The Influence of Cultural Differences and its Application in Multinational Organizations
Abstract
Multinational organizations have workforces that involve people from different countries, defined by linguistic, religious, and political backgrounds, in other words, people of different cultural backgrounds. Generally, differences related to culture are more evident and prominent than similarities and homogeneity. For multinational companies, it is a must to take cultural differences into account in their managerial practices. The goal of this research is to determine the managers’ perceptions of cultural differences in a multinational company and to explore the strategies at use to handle these differences. In this sense, the interview was used as a research method to collect data, which were further analyzed. The research focuses on an American software company, PTC Inc. operating in Romania, Japan, China, the USA, and Germany. Following the analysis of the interview results obtained new research directions were identified related to the influence of cultural differences and its application in global business.References
Adler, N.J. (1997). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Ohio: South-Western College.
Aksu, N. (2008), Örgüt Kültürü Bağlamında Farklılıkların Yönetimi ve Bir Uygulama. Retrieved from https://www.ulusaltezmerkezi.net/orgut-kulturu-baglaminda-farkliliklarin-yonetimi-ve-bir-uygulama/.
Arasaratnam, L. (2007). Research in intercultural communication competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 13(2), 66-73.
Bennett, M. (1986). A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10, 179-195.
Bennett, M. (1993). Towards a developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In Paige, R. (Ed.), Education for the intercultural experience (pp.109-135). Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
Bennett, M. (2008). Transformative training: Designing programs for culture learning. In Moodian, M. (Ed.), Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: Understanding and utilizing cultural diversity to build successful organizations (pp.95-110). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bolisani, E., and Bratianu, C. (2017). Knowledge strategy planning: an integrated approach to manage uncertainty, turbulence, and dynamics. Journal of Knowledge Management, 21(2), 233-253.
Byram, M., Nichols, A., and Stevens, D. (2001). Developing inter-cultural competence in practice. Exeter: Cromwell Press.
Chin, J., and Sanchez-Hucles, J. (2007). Diversity and leadership. American Psychologist, 62, 608-609.
Connaughton, S.L., and Shuffler, M. (2007). Multinational and Multicultural distributed teams: A review and future agenda. Small Group Research, 38(3), 387–412.
Connerley, M.L., and Pedersen, P. (2005). Leadership in a diverse and multicultural environment: Developing awareness, knowledge, and skills. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Deardorff, D. (2006). The identification and assessment of inter-cultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization at institutions of higher education in the United States. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10, 241-266.
Derr, C.B., and Laurent, A. (1989). The Internal and external career: a theoretical and cross-cultural perspective. In Arthur, M.B., Hall, D.T., and Lawrence, B.S. (Eds.), Handbook of Career Theory (pp.454-471). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Earley, C.P. (2006). Leading cultural research in the future: a matter of paradigms and taste. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, 922–931.
Easterby-Smith, M., Malina, D., and Yuan, L. (1995). How culture-sensitive is HRM? A comparative analysis of practice in Chinese and UK companies. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 6, 31-59.
Elenkov, D., and Kirova, D. (2008). Are cultural differences in a small country important for international business? Journal of International Business & Economics, 8, 71-78.
Griffith, D., and Harvey, M. (2000). An intercultural communication model for use in global inter organizational networks. Journal of International Marketing, 9(3), 87-103.
Hofstede, G. (1984). Cultural dimensions in management and planning. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 1, 81-99.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 3-26.
House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., and Vipin, G. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations. The Globe Study of 62 Societies, London: Sage Publications
Ilgen, D.R., and Pulakos, E.D. (1999). Employee performance in today’s organizations. In Ilgen, D.R., and Pulakos, E.D. (Eds.), The changing nature of performance: Implications for staffing, motivation, and development (pp.21–55). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Lustig, M., and Koester, J. (1999). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communications across cultures. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman
Miller, E. (1994). Diversity and its management: Training management for cultural competence within the organization. Management Quarterly, 35(2), 17-24.
Moosmüller, A., and Schönhuth, M. (2009). Intercultural competence in German discourse. In Deardorff, D. (Ed.), The Sage handbook of intercultural competence (pp.209-232). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Noe, R.A., and Ford, J.K. (1992). Career building: learning from cumulative work experience. Career Development in Organisations, 7, 45-52.
Palmer, G. (2003). Diversity management, past, present and future. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 41(1), 13-24.
Pulakos, E.D., Arad, S., Donovan, M.A., and Plamondon, K.E. (2000). Adaptability in the work place: Development of taxonomy of adaptive performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(4), 612-624.
Redmond, M., and Bunyi, J. (1993). The relationship of intercultural communication competence with stress and the handling of stress as reported by international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 17, 235-254.
Scarborough, J. (1998). The origins of cultural differences and their impact on management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Schein, E. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership: A dynamic view. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Schneider, S.C. (1989). Strategy formulation: the impact of national culture. Organization Studies, 10, 149-168.
Spitzberg, B., and Changnon, G. (2009). Conceptualizing inter-cultural competence. In Deardorff, D. (Ed.), The Sage hand-book of intercultural competence (pp.2-52). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Ting-Toomey, S., and Oetzel, J. (2001). Managing intercultural conflict effectively. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Trice, H.M., and Beyer, J.M. (1993). The cultures of work organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Trompenaars, F. (1993). Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business. Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing.
Tsui, A.S., Nifadkar, S.S., and Ou, A.Y. (2007). Cross-national, cross-cultural organizational behavior research: advances, gaps, and recommendations. Journal of Management, 33, 426-478.
Venaik, S., and Midgley, D.F. (2015). Mindscapes across landscapes: archetypes of transnational and subnational culture. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(9), 1051-1079.
Welch, D.E., Welch, L.S., and Marchan-Piekkari, R. (2001). The persistent impact of language on global operations. Prometheus, 19(3), 194-209.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) with the condition to attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor. They may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
