Cross-cultural management is a crucial challenge for the successful development of international business, yet it is often badly understood and poorly implemented. Misunderstandings arise as culture affects both individuals and organizations, yet attempts to understand, explain and interpret these differences have often been hidden between a welter of conflicting theories and paradigms.

This book is a much-needed guide to the theory and practice of cross-cultural management. It focuses on four key areas:

• the language connection
• the global connection 
• the management connection 
• the multimedia connection.

Using an innovative approach combining theory, tool-kits and applications, it takes a fresh look at this complex topic, investigating the recognition of cross-cultural differences, accounting for them in managerial communications, and bridging them in a variety of negotiations, interactions and collaborative projects.

Introduction Or The Shadow Of The Tower Of Babel Chapter 1: The Ends, Means And Meanings Of Cultures Or The Language Connection Ends of Cultural Software  Means: Objective knowledge?  Meanings: Learning cultural codes as languages  Ends, Means And Meanings Of Culture; The language connection Professional Bureaucracy In Action: The case of the BBC Chapter 2: Clashing Civilizations or the Global Connection Cross Cultural Aspects of Globalization  Two Cassandras of Globalization: Huntington and Ritzer  Cross-Cultural Compromises and Multiculturalism  Shifting Cultural Identities: The global connection  The Case of Integrating Kazakh Immigrants in Poland Chapter 3: Networking Organizations or the Management Connection   Organizational Cultures by Design  The Police Case  Cultural Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions  The Case of Cross-Border Nordic Ventures Knowledge, Management, Criticism The Case of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies  From Controlling to Coaching: Democracy beyond factory (office) door  The case of panoptic control in a public company  Manager as a Narrator: The organizational discourse  The case of managerial discourse in countries divided by common languageor practice: Austria versus Germany and Germany versus Great Britain Chapter 4: Creative Communications and the Multimedia Connection   Media are the Message; the shift to digital communications  The Uses of the Extremes or 'Merry Christmas, Lawrence'  Power and Ideology; 'The Underground' Dynamics of socialization or democracy behind the factory door; '12 Angry Men' Conclusions: Managing cross-cultural competence Notes Literature