Article About the Lewis Model
management matters
By Jacqueline McLean
Jacqueline McLean FInstAM is Senior Lecturer in HRM (Human Resources Management) at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked with the IAM in many different roles since 1992 and is currently a Trustee.
cultural awareness training. It aims to bridge the gap between diverse cultures (Dewald and Self, 2008), ensure that negative occurrences, such as culture shock, are reduced, and develop international managers and those who have interaction with other cultures to perform competently and effectively (Edwards and Rees, 2006). Research has shown that in Europe and the USA, between half and two-thirds of firms provide cross-cultural awareness training for their international managers (Bennett, Aston and Colquhoun, 2000). Contents of such courses include cross-cultural communication, international negotiation skills and working in cross-cultural teams.
Gaining a deeper understanding of different cultures, such as those mentioned in Figure 1, can enables us to, for example: Identify similarities and differences between cultures. Cope with and adjust to differences in cultures, so that offence is not given. Identify and understand why people do what they do and behave the way they do. Work proactively with cultural differences, to produce mutually satisfying and unifying outcomes (Kumar and Chakravarthi, 2009:44; Lewis, 2007:69). Furthermore, having an appreciation of such cultures helps us to remove our cultural blinkers, overcome our sometimes negative assumptions and develop an understanding of, and an affinity with, other cultures (polycentrism; Morrison, 2002). We are all different; globalisation and the creation of the global village have confirmed that. The challenge for firms is to harness cultural differences and create and sustain competitive advantage. Culture, as we have seen, can open doors as well as close them, build bridges as well as destroy them and add value in unprecedented ways. Cross-cultural
By Jacqueline McLean
Jacqueline McLean FInstAM is Senior Lecturer in HRM (Human Resources Management) at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked with the IAM in many different roles since 1992 and is currently a Trustee.
cultural awareness training. It aims to bridge the gap between diverse cultures (Dewald and Self, 2008), ensure that negative occurrences, such as culture shock, are reduced, and develop international managers and those who have interaction with other cultures to perform competently and effectively (Edwards and Rees, 2006). Research has shown that in Europe and the USA, between half and two-thirds of firms provide cross-cultural awareness training for their international managers (Bennett, Aston and Colquhoun, 2000). Contents of such courses include cross-cultural communication, international negotiation skills and working in cross-cultural teams.
Gaining a deeper understanding of different cultures, such as those mentioned in Figure 1, can enables us to, for example: Identify similarities and differences between cultures. Cope with and adjust to differences in cultures, so that offence is not given. Identify and understand why people do what they do and behave the way they do. Work proactively with cultural differences, to produce mutually satisfying and unifying outcomes (Kumar and Chakravarthi, 2009:44; Lewis, 2007:69). Furthermore, having an appreciation of such cultures helps us to remove our cultural blinkers, overcome our sometimes negative assumptions and develop an understanding of, and an affinity with, other cultures (polycentrism; Morrison, 2002). We are all different; globalisation and the creation of the global village have confirmed that. The challenge for firms is to harness cultural differences and create and sustain competitive advantage. Culture, as we have seen, can open doors as well as close them, build bridges as well as destroy them and add value in unprecedented ways. Cross-cultural