Cross Cultural Management Research

Abstract

National culture is widely viewed as a constraint on management practice. However, that view is increasingly inconsistent with available empirical evidence. Building on earlier work, this article maps out the key assumptions that must be met for cross cultural management research that uses national culture (mean) scores, such as those available from Hofstede and the GLOBE project, to yield relevant and interpretable findings. It is found that these assumptions are either inconsistent with available empirical evidence or have not been adequately addressed empirically. For example, for national culture to act as a constraint on management, cultural differences within countries should be small relative to differences between countries. Evidence shows, however, that this is not the case. As a consequence of the lack of support for this and other assumptions, the article suggests that cross cultural management research needs to proceed differently in the future and provides specific recommendations in this regard.

A study of the attitude of generation z to cross-cultural interaction in business

“…The measurement of culture through cultural dimensions is still highly widespread among cross-cultural management researchers (Taras et al, 2009). However, we agree with Gerhart that "significant degree of intra-country variation in culture variables may make national culture mean scores less useful" (Gerhart, 2008).…”

A comparative analysis of Serbian national culture and national cultures of some European countries by GLOBE project approach

“…Due to globalization and increased dependence among nations the growing interest in understanding of national cultures (House, Javidan & Dorfman, 2001) enhances cross-cultural management investigations. One of the reasons that knowledge of national cultures is so important for management practices is their impact on organizational cultures (Kluckhohn, & Strodtbeck, 1961;Hofstede, 1980;Trompenaars, & Hampden-Turner, 1997;House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004;Gerhart, 2008). National culture can be an important variable that influences the development of cognitive style and decision-making process of managers (Dimitratos, Petrou, Plakoyiannaki, & Johnson, 2011).…”

The dilemma facing multinational enterprises: transfer or adaptation of their human resource management systems

“…The changing situation, therefore, makes it necessary to adjust the parameters of measurement on which current cultural models are supported, with a subsequent reappraisal of research that should be based on these premises. This is recommended and even backed by a number of authors (Peppas 2001;Child 2002;Ardichvili and Gasparishvili 2003;Dolan, Martín-Prius, Díez-Piñol, Martínez-Fierro and Fernández-Alles 2004;Sackmann and Phillips 2004;Edwards and Rees 2006;Gerhart 2008).…”