Intercultural Management

The globalization of markets, the internationalization of companies through operations of mergers, acquisitions, partnerships or alliances have created an economic landscape where the intercultural aspect has became a daily reality for many persons in charge. Companies are increasingly working with individuals coming from different cultures. Therefore, they can no longer ignore the impact of cultural differences on their activities on an international scale. The intercultural situations in a company do not constitute a new phenomenon but the concern of understanding them is recent. In order to better understand the concept of cultural diversity, it is first necessary to determine what culture is. There are many definitions. For certain authors, culture is "a lifestyle which draws its roots from History"; others speak about a "collective mental programming". One generally perceives culture as "a collection of values, attitudes and behaviors shared by individuals and groups and based on deep sub-conscious perceptions". These perceptions are "cultural" because they are acquired (and not innate) and create models that they are shared and transmitted from generation to generation.

[...] II/ Intercultural management : a solution to manage cultural diversity ? Different approaches of intercultural management according to the company culture In multinational corporations, one can distinguish various practices of intercultural management. Thus, Schreyogg distinguishes between cultures of global companies (or ethnocentric) from cultures of polycentric companies. The culture of global companies aim at working out a common identity, extolled by the parent company whereas the culture of polycentric companies take into account the cultural differences of their subsidiaries and give them more autonomy. [...]

[...] During the process of negotiation, the negotiators have to make several decisions. However the decision-making processes varies considerably from one country to another, including between neighbouring countries, which can prove to be problematic during international negotiations. The process of negotiation, which is often very complex, becomes even more complicated when the negotiators are from different nationalities. Impact of cultures on the functions of the company Marketing The underestimation of the cultural aspect also has effects on marketing and with regard to the price, promotion, distribution, packaging, or the product. [...]

[...] It is the role of intercultural management to apprehend the problems of management due to cultural diversity. One can define management as "the set of organizational techniques which are implemented for the management of an economic entity". Thus, intercultural management tries to minimize the negative consequences of the cultural differences and to profit from the potential resources which each culture offers. This discipline, amongst other things, covers negotiation through cultural barriers, the management of multicultural work teams, the training of future expatriates and the management of mergers or international companies. [...]