CROSS CULTURAL MANAGRMENT

Cross Cultural Managrment

Cross Cultural Managrment

Introduction

Cross-cultural management focuses on understanding and improving the intraand interorganizational interactions of individuals from different cultures. It expands the traditional domestic view of management by considering the reality of international and multicultural commerce. Proponents of cross-cultural management argue that the global environment of business today dictates international commerce as the norm rather than the exception. Critics of cultural research claim, among other issues, that culture has yet to be adequately defined as a viable construct for empirical research. Regardless of one's stance on the issue, the growing number and value of international mergers, joint ventures, and partnerships demands a greater understanding and clarification of this topic.

One's culture may influence or mediate the relationship between events occurring in work life and its perceived fairness. Some theorists have recently advocated the importance of using organizational justice as a lens through which to examine different national cultures (Greenberg, 2001). An important question that needs to be addressed is the generalizability of the findings about organizational justice that are based on one culture. From a theoretical point of view, exploring cultural similarity and differences in justice constructs will contribute to the comprehensiveness and universality of justice theories. “From a practical perspective, cross-cultural research can assist managers of multicultural organizations, as well as managers of a culturally diverse workforce within one country, to understand how organizational policies and their implementation impact employees' perceptions of fairness” (Skarlicki, 2001, p. 292). The study of justice perceptions will be incomplete without understanding the differences in national culture. The notion that nations have identifiable cultures that can influence how business is conducted in that nation became a topic of interest through the research work of Hofstede (2001). His approach in studying employees' work-related values represents an evolution in the field's understanding of organizational culture. Much of what we understand about corporate culture and work-related values today is based on the results of his seminal work studying employees at International Business Machines (IBM). He conducted a series of research studies and compiled altogether the data collected from 50 different countries using 20 different languages and more than 116,000 employees ranging seven different occupational levels. The results indicated reliable and meaningful differences among nations as measured through the responses to the attitude and opinion surveys. Hofstede identified four major cultural dimensions that can be used to explain cross-cultural differences.

Conceptual Overview

To fully appreciate the role and importance of crosscultural management in a global economy, it is important to understand what culture is and how it impacts the attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors of individuals that identify with that culture. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word culture, from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor), generally refers to the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought as an expression of a particular period, class, community, or population. However, there is no definitive definition of ...