1. Introduction (1530)
“Culture eats Strategy for breakfast” - Peter Drucker
The on-going globalization and the rise of China and India as economic superpowers have led to huge global changes of economic, political, social and cultural nature. These changes call for an increased importance of reciprocal knowledge exchange. The impacts of global collaborations affect virtually everyone in every organisation and on different levels. Individuals that do not travel can still be affected through virtual collaborations between different business departments around the world. This implies that an increasing number of individuals require a sensitivity to different cultural perspectives in order to complete their tasks and to navigate through a complex …show more content…
However, in order to achieve a common cultural platform, the cultural values must not only be communicated to the workforce, they must also be understood, accepted and put into practice. Another challenge is the new forms of cross-cultural collaborations since organisations to a large extent have teams that include several cultures and work virtually. Virtual collaborations are not only present in large organisations but also in smaller and medium sized organisations (Cardel Gertsen, Søderberg & Zølner, 2012).
As an illustrative example of the severe effects of cultural differences is the merger between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation. The DaimlerChrysler Corporation (1998-2007) did not succeed to rationalize the two companies into one unit. In a sense, the managers of the both companies failed to integrate the culture and unify it into one company culture. The companies had two challenges to overcome; differences in national culture and the differences in business culture. The two parties were dissident of how the new mega-corporation should be managed. For instance, the German executives at Daimler-Benz had assistants who investigated and prepared papers on any issue. A decision worked …show more content…
Hence, this study strives to investigate how a positivist approach, widely used by practitioners, can be developed through an inter-paradigmatic lens where generalizations are only applied to an abstract or national level.
1.2 Research aim and objectives
This study strives to fill the need of a less paradigmatic study by combining a positivist paradigm and an interpretive paradigm into one feasible approach to help managers manage different cross-cultural collaborations.In this study the definition cross-cultural collaborations and a feasible approach is defined as:
The collaborations between different business units within a company and collaborations between different organisations within a project, both which include people with different cultural backgrounds
The feasible approach is an effective and flexible approach to diminish conflicts based on cultural differences which apply in many settings and
“Culture eats Strategy for breakfast” - Peter Drucker
The on-going globalization and the rise of China and India as economic superpowers have led to huge global changes of economic, political, social and cultural nature. These changes call for an increased importance of reciprocal knowledge exchange. The impacts of global collaborations affect virtually everyone in every organisation and on different levels. Individuals that do not travel can still be affected through virtual collaborations between different business departments around the world. This implies that an increasing number of individuals require a sensitivity to different cultural perspectives in order to complete their tasks and to navigate through a complex …show more content…
However, in order to achieve a common cultural platform, the cultural values must not only be communicated to the workforce, they must also be understood, accepted and put into practice. Another challenge is the new forms of cross-cultural collaborations since organisations to a large extent have teams that include several cultures and work virtually. Virtual collaborations are not only present in large organisations but also in smaller and medium sized organisations (Cardel Gertsen, Søderberg & Zølner, 2012).
As an illustrative example of the severe effects of cultural differences is the merger between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation. The DaimlerChrysler Corporation (1998-2007) did not succeed to rationalize the two companies into one unit. In a sense, the managers of the both companies failed to integrate the culture and unify it into one company culture. The companies had two challenges to overcome; differences in national culture and the differences in business culture. The two parties were dissident of how the new mega-corporation should be managed. For instance, the German executives at Daimler-Benz had assistants who investigated and prepared papers on any issue. A decision worked …show more content…
Hence, this study strives to investigate how a positivist approach, widely used by practitioners, can be developed through an inter-paradigmatic lens where generalizations are only applied to an abstract or national level.
1.2 Research aim and objectives
This study strives to fill the need of a less paradigmatic study by combining a positivist paradigm and an interpretive paradigm into one feasible approach to help managers manage different cross-cultural collaborations.In this study the definition cross-cultural collaborations and a feasible approach is defined as:
The collaborations between different business units within a company and collaborations between different organisations within a project, both which include people with different cultural backgrounds
The feasible approach is an effective and flexible approach to diminish conflicts based on cultural differences which apply in many settings and