teaching emphasis,I am indebted to my former colleagues and mentors at Co-lumbia, including Donald C. Hambrick, Kathy R. Harrigan,Michael Tushman, and Joel Brockner, during the “imprint-ing” stage of my career.

EXHIBIT 2Ambicultural in Action

Opposites Ambicultural integration

East vs. West East–WestGlobal vs. Local Global-LocalResearch vs. Teaching Research-TeachingRigor vs. Relevance Rigor-RelevanceScholarship vs. Practice Scholarship-PracticeMicro vs. Macro Micro-MacroCompetition vs. Cooperation Competition-CooperationMainstream vs. Minority Mainstream-MinorityProfit vs. Nonprofit Profit-NonprofitProfessionalism vs. Humanity Professionalism-Humanity

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an institution I had long revered. Accordingly,companion articles in the Academy of Man-agement Perspectives (Chen & Miller, 2010,2011) sketched out the East-West theme of mypresidency and advanced the idea of ambicul-tural management and the related concept ofrelational perspective.

The 2011 conference. As program chair of the2011 Academy annual conference, in San Anto-nio, Texas, I chose as the theme “West MeetsEast: Enlightening, Balancing, and Transcend-ing.” The topic focused on the need for organi-zations, managers, and scholars from differentcountries and cultural backgrounds to becomeenlightened about balancing differences andtranscending divides. More important, I hopedto highlight the ambicultural promise of not onlytranscending but synthesizing opposites. The il-lustration for the meeting program (Figure 2),with Shanghai reflected in New York, symbol-izes my view of the potential for ambiculturalintegration.

The 2011 All-Academy Theme Chair, HarvardUniversity’s Jan Rivkin, elaborated this idea inthe call for submissions:

The theme offers two related interpretations. Atone level, the theme invites us to examine . . . theimplications of the East’s (re)emergence for busi-ness leaders, management scholars, and theAcademy itself. At a deeper level, . . . how canbusiness leaders and scholars gain enlighten-ment from the contrasts we inevitably encounterin management? How can we achieve balancebetween opposites? How can we transcend an-tithesis and draw strength from differences?

At the Sunday morning opening of the confer-ence, Jan and I turned tradition on its head andengaged the Academy community in a town hallconversation centered on this question: “As aresearcher and a teacher, what can you do to getthe best, and avoid the worst, from West meet-ing East?” Our goal in asking this question wasto raise ambicultural awareness among Acad-emy members and to spark greater expansive-ness in management research.11

11 This community brainstorming also set the stage for anAcademy of Management Journal special forum (guest ed-ited by Harry Barkema, Xiao-Ping Chen, Gerard George,Yadong Luo, and Anne Tsui), which is scheduled for publi-cation in 2014.

FIGURE 2The 2011 Academy Conference Theme: “West Meets East, or New York Meets Shanghai”


Challenges ahead. The Academy is now at acrossroads, with three forces converging: rapidgrowth, which requires professional manage-ment within the context of a long-standing cul-ture of volunteerism; the relevance and profes-sional impact of scholarship in society; and thepressure and opportunity to grow internation-ally in such a way that academic colleaguesand institutions around the globe do not per-ceive expansion as intellectual imperialism.Consider the Academy’s membership composi-tion during 2013 and it becomes clear why “Westmeets East” has special meaning at this junc-ture. Membership has grown by more than60 percent over the past twelve years, withnearly 47 percent of the 19,000-some membersand 40 percent of divisional leaders spreadacross 109 different countries outside NorthAmerica. Exhibit 3 displays the increasing inter-national makeup of the Academy in member-ship and divisional leadership from 2001 to 2013(a trend that did not occur in the Board of Gov-ernors until 2010).12

Like most large, multinational organizations,the Academy finds itself facing unique globalchallenges. At the most fundamental level, howwill demographic shifts within the organizationreshape the management profession and schol-arly pursuits? What questions does global ex-pansion raise about differences in research andteaching missions, as a result of different con-ceptions of scholars and teachers? Will we, asAcademy members, be bystanders or construc-tive contributors to the debate on critical busi-ness issues of global significance?

