Why is the cross-cultural management of food security important?

Abstract

Editorials in IJCCM are quite often not about what is contained within our journal, but about what is missing. There are issues that are often not explored by our authors. There are contexts, which although significant within global markets, are ignored by cross-cultural management scholars, often to the detriment of theory building. There are real-world issues that could be addressed if our discipline were more inclusive. Editorials are often about questioning the importance and relevance of cross-cultural management studies. Is cross-cultural management scholarship useful? Does it address important issues? Do scholars attend to the big issues of the day? Are they involved with a wider stakeholder base beyond looking at the needs of MNCs operating across the world? Food security is a big issue in the world today. It is second on the list of the United Nations' (UN's) 17 Sustainable Development Goals after ending poverty. It is an issue that has to be managed. It has to be managed internationally and managed across cultures. However, it is difficult to find any consideration of cross-cultural management in the literature or policy on food security, as indeed it is difficult to find studies of food security management in the cross-cultural management literature. From the UN (2017), we are told that 'Ending hunger demands sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices'. With an emphasis, quite rightly on Southern Asia and Africa, we might forget that this is a serious issues affecting communities around the world, and at the individual level intimately connected to the rise in poverty and inequality. The rise of food banks in the Western world apart, this is a global issue that has to be managed internationally and across cultures. It involves international supply and distribution chains. These have to be managed across cultural contexts. One of the leading books on global food security (Mergos and Papanastassiou, 2017: v-vi) asserts in its preface that food security issues are of increased concern because '. .. the global terrain is different' and '. .. the challenge needs to be met on all levels of the political system, that is, institutions of supra-national governance, national governments and sub-national actors'. Although there has been efforts at UN level, there appears to be a vacuum at 'national, sub-national or even household levels due to its complexity and the difficulties encountered at policy analysis and design'. So, what needs to be managed, and why does this need to be managed cross-culturally? Managing Ghana's rice production inappropriately Rice is one of the Ghana's biggest imports (The Guardian, 2013a), as it is in the rest of West Africa.

Cross cultural management scholarship and the coronavirus crisis

“…How can we help in developing knowledge on the international management of this crisis, and getting help to the people who need it? There is literature on the cross-cultural management of international development and international NGOs and the cross-cultural management of food security that might help (Jackson, 2018). The management of international supply chains is a further area of cross-cultural study that could contribute.…”