Cross cultural management

SYNTHESIS OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS FIELD :

During the course of a 31-year career exclusively oriented towards international consulting, my work has progressed from describing, and then explaining, to finally designing human resource management models specifically designed for a country's historical context and culture. Most of these research works have been published. Furthermore, I have led many training seminars on the style of management of an individual country, of several countries located in the same region of the world and on the comparison between different countries. And last but not least, at the request of some clients I have also made some original studies concerning ways of managing businesses in black Africa, in the Islamo-Arabic cultural area of the Maghreb countries and more recently, in Russia and in China. 

PUBLICATIONS :

"Cultural Differences in Management" with Geert Hofstede, published by Editions d'Organisation, Paris, 1987. 

Chief of project for design of an African management system (motivating people, leadership and implicit organisational structure), O.N.F.P. Côte d'Ivoire, 1981. The results of these studies were included in full in a book by the O.N.F.P. director, Mr. Henry BOURGOIN, "L'Afrique malade du management", Editions Jean Picollec, 47 rue Auguste Lançon, 75013 Paris, 1984. 

"The Four Cornerstones and the Three Pillars in the House of Russian Management Development", in the review "Cross Cultural Management, an international journal", Volume 13, Number 2, 1994.

SEMINARS :

Leader of numerous training seminars on Cross Cultural Management. 

Leader of numerous training seminars on international non-verbal communication.

The tools which I use in this field are of three types:

The questionnaire of measurement of the cultural values of a country 

Created by Geert Hofstede. The reader will find it in appendix of the book "Cultural Differences in Management", published by "Les éditions d'organisation", Paris. This questionnaire makes it possible to build the estimated model of the style of management of a country not studied previously by the researcher. Other more specific questions about the study carried out can be added to this questionnaire. 

The world-wide typology of countries organised according to 4 cultural values which differentiate them:

The hierarchical distance measures the degree of equality between boss and subordinates. It is connected to the value of the equality between people. 
The control of uncertainty measures the degree of anxiety which a group of people can feel vis-a-vis future events and the way in which they try to control the future. From the constraints which it can generate, this value is connected to freedom.
The masculinity value indicates the distribution of roles between the men and the women in a country. The more the roles are differentiated, the more the country has a value of masculinity. The more interchangeable the roles are, the more the country has a feminine value. 
Individualism measures the relation between the individual and the human group in which he lives. The individual who maintains close connections with very many members of the group and waits to be protected by the group to which he/she belongs, lives in a country having a community mentality. The group takes precedence over the individual. If the individual deals only with his/her close family and has an autonomous way of life, he/she belongs in this case to an individualistic country. The individual takes precedence over the group.

Training documents which I conceived on this subject (transparencies, role plays, tests etc.)