Going a step further, the Academy, despite itssuccess and growth, faces not only issues ofglobalization but a number of ambiculturalchallenges. How can we, as academic and prac-titioner members of the Academy, balance a richtradition and legacy of volunteerism with theneed now for the Academy to “professionalize”or take a business development orientation?13

How can we help the organization fulfill its po-

tential for becoming an exemplar global enter-prise by integrating, in our personal and profes-sional lives, the best of East and West, globaland local, tradition and innovation, researchand teaching, and scholarship and practice?How can we strive simultaneously for profes-sionalism and humanity, both personally and inour responsibility as members of the Academy?Ultimately, how can we help bring the best ofthe Academy of Management to the world andthe best of the world to the Academy?

12 The Academy has twenty-three divisions and two inter-est groups. Division leaders are three to five members of theexecutive committee in each division who are in the “gov-ernance rotation” cohort.

13 The Academy owes Nancy Urbanowicz, its first and onlyexecutive director, a great deal. Thanks to Nancy and thecompetent and dedicated team she has put together over thepast eighteen years, strong management is in place for

making an ambicultural integration of professionalism andvolunteerism possible.

EXHIBIT 3The Increasing International Composition of

the Academy of Management (Percentageby Year)

0

20

40

60

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100

2000 2005 2010 2013

Perc

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Year

Membership

U.S.

Non-U.S.

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2000 2005 2010 2013

Perc

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Divisional leaders

U.S.

Non-U.S.

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2000 2005 2010 2013

Perc

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Board of Governors

U.S.

Non-U.S.

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There have been some groundbreakingstrides in this direction. In 2013, for the first timein its seventy-three-year history, the Academyconvened a conference outside North America,in Johannesburg, South Africa (and sponsoredfaculty development workshops in Ghana andRwanda). Later in the year, a full day of theAcademy’s annual meeting was devoted to afirst-ever Teaching and Learning Conference(TLC).14 Programs such as these are emblematicof a forward-looking mission for the twenty-firstcentury.

Africa Conference revisited. A core group ofvisionaries and doers was responsible for mak-ing the dream of a symposium in Africa a reality(see Appendix A). Two of the coleaders offeredsome reflections on the conference in an inter-view for this article. Stella Nkomo (University ofPretoria) saw a global or ambicultural outcomefrom a “local” perspective:

The conference helped move interest in Africafrom the margins to the center and I believe AOMwill continue to reap benefits in the form of in-creased participation by African scholars. . . . Thelearning that took place in Africa was mutuallyconstructed as non-African scholars heard ques-tions they had not previously engaged and Afri-can scholars were pushed to temper the strongattachment to the uniqueness of the context.

Jim Walsh (University of Michigan) expressedsymbolically the promise of ambiculturalismrelative to the Academy’s global challenge-opportunity15:

What comes to mind is one of those iconic imagesof a farmer’s field in the middle of a drought—afield of dirt mottled by the deep cracks that formas the ground dries. When I think of the dividesand gaps in our world, I think of that kind offarmer’s dry field. All we need is water for thecracks to close and our work to bear fruit. Ourcracks and divides disappeared in Johannesburgwhen we connected to better understand and ad-dress the problems and opportunities we encoun-tered there. I suppose that the Johannesburg con-

ference is proof to me that with a little rain, ourfields can bear fruit.

The Academy must continue to look to itsmembership and to “movers and shakers,” suchas those behind the Africa and Teaching andLearning conferences. Figure 3 is a collage of pro-fessionals and volunteers who organized the 2011annual meeting. This is the collective face of theAcademy’s future and the hope for global—andambicultural—enterprise aspirations.

Over the past two decades, the number ofChinese management doctoral students andgraduates around the globe has steadily in-creased, keeping pace with the Academy’sgrowth in international membership. These co-inciding trends have opened the door of oppor-tunity for a variety of initiatives designed tobridge the management scholarship gap be-tween East and West.16 Some of these are con-sidered here.

