IntroductionTHE difficulties encountered by headquarters personnel who manage overseas branches are a central problem of multinational corporations.l Differences between the environment of the headquarters (parent country organization) and that of the subsidiary (host country organization), impose serious constraints on managerial behaviour. These differences frequently make it necessary for headquarters to reshape its managerial style and content to fit the local branch requirements. Adaptations must be made to suit specific conditions in many spherespolitical, legal, economic, international, as well as cultural.The role played by cultural differences is a controversial issue in the management literature. Reports vary in their conclusions between:( I ) Those which de-emphasiTe the influence of cultural differences on expec-( 2 ) Those which remgnixe the effect of culture but warn against attributing ( 3 ) Those which emphasixe the central importance of the effect of c u l t~r e .~ tations and behaviour in complex organizations. to it greater importance than is empirically warranted.3 Richman, Barry M. and &pen, Melvin, International Management and Economic Development, Wire, M., et al., Managerial Tbin&nj: An Intrmotional Study, New York Wiley, 1966. Both studies found that there were many similarities across nationalities. Yet, there were also differences which patterned in clusters of countries, suggesting the effect of cultural differences in their conclusions. The former emphasized the differences and the latter the similarities. 3 Ajiferuke, Musbau and Boddewyn, J., 'Culture and Other Explanatory Variables in Comparative Management Studies', Academy flMunagement]oml,
Planned organizational change efforts have rarely been initiated in multi-national corporations (MNCs). A survey we conducted among top man-agers of MNCs in various countries revealed why: managers are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the process, skeptical of the prospects for its success, and apprehensive of possible damaging effects. A major factor considered problematical is that the cultural heterogeneity of MNCs' work force is bound to lead to different perceptions of existing policies and patterns of organizational behavior and incongruent perceptions of the desired ones. We hypothesize four types of relationships between the existence of such differences or similarities and the prospects for successful planned change in MNCs. Subsequently, the analysis of three stages of a planned change effort in one MNC-diagnosis, analysis, and introduction of changes-sug-gests that differences in the perceptions of the existing situation may not preclude successful planned change under the following conditions: there are no significant differences in the perceptions of the desired situation; the change agent is familiar with both learning theories and the problems of the specific organization; the loyalty of employees of the various nationalities is assured; and supervisors, especially parent country nationals in key man-agerial positions, are induced to bridge the gap between their perception of the desired situation and their actual behavior. The reasons for this gap and suggestions for minimizing their effect are presented.
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