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Abstract
* Management in general, and personnel management in particular, are culturally constrained. A distinction is made between national cultures and organization cultures. National cultures differ mainly on the level of fundamental values; five dimensions of values can be distinguished. These affect organization structures, motivation, performance appraisal, objective setting, strategic management, and humanization of work. National cultures do not converge over time. Organization cultures (within nations) differ mainly on the level of more superficial practices, which means they are somewhat manageable. Six dimensions of practices can be distinguished, with implications for management. Managing multinationals means accepting national culture differences and managing organizational culture differences.
Key Results
* Nobody can think globally. Both national and organizational cultures constrain personnel management. Global personnel management implies understanding local constraints.
Organization Cultures and National Cultures
Culture in general has been defined as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another" (Hofstede 1991, p. 5). In the case of national culture, the category is the nation - keeping other things equal. In the case of organization cultures the category is the organization as opposed to other organizations - again other things, like nationality, being equal. Next to national and organization one can distinguish occupational cultures, business cultures, gender cultures, age group cultures (like youth culture), and so on. However, the use of the word culture for all these categories does not mean that they are identical phenomena. For different kinds of social systems, their cultures may well be of a different nature. This is particularly the case for organization cultures versus national cultures, if only because membership of an organization is usually partial and voluntary, while the membership of a nation is permanent and involuntary.
Culture as collective programming of the mind manifests itself in several ways. From the many terms used to describe manifestations of culture the following four together cover the total concept rather neatly: symbols, heroes, rituals, and values. These can be imagined as the skins of an onion, symbols representing the most superficial and values the deepest manifestations of culture, with heroes and rituals in between.
Symbols are words, gestures, pictures, or objects which carry a particular meaning only recognized as such by those...