Intercultural management

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The subject of intercultural management is understood to be a partial aspect of international management that deals with cultural issues relating to cross-border business activities. Intercultural management deals with interpersonal interactions between different cultural specialists and managers. It assumes that "different cultural conditions [...] are reflected in many ways on the attitudes and behavior of customers, employees, business partners and others." by taking into account different values ​​and cultural particularities, on the one hand, the resulting dysfunctionalities are handled and, on the other hand, the resulting synergies are used. The maxim is to act both effectively and appropriately.

Interculturality as a management area

Culture as an orientation system for people and organizations is a fundamental aspect that plays an essential role in corporate management. Multinational companies face the challenge of adapting their management style to the cultural conditions of the different countries in which they are active in their international activities. In an intercultural context , companies have to survive in situations of “increasing uncertainty, variance and discontinuity in environmental developments”. If cultural differences are ignored or if individual cultures are unilaterally devalued (“ ethnocentrism ”), culturally-related misunderstandings can arise “which have a negative impact on the value creation of the organization”.

Cultural vs. Universalist perspective

A distinction can be made between a culturalist and a universalist perspective . The culturalist perspective emphasizes that different cultural conditions, values ​​and motives also require different management styles (culture-bound thesis). The universalists, on the other hand, assume that fundamental management principles are always and everywhere valid regardless of cultural conditions (culture-free thesis).

Multinational companies as key players

Cultural differences play a role especially for multinational companies . These often employ people from different cultures at the same location (for example by posting). In addition, intercultural challenges arise especially when there are cultural differences between the location of the subsidiary or the production facility and the home country of the parent company . The corporate culture is also influenced by the respective national cultures. In addition to intercultural challenges between individual organizational units, the different communication habits of members of different cultures are particularly important at this interface between cultures. The interaction between people from different cultures goes hand in hand with intercultural communication .

Cultural diversity as a resource

According to an expanded and open concept of culture, cultures cannot be sharply delimited from one another by nation-state. “Differences between national cultures are increasingly being overlaid by differences between transnational subcultures , and intra-cultural differences with regard to certain personality traits (such as occupation, age or social class) are often far greater than intercultural differences. This results in competitive advantages for those companies that no longer align their corporate strategy with national borders, but rather with these international subcultures. Intercultural management and above all diversity management take this into account. According to studies, diversity within an organization can be used as a resource in the sense of diversity . According to a study, the nature of collaboration is changing: there is then a greater willingness to prepare for opposing perspectives, and there is a greater assumption that it will take effort to convince others. Greater diversity within corporate management can promote a corporate culture in which different opinions come into play and thus increase the ability to innovate.

Fields of action of intercultural management

Intercultural management intervenes at the interface of intercultural business activities. It designs the corporate strategy in such a way that the framework conditions are created so that intercultural and international business activities are designed successfully and appropriately. This applies in particular to the following fields of action:

