Cultural Management for Multinational Enterprises

Abstract

Due to the dynamics in international business, it has become increasingly complex for the Multinational Enterprise (MNE) to find a balance between worldwide standardisation of operational processes and the usage of local advantages. The foreign subsidiary's managers and employees are stuck in the middle of environmental requirements, defined by the parent company on the one hand and the local social environment on the other hand. To ensure organizational efficiency in foreign subsidiaries, the rising conflict between corporate and country cultural characteristics can be solved through active cultural management. This chapter describes fundamentals of culture on corporate and country level and deduces a framework for cultural management. Furthermore, strategies are presented to close the gap between a subsidiary's external requirements and the internal implementation.