Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts

With ever-increasing globalization of the business environment, the number of interactions between people of different cultural backgrounds in the workplace is growing exponentially in companies of all sizes. As a result, to be an effective international manager, one must genuinely understand how to manage these cross-cultural relationships.

Taking a predominantly psychological perspective, the Second Edition of Cross-Cultural Management (the follow-up to Thomas's Essentials of International Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, SAGE, 2002) offers a concise overview of the key concepts of management from a cross-cultural point of view, peppered with relevant examples. Updated throughout with the most current research, this text focuses on the interactions of people from different backgrounds in any workplace anywhere, rather than merely offering a country-specific view. As a result, the reader gains an understanding of the effects of culture that can be applied to a wide variety of interactions in different organizational settings.

The most systematic treatment of management in a cross-cultural context available, this dynamic text is an essential resource for students or professionals who wish to understand the influence of culture on interpersonal interactions in professional settings-and then to apply what they have learned as global managers.

New to the Second Edition: Offers expanded coverage in several areas, including sections on the GLOBE study, social axioms research, global virtual teams, additional information on cultural dimensions and negotiation, the psychological contract between individuals and the organization, holistic approaches to cross-culturalnegotiation, and more, Features a new Chapter 11 ("The Challenge of Managing Across Cultures in the Future"), which examines key environmental trends and outlines potential challenges facing cross-cultural managers, Provides additional material on indigenous approaches to leadership, including paternalism and coverage of the GLOBE study, while still covering Western approaches.