Chinese Management ScholarsCommunity (CMSC)

Fostering young scholars and educators hasbeen central to my professional activities since Ihad the privilege of serving in the Academy’sBusiness Policy and Strategy Division doctoralconsortium in 1995. Within the East-West con-text, what began as a developmental work-shop with 26 participants at the Academy’s(2006) Atlanta conference has increased in sizeand membership annually, and in 2013 morethan 200 members attended CMSC’s annual

14 All credit for the success of this pioneering conferencegoes to my successors, Paul Adler (University of SouthernCalifornia) and Debra Shapiro (University of Maryland), aswell as TLC committee members Elena Antonacopoulou(University of Liverpool), Ken Brown (University of Iowa),Claudia Ferrante (U.S. Air Force Academy), Jeanie Forray(Western New England University), Chris Hannah (Univer-sity of Maryland University College), Jim Spee (University ofRedlands), and Toni Ungaretti (Johns Hopkins University).

15 Appendix A contains more of Stella’s and Jim’sresponses.

16 Many scholars have made notable East-West effortsover the past thirty years. Bill Newman, for instance, wasone of four American scholars who traveled to China in 1984to start executive and scholar development programs, andhis commitment to advancing Chinese management educa-tion never wavered until his final days. Anne Tsui gave upher career in the United States and created the managementdepartment at Hong Kong University of Science & Technol-ogy in the mid 1990s, which invited many Western scholarsto visit for extended periods of time. In 2002 Anne foundedthe International Association of Chinese Management Re-search (IACMR) and its journal, Management of Organiza-tional Review, with the explicit goal of bridging East andWest to advance scholarship in the Chinese context. IACMRaspired to serve as a platform for convening scholars fromthe East (China) and West to exchange ideas and research,form collaborations, and partner and support each other. Iwas honored to attend IACMR’s biennial conference in HongKong, in 2012, where I witnessed an inspiring gathering ofscholars.


programs. Many of these scholars haverisen through the academic ranks to positionsof leadership at universities around theworld.

Structured as an independent, open plat-form, CMSC offers mentoring programs andservices to Chinese (or Chinese-speaking)management scholars interested in becomingbalanced business academics and engagedscholars. The grassroots group of volunteeracademics is linked by Eastern and Westerninterests and guided by a mission to “pass thebaton” (傳承), and, as such, it derives its corevalues from the “middle” or “zhong” (中) phi-losophy: integrity, independence, harmony,balance, dynamics, and integration. Exhibit 4describes these values and conveys CMSC’sambicultural drive to integrate East and Westand academia and practice. With the work-

shop as its centerpiece, CMSC offers programssuch as reunions and research and teachingforums at the Academy’s annual meeting. Aswell as providing intellectual impetus and so-cial support, the community brings togetherkindred spirits linked by a global-local view.Moreover, it offers a template for those whowork outside the mainstream or who are newto a large and diverse international academicorganization such as the Academy.

With CMSC-type programs, any group of eth-nic or minority professionals can make contribu-tions—an important consideration in light of theAcademy’s historically strong U.S. orientation.17

Notably, the flow is both West to East and East to

17 When I traveled overseas during my term as presi-dent—seventy-five years after the Academy’s founding—I

FIGURE 3“Movers and Shakers” of the 2011 Academy Conference

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West, with CMSC members, most of whom arebased in North America and Europe, being in-strumental in connecting their professors andcolleagues in the West with their home culturesand institutions.

Other East-West Ambicultural Initiatives

For eleven days in 1997, at the invitation ofChina’s National MBA Education Advisory Com-mittee, I worked with a group of managementprofessors from the fifty-four MBA programs inChina at that time. This initiative was signifi-cant because the first Chinese MBA programhad been founded only three years before. Formost of these scholars, this was their first expo-sure to Western management education: theworkshop was an early ambicultural interfacebetween tried-and-true Western managerialknow-how and Chinese entrepreneurial drive

(in academia and business).18 In light of the ad-vances in management in China since then, the1997 workshop represents a harbinger of ambi-cultural learning in a broader global commu-nity. Of these two Chinese scholarly communi-ties, CMSC has adopted a global-local (oroutside-inside) view, while the China-basedgroup takes more of a local-global (or inside-outside) perspective.

