This conceptual paper serves as a timely reminder for culture scholars in business studies to engage in multi‐paradigmatic studies. Our review of culture literature (at the macro level: regional, societal, national) reveals a dominance of the objectivist tradition, which has, over time, resulted in three problems: (1) an oversimplification of the otherwise complex culture concept; (2) equating nation and culture; and (3) neglecting factors other than cultural dimensions that influence individual behavior. We argue that these problems can be partially resolved by engaging in multi‐paradigmatic studies of culture. Since combining different paradigmatic traditions can be difficult, we also offer insights into how this can be done through two illustrative cases of recent multi‐paradigmatic studies. These examples reveal that conducting multi‐paradigmatic cultural research is not only feasible, but that it also results in more innovative insights than mono‐paradigmatic studies, while simultaneously resolving some of the afore‐cited problems.

Many managers of Indo-French alliances consider culture to be a failure, rather than a success factor because they address the national or corporate level for cross-cultural comparisons. In contrast, we propose using the Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) to address the transactional level of culture. In so doing, we overcome some of the limitations of the national, corporate and transactional approaches and provide a systematic framework for discussing the viability of international alliances. Through an analysis of 48 ethnographic interviews and field studies conducted in 25 Indo-French alliances, we offer the following guidelines to managers for the design of viable alliances: (1) The commonly-cited interdependence of the hierarchical and competitive solidarities is not sufficient to ensure the viability of international alliances. (2) The presence of a third solidarity seems essential. (3) An analysis of failed alliances reveals that fatalism is not the third solidarity we are looking for. (4) An analysis of viable alliances shows that the egalitarian solidarity plays a role in ensuring the viability of international alliances by building a bridge between the hierarchical and competitive solidarity, thereby preventing gridlocks. Major methodological limitations of this study include over-emphasis on ethnographic interviews for data and use of unsystematic criteria for identifying solidarities in Indo-French alliances. Unlike our predecessors, we recommend that cultural plurality, not cultural domination, leads to viable alliances. International managers often tend to impose their own thought styles on others, thereby neglecting the inherent wisdom of other thought styles. We stress that cultural diversity, without duality leads to viability.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in many countries are currently experiencing significant changes in how they are organized and managed. Consequently, exploring the kind of manager/leader behaviours that are perceived as effective and least effective/ineffective by peers, subordinates, collaborators, and team members in HEIs becomes important. Choosing a French HEI for our study and using the Critical Incident Technique, the authors conducted 37 interviews of academic/non-academic managerial/non-managerial staff to generate a total of 250 critical incidents (CIs) of observed managerial behaviour. Subjecting these CIs to open and axial coding resulted in the emergence of 17 positive and 21 negative behavioural indicators of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness. Comparing these findings with those of extant studies of HEIs from Anglo countries revealed many similarities and considerable differences. Implications are offered for leadership and management development training programmes specifically designed for members of HEIs, along with suggestions for further research on this topic.

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