Abstract

The book offers an introduction to cross-cultural management through an exploration of the major theories that have been developed in the fields of business anthropology and international management. An introduction to the concept of culture is followed in subsequent chapters by a comparative description of different typologies which will be used to explain various expected behaviors in intercultural business settings.

The fundamental issues in cross-cultural management are also discussed, namely What is culture? How can we describe it? To what extent is it important in international business? And we introduce the main frameworks used in the discipline to identify and analyze cultural differences.

In the second part of the book, we introduce the reader to the main frameworks discussed in Part I and to real-life, cross-cultural situations in the business environment. We introduce discussions on the application of previously analyzed cultural frameworks as a basis for the elaboration of new ideas relating to current issues in organizational behavior. International organizations normally deal with topics such as the relationships between the employee as a socialized individual and the culture of his/her organization, managing in a globalized context, the development and management of cross-cultural teams, negotiating interculturally and dealing with subsequent potential conflicts, and so forth.

The final part of the book part elaborates on how the globalized economy projects its needs for inclusion and understanding. From the ethics perspective, we describe the need to find a coherent pattern of norms that are widely accepted and shared in spite of diversity, and how to define and act under the paradox of equality in spite of differences.

Keywords

intercultural management, cross-cultural management, globalization, international business, international behavior, intercultural behavior, international business negotiations, intercultural conflict