Since 2010, annual conferences in GreaterChina have explored the ambicultural promiseof the competitive dynamics perspective. A de-cade earlier, the founding of the Global ChineseBusiness Initiative (GCBI) at Wharton gaveshape to ambiculturalism as a concept and per-spective. From 1997 to 2001 GCBI staged symposiain China and the United States, sponsored visitingChinese scholars, and convened forums and aspeaker series for international business academ-ics and practitioners at Wharton and in New York.More recently, I worked with Stan Shih, founder ofAcer Computer, on the Wangdao ManagementProgram, a social enterprise for developing East-West–balanced business leaders and world-classglobal enterprises. (I explain the concept of“wangdao” in the Managerial Implications sec-tion, below.)

Initiatives such as these are somewhat uncon-ventional, of course, lying outside the tradi-tional boundaries of the Academy; they are nei-ther scholarship- (at least from the prevailingacademic viewpoint in the United States) or in-stitution-based teaching platforms nor directAcademy activities. But they share the spirit ofthe Africa Conference and reflect the Academy’sincreasing international diversification, mani-festing the promise of ambiculturalism.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCHAND MANAGEMENT

There is a process to becoming an ambicul-tural professional or organization. It requires

was often referred to as president of the American Academyof Management.

18 They are true “locals” in global or Western educationand scholarship. A number of these academics are nowleaders and educators at their respective institutions. InSeptember 2013 in Beijing, on the same campus at TsinghuaUniversity where the 1997 workshop was held, we conveneda three-day reunion of this group of scholars, each of whombrought one of his or her junior colleagues. A China chapterof the CMSC has been created, and hosts for the next fiveyears have been lined up.

EXHIBIT 4Values of Chinese Management Scholars

Community (CMSC)

Our core values and guiding principles derive from the“middle” or “zhong” philosophy: integrity, harmony,balance, integration, dynamics, and independence.

• Integrity: We value trust, honesty, excellence, andhumanity. We strive to be academic professionalswho live up to the expectations of both Chinese andWestern societies and both academic and businesscommunities.

• Harmony: We stress sharing, mutual respect,reciprocity, and enduring relationships as essentialfor maintaining a nurturing and supportivecommunity.

• Balance: We embrace balance between the Chineseand Western worlds, between scholarship andpractice, and between career and life.

• Integration: We appreciate our cultural heritage andacademic backgrounds, and feel we are in a uniqueposition to bridge the gap between Chinese andWestern cultures and practices.

• Dynamics: We recognize the evolving nature of ourcommunity. We will grow together as a community,and we will adapt to the changing needs andexpectations of our members as they advance intheir careers.

• Independence: We believe that full independenceallows us to concentrate on serving our communitymembers, to hear what they want, and to understandhow best to serve them.


disciplined focus, expansiveness, and beingproactive while taking the long view. It de-mands a capacious notion (to use the academicarena as an example) of what exactly it meansto be a “scholar” and how a scholar should en-gage with others and with the professional com-munity and society at large. Undertaking thisprocess of becoming ambicultural suggests awealth of implications for research and man-agement. I consider these in turn.

Research Implications

A range of research studies in ambicultural-ism is possible. Fundamentally, scholars mightconsider the meaning of “ambiculturalism” andextended constructs, such as “ambicultural in-tegration,” and determine what exactly definesan “ambicultural professional or organization.”What is the conceptual distinction and connec-tion between ambiculturalism and other relatedconcepts, such as biculturalism, multicultural-ism, holistic thinking, and ambidexterity? Mind-ful of studies of ambidextrous organizations(Smith & Tushman, 2005) and executives (Tush-man, Smith, & Binns, 2011), researchers mightstudy, for instance, how ambicultural integra-tion can be applied to balance forms of oppos-ing organizational forces, such as innovationand tradition or flexibility and tight control, andovercome inertia within organizations. At thelevel of culture and organizational philosophy,researchers can investigate the idea of East-West integration as “disruptive innovation.”

