Cross-Cultural Management

Cross-cultural management involves efforts to lead and participate in effective interaction among workers, managers, clients, suppliers, and organizational partners from cultures around the world. A key challenge associated with this is that individuals from different regional and national contexts differ in culture and language. Therefore, understanding, managing, and sometimes adapting to cultural differences, as well as searching for and capitalizing on similarities, are essential skills for working across borders. Culture refers to assumptions, values, beliefs, practices, and institutions associated with and distinguishing particular societies. Managers working across cultures face differences in values, practices, and languages that affect peoples' expectations, understanding, and behaviors, thereby influencing workplace norms and behaviors. This entry summarizes key aspects of management affected by cultural differences, identifies trends in cross-cultural management and discusses implications in terms of skills and competencies required for effective cross-cultural management.