Deviance Across Cultures: Constructions of Difference

Management practices and processes frequently differ across national and regional boundaries. What may be acceptable managerial behaviour in one culture may be counterproductive or even unacceptable in another. As managers increasingly find themselves working across cultures, the need to understand these differences has become increasingly important. This book examines why these differences exist and how global managers can develop strategies and tactics to deal with them.

Marketing Across Cultures offers a different approach to global marketing, based on the recognition of diversity in world markets and on local consumer knowledge and marketing practices.

Whether you run a giant corporation or work in a small business, it’s more than likely that you regularly deal with people of different cultures—from customers and suppliers to salespeople and colleagues. It simply can’t be overstated: You will have trouble succeeding in business today if you don’t appreciate and know how to actively manage global cultural diversity.

Business Across Cultures is the keystone book in the Culture for Business series. It provides an overview of all subjects tackled in the other books of the series. Its particular aim is to provide executives with a cross-cultural perspective on how companies meet the diverse needs of customers, investors and employees; to introduce the main ideas in business in a multicultural context; and to show how they all fit together.

From high-level business negotiations to casual conversations among friends, every interpersonal interaction is shaped by cultural norms and expectations. Seldom is this more clearly brought to light than in encounters between people from different cultural backgrounds, when dissimilar communication practices may lead to frustration and misunderstanding.