In stakeholder management, what advan-tages can a firm gain by creating an organiza-tional culture combining diverse perspectivesand practices that balance the needs of variousstakeholders (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Par-mar, & de Colle, 2010)? Specifically, would it bepossible to integrate the best of shareholder per-spective, customer orientation, and employeeempowerment while avoiding the worst? Howcan the conventional opposites in interfirm be-havior—competition and cooperation—be inte-grated (Gnyawali & Madhavan, 2001)? In HRmanagement, what advantages are there in de-veloping HR systems to attract global talent andbalance local and global needs (Bird, Menden-hall, Stevens, & Oddou, 2010)? In ambidextrouslearning, how might the ambicultural perspec-tive be incorporated into the study of explor-atory and exploitive learning behaviors in

cross-border alliance or cooperation (Smith &Tushman, 2005)? Entrepreneurship researcherscould explore the value of integrating a newventure and an established business, and in thestudy of family business, scholars might studyhow the best of Eastern and Western familybusiness practices are or can be integrated(Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2005).

At the individual level, how can managerslearn to integrate and embrace the opposites ofdifferent cultures and practices, and how canambicultural managers be selected and devel-oped (Mok & Morris, 2012)? Who should “becomeambicultural”— only managers or leaders ofMNCs, or also IT professionals or marketers inlarge corporations, or all employees (Schuler,2011)? What is the role of cultural context in thedevelopment of ambicultural orientation? Howsimilar or different, for example, are a Chineseand Indian ambicultural manager or an Ameri-can and European ambicultural manager? Whathappens if a particular culture does not preparea manager for ambicultural management (Chen& Miller, 2010)?

Finally, in light of the changing makeup of theAcademy community, scholarly progress on theglobal front should keep pace with the organi-zation’s growth. Scholars should be encouragedto inject authentic managerial concepts fromdifferent parts of the world into the mainstreamresearch, which continues to be U.S. oriented.The ambicultural integration of competitive dy-namics research provides a workable model forthis pursuit.

Managerial Implications

Ambicultural organizations. The number offirms incorporating the ambicultural ethos andputting it into practice is increasing. Samsung,the South Korean global conglomerate, hasfused Western and Eastern managerial philoso-phies and practices and is a model of ambicul-tural management (Khanna, Song, & Lee, 2011).Lincoln Electric, a U.S.-based welding equip-ment manufacturer founded in the nineteenthcentury, provides another compelling example.The company’s approach to ambicultural man-agement includes balancing internal competi-tion and cooperation, social welfare and individ-ual interest, and tradition and entrepreneurship.The Harvard case study of Lincoln Electric (Fast &Berg, 1975; Siegel & Larson, 2009) has long been

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one of my favorites (Chen & Miller, 2010), not onlyfor the topic but because of the different waysstudents interpret it. Teaching the case to busi-ness executives in the United States, I haveheard comments ranging from “This is the bestform of capitalism” to “This company symbol-izes Japanese management.” In contrast, teach-ing the case in China to executives at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) often elicits suchcomments as “This is the best example of asocialist enterprise,” or they remark that Lincolnwould have been an SOE in the 1960s or that itrepresents the ideal of an SOE today (and thereare other interpretations as well: at a businessforum in 2012 in Guangzhou, a senior executivefrom Israel said, “I have been following LincolnElectric for almost twenty years, and I alwaysthink of it as a Jewish company!”).

Ambicultural professionals. As with organiza-tions like Lincoln Electric, consummate ambicul-tural professionals (Chen & Miller, 2011)— or“enlightened” managers and scholars—arecharacterized by certain distinct traits. Theseinclude an openness to new ways of thinking, acapacity for transcending divisions by embrac-ing ideas and practices from other parts of theworld, and an ability to see the wisdom andstrength in other cultural and business para-digms, culminating in a deeper understandingof their own culture. Ambicultural professionalsmanifest perspectives and skills that allowthem to work in any institution, region, or coun-try; demonstrate a lifelong drive to reach thepinnacles of their profession and of humanity;seek to balance social good and self-interest;and strive overall for a balanced, rewarding ca-reer and life. In extensive interviews with West-ern and Asian business leaders, Lynn Paineuncovered some of the noted attributes of ambi-cultural business professionals: “They are stra-tegic yet hands-on; disciplined yet entrepre-neurial; process-oriented yet sensitive to people;authoritative yet nurturing; firm yet flexible; andaction driven yet circumspect” (2010: 104).

