Building Cross-Culture Competence - Hardcover

Charles Hampden-Turner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471495271 ISBN 13: 9780471495277

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2001

Synopsis

Based on fourteen years of research involving nearly 50,000 managerial respondents and on the authors' extensive experience in international business, the book compares American cultural values to those of more than forty other nations. It explores six culture-defining dimensions and their reverse images (universalism-particularism, individualism-communitarianism, specificity-diffusion, achieved status-ascribed status, inner direction-outer direction, and sequential time-synchronous time) and discusses them as alternative ways of coping with life's - and business's - exigencies. With humor, cartoons, and an array of business examples, the authors demonstrate how the reconciliation of cultural differences can cause whole organizations to grow healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Cross-cultural competence is a skill that has become increasingly essential for the managers in multinational companies. For other business people, this kind of competence may spell the difference between surviving and perishing in the new global economy. This book focuses on the dilemmas of these managers and offers constructive advice on dealing with culture shock and turning it to business advantage. Opposing values can be understood as complementary and reconcilable, say Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars. A manager who concentrates on integrating rather than polarizing values will make much better business decisions. Furthermore, the authors show, wealth is actually created by reconciling values-in-conflict.Based on fourteen years of research involving nearly 50,000 managerial respondents and on the authors' extensive experience in international business, the book compares American cultural values to those of more than forty other nations. It explores six culture-defining dimensions and their reverse images (universalism-particularism, individualism- communitarianism, specificity-diffusion, achieved status-ascribed status, inner direction- outer direction, and sequential time-synchronous time) and discusses them as alternative ways of coping with life's-and business's-exigencies. With humor, cartoons, and an array of business examples, the authors demonstrate how the reconciliation of cultural differences can cause whole organizations to grow healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

About the Author

Charles M. Hampden-Turner is senior research associate at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge University.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0471495271
• ISBN 13: 9780471495277
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400