Skills and Competencies in Cross Cultural Management

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW1

Cross-Cultural Management Literature1

Schwartz Values Framework4

Transformational Leadership5

Managerial Competence6

Competence for multicultural management abroad7

Expatriate competency7

Competencies for cross-cultural adaptation8

REFERENCES11

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW



Cross-Cultural Management Literature

An extensive literature examining how national culture influences management practices has contributed to our understanding of the applicability of various management practices in different cultural contexts. Interest in cross-cultural research and the international relevance of management theory has increased dramatically during the last two decades (Egan, Bendick, 2008, 393). This research has provided significant insight into the impact that differences can have as businesses strive to manage employees that live in or come from a variety of different cultures. However, much of this literature does not explicitly examine the relationship between these practices and performance, and fewer still examine the influence of national culture on the practice performance relationship (Yukl, 1999, 285). Yammarino, Spangler, Bass (1993, 81) identified 180 empirical studies, which they categorize by the level of analysis as well as by the type of relationship culture had in the study (i.e. main effect or moderator). The bulk of these studies examine culture as a main effect on a variety of practices or outcomes (Yammarino, 1993, 379). There are a total of 32 studies that examine culture as a moderator: 23 at the individual level, 5 at the group/org level and 4 at the country level. Looking through the summary tables associated with this article, only 13 studies that examine culture as a moderator explicitly refer to performance as a dependent variable, which constitutes 7% of 180 studies examined in the article.

Thus, there is a substantial literature that examines the impact of national culture on management practices, but often does not test the impact this will have on performance. There is also an extensive literature looking at the relationships between management practices and performance that generally omits the impact of national culture (Conger, 1999, 145). Examining the influence of National Culture Despite the increase in cross-cultural research, management theory has not kept up with the demand for knowledge generated by globalization, leaving us with a limited basis for confidence in answering questions associated with the cross-cultural applicability of management practices (Barkema Gomez, 1998, 135). Three different approaches could address these questions. First, a universalistic approach would suggest that effective management is largely independent of cultural context, and that effective methods are likely to work anywhere (Usunier, 1998, 285).

This approach leads researchers to attempt to develop theories that will be applicable in all cultures. This approach is not common given the current emphasis on globalization, though this assumption implicitly underlies research that ignores cultural differences. In addition, studies such as the GLOBE project have explicitly argued that some aspects of leadership may be universal (Yammarino, Spangler, Bass, 1993, 81). Second, a cultural uniqueness approach implies that cultural differences are so significant that there is little reason to believe that what we know about management effectiveness in one country will apply to ...