The discrete but linked notions of ambicul-tural organization and ambicultural profes-sional can be both understood and synthesizedthrough the Chinese philosophical ideal of“wangdao” (王道; Chen, 2011). This concept isbased on the idea of balance or self-other inte-gration and the ideals of unity and successthrough morality rather than force. Profession-als personifying wangdao instill this ideal

within their organizations through their actions,beliefs, and ideas. Visionary business execu-tives create an ambicultural environment intheir organizations; four who stand out are Car-los Ghosn of Renault-Nissan Alliance, JamesHoughton of Corning, Ruimin Zhang of Haier,and Kazuo Inamori of Kyocera and Japan Air-lines. These leaders apply the essence of ambi-cultural thinking in their integrative, balanced,relational approach to management—a strategyfor long-term success that benefits a greater“community” beyond the organization’s stake-holder circles.

CONCLUSION

Ambiculturalism offers a framework for valu-ing other cultures and traditions. But it can onlyemerge if we have a thorough understanding ofour own “culture”— our assumptions, values,foundational ethics, strengths, and shortcom-ings. Absent this, we can neither fully compre-hend nor value other cultures. The experiences Ihave reviewed in this article illustrate my pathtoward an ambicultural perspective. I hope theywill serve as a model for other professionals andorganizations interested in moving in thisdirection.

In my case the study of Chinese classics in-grained in me at a young age an interest inlearning about other cultures, and through thesebooks I was able to reach a paradoxical balanceof Eastern and Western views and practices.19

Seeking out “opposites” opened up opportuni-ties for both intellectual and personal progress.Such shifts in perspective are essential to thetransition from seeing the scholar’s workthrough a “job” or “career” prism—that is, asgoal or outcome oriented—to a “learning-contribution” world view—one that is processoriented and envisions a spectrum of contribu-tions, be they scholarly or humane.

To be truly ambicultural, take nothing forgranted and take nothing personally; every in-cidence or observation that challenges assump-tions or runs counter to intuition or long-held

19 Even today, thirty years after leaving Taiwan, I stillhave Four Books on my bedside table (these are the fourmust-read books in Chinese classics: the Analects, Mencius,the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean). I read thebooks daily, and they provide me with enduring ambicul-tural inspiration and aspirations.


beliefs may hold the seeds for dramatic learningand fresh realization. In my career ambiculturalprogression has led me to understand that man-agement is about dealing with paradox and ten-sion (Lewis, 2000; Poole & Van de Ven, 1989) andstrategy is about integration and balance (Wels,1996). In the larger context of my life, there hasbeen a greater lesson: the process of becomingan ambicultural scholar or professional canhelp one to develop not only a successful ca-reer—a natural outcome, if not a goal in itself—but also a fruitful life. Thus, the motto I like toshare with colleagues is “Put yourself into theprocess—research, publication, career, andlife—and the process will carry you through.”

The idea that seemingly irreconcilable differ-ences can exist in harmony offers us a key formaking the world smaller. Ambiculturalism—integration that transcends differences—is ablueprint for how we and the societies in whichwe live can advance peacefully, prosperously,and sustainably. At one level it is an everydayphilosophy for academic professionals whoseek to juggle teaching, research, service, andother activities; for management and organiza-tional scholars specifically, it suggests a well-spring of research ideas. At the highest level abalanced life and career may be achieved bystriving to transcend the opposites or paradoxesencountered in daily life. Ultimately, my hope isthat the ambicultural perspective may one dayencompass ever-expanding circles, from aca-demic and business professionals to all ofhumanity.

EPILOGUE: “SOCRATES MEETS CONFUCIUS”

The Socratic approach that undergirds casestudy teaching is generally regarded as “West-ern” didacticism. Yet in the Confucian Analectswe find striking similarities between the meth-ods of Confucius and Socrates, these two greatphilosophers from antiquity. At Darden, the So-cratic-Confucian instructional philosophy is thepedagogical approach, as I believe it is fair tosay it is as well at Harvard and other institu-tions with a heavy emphasis on teaching. Thus,it was in this meeting of West and East in myworkplace—academia—that I discovered yetanother manifestation of ambiculturalintegration.

