Performance in Intercultural Interactions at Work

Cross-Cultural Differences in Response to Behavioral Mirroring

Sanchez-Burks, Jeffrey
Bartel, Caroline A.
Blount, Sally

¹Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
²McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin
³Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University

This research was supported by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation, National Science Foundation, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and the sponsor organization. We thank Greg Northcraft and Diane Quinn for their helpful comments on a draft of this article.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michi-gan, 701 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234. E-mail: [email protected]

Received January 22, 2007

Revision received April 8, 2008

Accepted April 24, 2008

Journal of Applied Psychology 94(1):p 216-223, January 2009. | DOI: 10.1037/a0012829

This article examines how performance in intercultural workplace interactions can be compromised even in the absence of overt prejudice. The authors show that individuals respond differently to nonverbal behavioral mirroring cues exhibited in workplace interactions, depending on their cultural group membership. In a field study with experienced managers, U.S. Anglos and U.S. Latinos interacted with a confederate who, unbeknownst to the participant, engaged (or not) in behavioral mirroring. Results show that the level of the confederate's mirroring differentially affected Latinos' state anxiety, but not Anglos' state anxiety, as well as actual performance in the interaction. Two additional laboratory experiments provide further evidence of the interactive relationship of behavioral mirroring and cultural group membership on evaluations of workplace interactions. Implications for intercultural interactions and research are discussed.