Rethinking Cross Cultural Management in a Globalizing Business World

Abstract

Cross cultural management is often regarded as a discipline of international management focusing on cultural encounters between what are perceived as well-defined and homogeneous entities: the organization and the nation-state, and offering tools to handle cultural differences seen as sources of conflict or miscommunication. The authors argue that this approach is out of phase with the business world of today, with its transnational companies that face the challenges of the management of global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams, interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies. The authors emphasize the need for an alternative approach which acknowledges the growing complexity of inter- and intra-organizational connections and identities, and offers theoretical concepts to think about organizations and multiple cultures in a globalizing business context.

Cultural clashes in a “merger of equals”: The case of high‐tech start‐ups

“…This literature also tends to view culture during postmerger integration as an outcome of a premeditated integration approach (e.g., Bower, 2004;Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991;Morosini & Singh, 1994;Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1988;Schweiger, 2002). Although the extant literature on culture clashes is overly deterministic, the constructionist approach posits that the impact of culture on postmerger integration is best explained through the discursive and sensemaking traditions of cultural theory (e.g., Gertsen, Soderberg, & Torp, 1998;Hellgren et al, 2002;Riad, 2005;Soderberg & Holden, 2002;Vaara, 2000Vaara, , 2002Vaara, , 2003. In this view, the merged cultures are social constructs that reflect both the context of identity construction and the social organization of meaning in postmerger integration.…”

“…In this view, the merged cultures are social constructs that reflect both the context of identity construction and the social organization of meaning in postmerger integration. As Soderberg and Holden (2002) stated, a "social constructionist approach to culture implies that so-called cultural data are inevitably 'social constructs' made on the basis of the practitioners' and the researchers' own cultural thought patterns and the concepts and categories they are socialized with" (p. 112). This approach is contextually sensitive and assumes that cultural construction is premised on mechanisms such as narratives, sensemaking, and identity construction before and during the integration (Vaara, 2000;van Knippenberg, van Knippenberg, Monden, & de Lima, 2002;van Knippenberg & van Leeuwen, 2001).…”

Teaching and learning business ethics in a multicultural group

“…Though a diversity of group members can be a source of innovation and creativity (BassettJones, 2005), various values and habits can also cause interpersonal conflicts and problems (Soderberg and Holden, 2002). If not solved constructively, these conflicts may harm workplaces and decrease people's wellbeing (Hiekkataipale and Lämsä, 2015).…”

Cultural Change Following International Acquisitions: Cohabiting the Tension Between Espoused and Practiced Cultures

“…Following recent calls in international management, beyond a focus on values only, we defined culture in broader terms (Björkman et al 2007;d'Iribarne 2003d'Iribarne , 2009Irrmann 2010Irrmann , 2013Leung et al 2005;Sackmann and Phillips 2004;Söderberg and Holden 2002), adopting the integrative view provided by Kappos and Rivard (2008, p. 602): ''Researchers generally agree that culture consists of patterns of meaning underlying a variety of manifestations (Martin 1992(Martin , 2001Pettigrew 1979;Schein 2004). Some manifestations are visible; they include artefacts such as physical arrangements, clothing, stories, and rituals (Martin 1992(Martin , 2001Schein 2004) as well as practices such as structure, technology, and procedures (Martin 1992(Martin , 2001Sackmann 1992).…”