When it came time to prepare my presidentialspeech for the 2013 Academy meeting at Lake

Buena Vista, Florida, extending the Socratic-Confucian (or “Ted Koppel”) approach seemedcompletely logical. The idea of community con-versations kept bubbling up. With a once-yearlyopportunity to engage this most remarkablegathering of management academics and pro-fessionals from around the world, why not starta dialogue among hundreds rather than delivera monologue? There were several reasons forthinking that rich ground could be minedthrough such an approach.

As far as I knew, after attending more thantwenty Academy annual meetings, a Q&A for-mat had never been attempted (although JanRivkin and I had warmed up a bit with thisapproach in the 2011 conference). For one sea-soned in classroom dialogues spawned throughthe Socratic-Confucian approach, I knew howrewarding such a session could be; opening thespeech with questions directed first at individ-ual audience members and then to the wholeassembly would be something fresh, and thepossibilities for discoveries about ourselves asa diverse organization linked by common yetalso different interests and aspirations were ex-citing. (Appendix B provides an abbreviatedtranscript of these questions.)

In this vein, a new approach was very muchin keeping with a theme of change that Ihoped would be in the minds and on the lips ofattendees throughout the conference, and be-yond. As discussed in this article, the Acad-emy had undertaken some evolutionary (somemight say revolutionary) initiatives in themonths prior. So an audience participationcomponent to the president’s speech was alogical continuation of the theme of changeand, more important, inclusiveness. The con-cern for “all-in” participation is especiallycritical in light of the size of the conference(and the Academy as a whole). In fact, as pres-ident, I considered my role mainly to be theAcademy’s “chief community officer.”

Naturally (and dear to me), this style of pres-idential speech offered an opportunity to ad-vance the idea of ambiculturalism throughconversation with fellow Academy membersin a communal, light-hearted, participatorymanner. At best, I hoped that disseminatingthe idea of transcending differences to bringtogether various voices, perspectives, ideas,and cultures could help light the way forwardin a world that, even as it becomes smaller, is

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increasingly complex and interconnected.And, at the least, I hoped that I might givefellow Academy members some food forthought for future meetings!

I was delighted to receive affirmation of myapproach via Jim Walsh’s observations on theAfrica Conference. In Jim’s words I see the So-cratic-Confucian ambicultural experience re-flected: “I was taught again what it means topersist and to be patient as you work toward agoal that matters . . . I walk away from this ex-perience as optimistic as ever that dreams cancome true.” His remarks reminded me of the twowords my late professor in Taiwan, Chan-KueiChiang (who held a Ph.D. in organizational so-ciology from the University of Michigan), wishedme always to remember as I prepared to em-bark for the United States more thanthirty years ago: determination and persis-tence. They have carried me along in my ownambicultural drive, and I will continue to en-courage academic and business professionalswho are concerned about divides— cultural,societal, professional, or personal—to set outon this journey. We cannot know how far wemight travel unless we take the first step andbegin the process. Trust me, the ambiculturalodyssey, although often bumpy and challeng-ing, is rewarding and fun!

APPENDIX ATHE 2013 ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT

AFRICA CONFERENCE:A GLOBAL-LOCAL INITIATIVE

The Africa Conference was the product ofyears of effort, principally by an ambiculturalteam of five people dedicated to the Academy:Helena Barnard, of the Gordon Institute of Busi-ness Science (GIBS)/University of Pretoria; PhilMirvis, of Boston College; Kelly Mitchell, of theAcademy of Management; Stella Nkomo, ofthe University of Pretoria; and Jim Walsh, of theRoss School of Business/University of Michigan.

Following are excerpts from interviews withStella Nkomo and Jim Walsh.

What is the “one” outcome of the Africa Confer-ence that is most important to the Academy?

Nkomo. Prior to this event there has been asense that AOM was not really reaching out toAfrican management scholars. . . . The confer-

ence helped move interest in Africa from themargins to the center, and I believe AOM willcontinue to reap benefits in the form of in-creased participation by African scholars inAOM. The conference also gave the Africa Acad-emy of Management the boost it needs to accel-erate its development and growth.

