Cross-Cultural Management Revisited

A Qualitative Approach

Philippe d'Iribarne, Sylvie Chevrier, Alain Henry, Jean-Pierre Segal, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

Introduces an alternative theoretical approach to cross-cultural management that challenges prevailing quantitative perspectives
Presents empirical evidence from thirty years of research, drawing on examples of management practices from around the world
Provides methodological guidelines to enable readers to use an alternative theoretical framework

Cross-Cultural Management Revisited

A Qualitative Approach

Philippe d'Iribarne, Sylvie Chevrier, Alain Henry, Jean-Pierre Segal, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

Description

Drawing on thirty years of empirical research, this book reveals the diversity of managerial practices that may be observed throughout the world, even in places where companies are using management methods that appear identical. Using data from over fifty countries, it presents a new theoretical approach to cultural diversity whereby culture is considered a filter through which people understand reality and give it meaning. This interpretative perspective reminds us that interactions within organizational contexts are primarily social, and thus conceived differently from one culture to another. This is fundamental to our understanding of the challenges of globalization and the powerful forces that foster the international homogenization of management practices.

Leadership, decision-making, customer relations, ethics and corporate social responsibility, and interpersonal and corporate communication are just some aspects of management underpinned and influenced by cultural variation. In response to this intellectual and practical challenge this book provides methodological guidelines to enable researchers and practitioners to engage in an alternative approach to cross-cultural management.

Cross-Cultural Management Revisited

A Qualitative Approach

Philippe d'Iribarne, Sylvie Chevrier, Alain Henry, Jean-Pierre Segal, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

Introduction: The Need for a New Approach to Culture in Organizations
Part I: Universal Management Utopia
1:The Cultural Roots of American Management
2:American Management Put to the Test
3:Theorising National Cultures
Part II: Management Fundamentals and Culture
4:Leadership
5:Procedures and Control
6:Decision Making
7:Industrial Relations
8:Customer Relations
9:Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Part III: Rethinking Intercultural Relations
10:Interpersonal Communication
11:Corporate Communication
12:Intercultural Team Challenges
Part IV: For a Productive Use of the Interpretative Approach
13:A Company Odyssey in the South
14:Transferring Management Practices
15:Efficient Multicultural Teams
16:Guidelines for Deciphering Cultures
Conclusion: Making the Most of Culture Understanding

Cross-Cultural Management Revisited

A Qualitative Approach

Philippe d'Iribarne, Sylvie Chevrier, Alain Henry, Jean-Pierre Segal, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

Author Information

Philippe d'Iribarne, Managing Director of Gestion et Société (National Cultures & Organisations), National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, Sylvie Chevrier, Professor for Intercultural Management and Deputy Vice-President for International Relations, Université Gustave Eiffel, Alain Henry, Gestion et Société, Jean-Pierre Segal, Paris Dauphine University, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten, Researcher, GEM&L

Philippe d'Iribarne is Managing Director of Gestion et Société (National Cultures & Organisations, www.cerebe.org) at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.

Jean-Pierre Segal was a member of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) unit Dauphine Recherche Management (DRM) before retiring in November 2018, and remains a supervisor of PhD theses at Paris Dauphine University.

Sylvie Chevrier teaches at Université Gustave Eiffel and is former deputy director of the research centre in management of Paris-Est University (IRG).

Alain Henry was previously Director of Research at the French Development Agency (AFD), and is currently a member of the research group National Cultures & Organisations (Gestion et Société).

Geneviève Tréguer-Felten formerly directed communications departments in MNCs and is currently a member of the research group GEM&L (a language-sensitive research in management association).

Cross-Cultural Management Revisited

A Qualitative Approach

Philippe d'Iribarne, Sylvie Chevrier, Alain Henry, Jean-Pierre Segal, and Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

Reviews and Awards

"Having worked in many different places and at various levels of responsibility, but most of the times in environments where cross-cultural management was of the essence, I read with avidityCross Cultural Management Revisited. I have followed the work of Philippe and his team over the years. Rarely have I found it so illuminating combining theory and practice with easiness and integrity and relying on a broad set of examples coming from all continents. Culture is neither an easy excuse for explaining differences nor a nice digest for lectures, but a powerful filter that once understood helps one find the way to get the best out of people and out of an organization. In real life! This is an important and useful work." - Bertrand Badré, CEO Blue Like An Orange Sustainable Capital and former Managing Director of the World Bank

"This books provides an important trajectory for the understanding of cross-cultural management by offering an analytical perspective that takes the very fluidity, changeability and complexity of cross-cultural encounters seriously. The sensitivity towards the contextuality of interactions manifests through the inclusion of less well explored themes such as the role of the English language and some established themes such as corporate communications, which are revisited from a local cultural perspective. In doing so, the authors offer a fresh and rich picture of what it means to live and manage in a global world." - Susanne Tietze, Professor of Multilingual Management, Sheffield Hallam University

"This well written and engaging book is essential reading for all scholars of cross-cultural management and should be set reading for students of international management. It offers an alternative but necessary approach to the subject and a comprehensive geographic coverage including the often neglected global South. It integrates case studies to illustrate and extract theory about the many facets of managing and organizing across cultures. Importantly, it provides valuable guidelines for conducting interpretative intercultural research from a research team drawing their experience from their extensive research over thirty years. Overall, a very impressive achievement." - Terence Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Cross-cultural Management, Middlesex University Business School, and Editor-in-Chief,International Journal of Cross Cultural Management