MANAGING THROUGH CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Cultural differences often pose major difficulties in international negotiations and management. These cultural differences reflect differences in the assumptions people make about how business is organized and what social strategies should be followed for career success. Managers working in different cultures can identify these strategies by asking people about the types of skills in which they take the most pride and what they regard as the most prevalent causes for career failures. The foreign manager should also look at the ways in which subordinates interact. With whom do people tend to associate in the organization? How do they tend to present themselves? Finally, managers can promote changes in organizational culture by clearly and consistently setting out a framework in which different career strategies would become appropriate. Training should be provided in the new sets of interpersonal and organizational skills. The prospects for successfully changing behaviors in the foreign organization will be enhanced if people are not asked to adopt social strategies under the new rules that have generally been considered as sources of risk and ruin under the traditional patterns.