Walsh. Despite the best of intentions, the in-ertial forces in our world can be quite strong.This conference, one unlike any I’ve ever at-tended, shows us that we can set our minds to dosomething completely new . . . and, in fact, do it.I know that the Academy has internalized thetruth of that statement.

What is the “one” outcome that is most importantto the management profession in general?

Nkomo. What is most relevant for the manage-ment profession is the opportunity we all had togain an understanding of how context affectsmanagement questions and their possible reso-lution. As organizations around the world at-tempt to become truly global, I believe theknowledge generated from conferences like Jo-hannesburg can be beneficial.

Walsh. Substantively, we made abstractscholarly opportunities and problems comealive in a very real sense for the 300 or so peoplewho traveled to Johannesburg. . . . These 300people came to know each other personally asthey discovered together the challenges worthyof their sustained attention and commitment.These attendees will carry these insights andrelationships into their lives, changing foreverthe work they do.

What is the significance of the Africa Conferencefor helping build the Academy as an ambicul-tural organization that aims to bridge divides bytaking the best from apparent opposites such asEast and West, local and global, research andteaching, scholarship and service?

Nkomo. The learning that took place in Africawas mutually constructed as non-African schol-ars heard questions they had not previously en-gaged and African scholars were pushed to tem-per the strong attachment to the uniqueness ofthe context.

Walsh. Asked about my enduring memory ofthe conference, all I could think of at that mo-ment was our closing ceremony—the common


humanity I experienced that night and how inour days together, our supposed differencesmelted away as we joined together in our as-piration to know and to do something aboutthe problems and opportunities we all encoun-tered in South Africa. To the extent that ourdifferences are rooted in unique experiences,identities, and capabilities, well then, thosedifferences just reflect the strengths that webring to the table as we live our lives together.

APPENDIX BSOME QUESTIONS ASKED AT THE ACADEMY

OF MANAGEMENT PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH,AUGUST 11, 2013

To the doctoral students and Academy newcom-ers in the audience:

Why are you here? As an advocate and disci-plined follower of the power of “one” (Chen,2012), I would like to ask, “What is your ‘one’expectation for my speech today? What does‘being ambicultural’ mean to you? Why shouldyou care?”

To the 2011 welcome breakfast and presidentialspeech attendees:

Do you remember what the theme of thatyear’s conference was [“West Meets East”]?What’s the connection between the East-Westtheme and the idea of “being ambicultural”? Doyou remember this slide [“New York MeetsShanghai”]?

To Ed Freeman (Darden/University of Virginia),2013 Distinguished Educator Award:

Ed, do you remember the other day you sawme walking to the parking lot holding two cups,one in each hand? [You commented on my “two-fisted drinking.”] As it happened, as I always do,I had coffee in one hand and tea in the other[being East-West balanced!].

To Mike Tushman (Harvard Business School),2013 Distinguished Scholar Award:

Do you remember the advice you gave to meat our first meeting, when I first joined Columbiain 1989, after Don Hambrick, the head of thestrategy group at that time, assigned me to bereviewed by you semiannually? [You advisedme to publish more in ASQ than in SMJ.] As a“greenhorn” academic, I struggled mightily over

the differences— even the tension— betweenASQ and SMJ, and between organizational the-ory and strategic management [intellectual andinterdisciplinary tension and reconciliation].

To Don Hambrick (Pennsylvania State Univer-sity), my former Columbia colleague andmentor:

Don, do you remember my first faculty meet-ing? The meeting was held at 3:07 p.m., aftersome bizarre changes which I cannot recall now.I was three minutes late, and you made a jokeabout my Taiwanese clock. Perhaps you did notknow that the Chinese think about time on avery long-term basis. So . . . by my reckoning, Iwas actually approximately three months early.[Different cultures have different conceptions oftime.]

To Paul Adler (Marshall School/University ofSouthern California), 2013 Conference ProgramChair:

What is the connection between this year’stheme, “Capitalism in Question,” and being am-bicultural? What is the relationship and connec-tion between market- and state-driven econo-mies (or capitalism and socialism)? How can weresolve the tension between the two?

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