See also

literature

  • Nancy Adler: International dimensions of organizational behavior. 3. Edition. Thomson, Cincinnati, Ohio 1997.
  • Gerhard Apfelthaler: Intercultural Management. Coping with cultural differences in international corporate activities. Manz Fortis FH, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7068-0584-7 .
  • Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (Ed.): Intercultural Management. 3rd, completely revised u. exp. Edition. Springer, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-540-42976-X .
  • Jürgen Bolten (Hrsg.): Intercultural action in the economy. Verlag Wissenschaft und Praxis, Sternenfels 2004, ISBN 3-89673-214-5 .
  • Csaba Földes, Gerd Antos (Ed.): Interculturality: Method Problems in Research. Contributions of the international conference in the German Institute of the Pannonian University Veszprém, 7.-9. October 2004. Iudicium, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89129-197-9 .
  • Irka Fürle: Success factors of international virtual teams. In: Platform - The magazine for intercultural economy. 03/2010. (on-line)
  • Geert Hofstede (Ed.): Local thinking, global action. Intercultural cooperation and global management. 3rd, completely revised Edition. DTV-Beck, 2006, ISBN 3-423-50807-8 .
  • Eckart Koch: Practical training in intercultural management. 2., completely revised and exp. Edition. UVK, Konstanz / Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-86764-724-3 .
  • Eckart Koch, Sabine Speiser (Ed.): Intercultural Management - New Approaches, Experiences, Findings. Rainer Hampp Verlag, Munich / Mering 2008, ISBN 978-3-86618-212-7 .
  • Richard D. Lewis: When cultures collide - Leading across cultures. 3. Edition. Nicholas Brealey International, Boston / London 2006, ISBN 1-904838-02-2 .
  • Dagmar Lück-Schneider, Stephan Maninger (Ed.): Knowledge Management - An Interdisciplinary Consideration. Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938407-14-X .
  • Alexander Thomas, Eva-Ulrike Kinast, Sylvia Schroll-Machl (eds.): Handbook of intercultural communication and cooperation. 1st edition. Volumes 1 and 2, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, ISBN 3-525-46186-0 .
  • Hamid Reza Yousefi , Ina Braun: Interculturality. An interdisciplinary introduction. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-23824-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Martin Welge, Dirk Holtbrügge: Organizational conditions of intercultural management . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (ed.): Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 3 .
  2. ↑ a b c Christoph Barmeyer: Pocket dictionary interculturality . V&R, Göttingen 2012, p. 118 .
  3. ↑ a b Darla Deardorff: The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States . In: Journal of Studies in International Education . No. 10 , 2006, p. 247-248 .
  4. ^ Siegfried Stumpf: Intercultural Leadership and Management . In: Alexander Thomas, Ulrike Kinast, Sylvia Schroll-Machl (eds.): Handbook of Intercultural Communication and Cooperation . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . V&R, Göttingen 2010, p. 288 .
  5. ↑ Bruce Kogut: Research notes and communications - A note on global strategies . In: Strategy Management Journal . No. 10 , 1989.
  6. ^ Nancy Adler: International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior . South Western, Cincinnati 2002.
  7. ↑ Eugen von Keller: Management in Foreign Cultures. Goals, results and methodological problems of cross-cultural management research . Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1982, p. 539 .
  8. ↑ Jürgen Rothlauf: Intercultural Management . 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, p. 57 .
  9. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Fuzzy Cultures - Consequences of an open and multi-valued concept of culture for conceptualizations of intercultural personnel development measures . In: Mondial - SIETAR Journal for intercultural perspectives . Annual edition, 2013, p. 4-10 .
  10. ↑ Martin Welge, Dirk Holtbrügge: Organizational conditions of intercultural management . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (ed.): Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 7 .
  11. ^ Katherine W. Phillips: How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. In: Scientific American. October 1, 2014, accessed October 15, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda Marshall, Laura Sherbin: How Diversity Can Drive Innovation. Harvard Business Review, December 2013, accessed October 15, 2016 .
  13. ^ Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux: International selection of personnel . In: Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 181-236 .
  14. ↑ Jürgen Bolten: Intercultural Competence . State Center for Polit. Education Thuringia, Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-943588-03-3 , p. 121-172 .
  15. ^ Günter Stahl: International deployment of managers . Oldenbourg, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-24723-9 .
  16. ^ Klaus Hirsch: Reintegration of foreign employees . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (ed.): Intercultural Management . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 417-430 .
  17. ↑ a b Jürgen Bolten: Intercultural Competence . State Center for Polit. Education Thuringia, Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-943588-03-3 , p. 153 .
  18. ↑ Martin Welge, Dirk Holtbrügge: Organizational conditions of intercultural management . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (ed.): Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 3-20 .
  19. ↑ Alexander Thomas, Siegfried Stumpf: Aspects of intercultural leadership behavior . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (ed.): Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 71-108 .
  20. ^ Mel Schnapper: Multicultural / Multinational Teambuilding After International Mergers and Acquisitions . In: Niels Bergemann, Andreas Sourisseaux (Ed.): Intercultural Management . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, p. 385-398 .
  21. ↑ Stefan Müller, Katja Gelbrich: Intercultural Marketing . 2nd Edition. Vahlen, Franz, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-8006-3735-5 .