Organizing consists of making other people work. We do this by manip ulating symbols: words, exhortations, memos, charts, signs of status. We expect these symbols to have the desired effects on the people con cerned. The success of our organizing activities depends on whether the others do attach to our symbols the meanings we expect them to. Whether or not they do so is a function of what I have sometimes called "the programs in their minds" -their learned ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting-in short, a function of their culture. The assumption that organizations could be culture-free is naive and myopic; it is based on a misunderstanding of the very act of organizing. Certainly, few people who have ever worked abroad will make this assumption. The dependence of organizations on their people's mental pro grams does not mean, of course, that we do not find many similarities across organizations. Some characteristics of human mental program ming are universal; others are shared by most people in a continent, a country, a region, an industry, a scientific discipline, or even a gender.

The last two decades have seen an explosive increase in the ethnic diversity of the workforce, growth in international business, and the emergence of many more multinational companies. The potential for problems as companies operate across borders and managers manage in countries which have different values, norms and cultural behaviors is great. By looking at organizational psychology in a cross-cultural context, we can gain an understanding of the challenges facing organizations and business today. This text breaks new ground in introducing organizational psychology from a cross cultural perspective. It provides a foundational overview of the current major theories in organizational psychology, and illuminates the impact of cultural differences on organizational dynamics. It also makes available specific research concerning our current understandings of how these dynamics play out in particular regions and countries, such as autocratic versus democratic leadership styles in Africa and Europe or conflict management in Asia. The volume offers a welcome introduction to the topic to those in industrial/organizational psychology, international relations and management, and international business/MBA programs focusing on international issues.

In today’s increasingly diverse, multicultural business world, managers and employees alike need to transcend many borders (literally or figuratively) and grasp a wide variety of cultural nuances on a routine basis. Doing this well requires both a sophisticated understanding of cultural differences as well as a repertoire of skills and management tactics that can be brought to bear to build and maintain a competitive global workforce. International Organizational Behavior focuses on understanding and managing organizational behavior in an international context, providing both the conceptual framework needed for a transcendent understanding of culture along with plenty of practical advice for managing international challenges with organizational behavior.

Written for students and others wishing to do international and cross-cultural research in business and management, this book provides an accessible introduction to the major principles and practices. A cross-cultural perspective has become vital to most contemporary management research. The increasingly global business environment has led to both a greater practical need for international management research and a questioning of whether management science follows universal rules. This book addresses the particular characteristics of international management research, including the important role of culture. A key introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the background, major issues and different approaches to international management research. The second chapter offers a typology of research designs in international management, and shows the role culture plays in such designs. The theories and paradigms that serve international and cross-cultural management research are examined in the third chapter. Chapter four examines and defines culture, its process and components. The final chapter pulls the describing arguments together to show how the construct of culture can be used in international management research. Throughout, the author provides numerous illustrative examples from key empirical studies.

Brings together research on the spread of Japanese multinational firms around the World. The authors examine how Japanese managers adapt management styles and manufacturing processes to workers in other countries.

Drawing on postcolonial theory this text offers a critique of international management. It argues that such disciplines are Western discourses and exhibit historical and current resonances with the vicissitudes of the so called 'colonial project'. The book explores alternative approaches to the question of the 'other' in late global capitalism.

Topics covered in this title include: organizing discourse; negotiating boundaries; crossing cultures; and theorizing practice.