Текст 2. Cross-cultural management

Managing a truly global multinational company would obviously be much simpler if it required only one set of corporate objectives, goals, policies, practices, products and services. But local differences often make this impossible. The conflict between globalization and localization has led to the invention of the word ‘glocalization’! Companies that want to be successful in foreign markets have to be aware of the local cultural characteristics that affect the way business is done.

A fairly obvious cultural divide that has been much studied is the one between, on the onehand, the countries of North America and north-west Europe, where management is largely based on analysis, rationality, logic and systems, and, on the other, the Latin cultures of southern Europe and South America, where personal relations, intuition, emotion and sensitivity are of much greater importance.

The largely Protestant cultures on both sides of the North Atlantic (Canada, the USA, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia) are essentially individualist. In such cultures, status has to be achieved. You don’t automatically respect people just because they've been in a company for 30 years. A young, dynamic, aggressive manager with an MBA (a Master in Business Administration degree) can quickly rise in the hierarchy. In most Latin and Asian cultures, on the contrary, status is automatically accorded to the boss, who is more likely to be in his fifties or sixties than in his thirties. This is particularly true in Japan, where companies traditionally have a policy of promotion by seniority. A 50-year-old Japanese manager, or a Greek or Italian or Chilean one, would quite simply be offended by having to negotiate with an aggressive, well-educated, but inexperienced American or German 20 years his junior. In northern cultures, the principle of pay-for-performance often successfully motivates salespeople. The more you sell, the more you get paid. But the principle might well be resisted in more collectivist cultures, and in countries where rewards and promotion are expected to come with age and experience.

Задание: Найдите в тексте ответы на следующие вопросы.

1. How would you explain the concept of ‘glocalization’? 2. What is the difference between management in countries of North America and north-west Europe and the Latin cultures of southern Europe and South America? 3. What are Protestant cultures characterized by?