Acculturation of expatriate executive managers was examined in the sample of 16 sojourners transferring managerial know-how to companies in Czechia, using a structured longitudinal interview survey including in depth personal interviews. The interviews were conducted six and eighteen months after the arrival of respondents in Czechia. The respondents were contacted as they became available during the period 2006 to 2010. The results indicate that acculturation of sojourners in Czechia proceeded, as expected according to the international literature, broadly in line with the Hofstede’s acculturation “U“ curve (Hofstede 1997). The qualitative analysis points to a number of problems, the sojourners had to deal with during their acculturation including: dependence on communication in English, while recognising potential advantages associated with the knowledge of Czech language, cultural distance - particularly the uncertainty arising from the inability to correctly predict Czech behaviour, lack of openness limiting the Czech ability to form a broader world view, lack of mutual respect between the Czech co-workers, a degree of Czech xenophobia and underestimation of certain predictors of successful acculturation such as social engagement with the Czech hosts. Research also points to a number of helpful coping strategies.
The article, based on sources from the Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv), the Archives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) and the National Library in Prague, casts a new light on the life, works and personality of the librarian Josef Adolf Hanslik (* 1785 Lišany, † 1859 Prague), father of the music critic and aesthetician Eduard Hanslick. The documents, showing his (unsuccessfull) attempts to become the head of the Viennese University Library, and the exceptions taken by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna against Hanslik’s still interesting main work, Geschichte und Beschreibung der Prager Universitätsbibliothek from 1851, suggest a politically orientated personality, taking part in forming the land-patriotic national awareness (“böhmisch”, i.e., in the frame of the Bohemian Lands, of both Czech and German nations), and due to his belonging to the Prague “intellectual alliance” of the pre-1848 Revolution period, looked upon by the Viennese state offices with mistrust. The third source linked to Hanslik’s personality, is Hanslik’s, until now unpublished, satiric writing Trompeten und Pauken, from 1830, discovered by the Czech musicologist Jitka Ludvová. Talking about a fictitious territory (without any doubt Bohemia and Prague), its author sharply criticised the political, social and moral situation of his time. Of special importance for the music history of Prague, are the extensive, politically pointed passages dedicated to the Prague Conservatoire. They give evidence of music knowledge of Josef Adolf Hanslik, whose personal qualities, abilities and interests without any doubt influenced the development of the personality of his son.