Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-c75p9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-05T04:28:41.835Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

2 - The new global managers

from Part I - Challenges for Global Managers

Richard M. Steers ,
Luciara Nardon  and
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde
Richard M. Steers
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Luciara Nardon
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde
Affiliation:
IESE Business School, Barcelona
Get access

Summary

Management challenge

As companies face an increasingly turbulent and complex global business environment, a logical question arises: can organizations today be managed in the same way they were in the past? In other words, does a changed environment – one characterized by multiple economic and political systems, divergent social norms and values, and highly diverse educational and skill levels – require us to reassess both the managerial role in general and management practices in particular? Indeed, is the very definition of management itself changing? Moreover, how should today’s managers best prepare themselves for greater involvement in global assignments in this new world? Key to success here will be their ability to develop new global management skills aimed at successfully doing business across cultures. To accomplish this, managers must first understand the role of continual on-the-job learning.

Chapter outline

▪ Traditional views of management page 32

▪ Rethinking managerial roles 34

▪ Culture and the managerial role 36

▪ Types of global assignments 43

▪ Developing global management skills 52

▪ Manager’s notebook: Learning strategies for global managers 57

▪ Summary points 61

Applications

2.1 Management trends: France and the United States 41

2.2 Expats at LG 45

2.3 Frequent flyer at Frog Design 48

2.4 Virtual manager in Delhi 50

2.5 Global training at Google 54

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who will inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves prepared for a world that no longer exists.

Eric Hoffer Moral philosopher, United States

We don’t look so much at what and where people have studied, but rather at their drive, initiative, and cultural sensitivity.

Stephen Green Group chief executive officer (CEO), HSBC, United Kingdom

Many years ago a popular film making the rounds of the local movie theaters was If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium. The film used humor to highlight the plight of a typical American tourist who was overcome by the cultural differences across the countries included in her whirlwind tour of Europe. The film’s underlying message was that tourists – at least, American tourists – seldom allow sufficient time in their travels to learn about cultural differences, preferring instead to race from one popular tourist site to another in search of good food, unique experiences, and photographs to show to their friends and family back home. The issue is one of having been there, not having learned anything. Today, despite a widespread recognition that we live and work in an increasingly interconnected global economy, it is curious that the dilemma posed in this old film is still salient for many contemporary managers and entrepreneurs alike. How serious are we about learning about other cultures? If we are serious, how do we accomplish this in meaningful ways as part of our busy work schedules?

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Management across Cultures
Developing Global Competencies
 , pp. 30 - 64
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hoffer, Eric, Reflections on the Human Condition. Titusville, NJ: Hopewell Publications, 1973, p. 32.Google Scholar
Green, Stephen, Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality, and an Uncertain World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010, p. 74.Google Scholar
George, Claude S., The History of Management Thought. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972.Google Scholar
Taylor, Frederick, Scientific Management. New York: Harper & Row, 1911.Google Scholar
Fayol, Henri, Administration Industrielle et Generale. Paris: Dunod, 1916.Google Scholar
Munsterberg, Hugo, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Free Press, 1927.Google Scholar
Robbins, Stephen and Coulter, Mary, Management, 9th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006, p. 7.Google Scholar
Hitt, Michael, Black, Stewart, and Porter, Lyman, Management, 2nd edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004, p. 8Google Scholar
Mintzberg, Henry, The Nature of Managerial Work. New York: Harper & Row, 1973, p. 55.Google Scholar
Mintzberg, Henry, Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.Google Scholar
Laurent, Andre, “The cultural diversity of Western conceptions of management,” International Studies of Management and Organization, 1983, 13(1/2), pp. 75–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgetts, Richard and Luthans, Fred, International Management: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior, 5th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin, 2003.Google Scholar
Abbeglen, James and Stalk, George, Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.Google Scholar
Goffee, Rob and Jones, Gareth, Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What it Takes to Be an Authentic Leader. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2006, pp. 109–33.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T. and Hall, Mildred Reed, Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and Americans. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Marja Tahvanainen, Denice Welch, and Worm, Verner, “Implications of short-term international assignments,” European Management Journal, 2005, 23(6), pp. 663–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adler, Nancy, International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. Mason, OH: Thompson, 2008.Google Scholar
Frase, Martha J., “International commuters: are your overseas assignments creating risky stealth-pats?,” HR Magazine, March, 2007, pp. 91–5.Google Scholar
Joinson, Carla, “Cutting down the days: HR can make expat assignments short and sweet,” HR Magazine, April 2000, pp. 93–7.Google Scholar
The Economist, “Traveling more lightly: staffing globalization,” June 24, 2006, pp. 23–4.
Mayerhofer, Helene, Hartmann, Linley, Michelitsch-Riedl, Gabriela, and Kollinger, Iris, “Flexpatriate assignments: a neglected issue in global staffing,” International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2004, 15(8), pp. 1371–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nardon, Luciara and Steers, Richard M., “The new global manager: learning cultures on the fly,” Organizational Dynamics, 2008, 37(1), pp. 47–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Javidan, Mansour, Steers, Richard M., and Hitt, Michael A. (eds.), The Global Mindset. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007
Srinivas, Kalburgi M., “Globalization of business and the third world,” Journal of Management Development, 1995, 14(3), pp. 26–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouchi, William, Theory Z. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1981.Google Scholar
Levy, Steven, “Google goes globe-trotting,” Newsweek, November 12, 2007, pp. 62–4.
Kolb, Alice Y. and Kolb, David A., “Learning styles and learning spaces: enhancing experiential learning in higher education,” Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2005, 4(2), pp. 193–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, Robert and Warrenfeltz, Rodney, “Educating the modern manager,” Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2003, 2(1), pp. 74–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×