Managing Across Cultures: a Learning Framework

Managing in a multicultural setting can be very challenging. Culture strongly influences how people behave and how they understand the behavior of others, and cultures vary in the behaviors they find proper and acceptable. This report--which integrates work done by experts in the fields of anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, and international business management with CCL's perspective on how executives learn from experience--describes the cultural values, often unconsciously held, that underlie work in the U. S. and provides managers in the U. S. with a structured way of learning about the value preferences of people from other cultures. Examples drawn from workplaces around the world aid in applying the framework.