MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE
MIT economist Lester Thurow observes, “A competitive world offers two possibilities. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change.” With increasing globalisation come increased pressures for both change and competitiveness. Understanding this changing environment is a manager's first challenge. The second is building mutually beneficial interpersonal and multicultural relationships with people in different parts of the world in order to overcome these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the turbulent global environment. Meanwhile, concerns about ethical behaviour and social responsibility surround managerial actions. We suggest here in this introductory chapter that an important key to succeeding in the global business environment is developing sufficient multicultural competence to work and manage productively across cultures.
During a dinner meeting in Prague between Japanese marketing representative Hiroko Numata and her Czech host, Irena Novák, confusion quickly emerged when the Japanese guest went off to find the restroom. She began to open the door to the men's room when her host stopped her. “Don't you see the sign?” Novák asked. “Of course I do,” Numata responded, “but it is red. In our country, a red-colored sign means it's the ladies’ room. For men, it should be blue or black.” Novák returned to her table, remembering that she too had looked at the sign but had focused on what was written, not its color. She wondered how many other things she and her Japanese colleague had seen or discussed but interpreted very differently.
We live in a contradictory and turbulent world, in which there are few certainties and change is constant. Over time, we increasingly come to realise that much of what we think we see around us can, in reality, be something entirely different. We require greater perceptual insight just as the horizons become more and more cloudy. Business cycles are becoming more dynamic and unpredictable, and companies, institutions, and employees come and go with increasing regularity. Much of this uncertainty is the result of economic forces that are beyond the control of individuals and major corporations. Much results from recent waves of technological change that resist pressures for stability or predictability.
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