Cross-cultural management

Many people have wrongly assumed that political freedom would follow new economic freedoms in China and that its economic growth would have to be built...

In an increasingly diverse business environment, managers must be able to navigate the thicket of habits, gestures, and assumptions that define their...

Learn how to work more effectively with people from other countries.

Many companies today rely on employees around the world, leveraging their diversity and local expertise to gain a competitive edge. However, geographically...

Why you need a language strategy now

China and India, ancient allies and modern competitors, are rebuilding economic ties after almost five decades. Consequently, multinational companies face the most challenging—and potentially rewarding—business landscape ever.

Are tensions between different generations escalating? In organizations, lack of trust between older and younger workers often yields a culture of competition...

With few exceptions, Americans are relative newcomers on the international business scene. Today, as in Mark Twain’s time, we are all too often “innocents abroad,” in an era when naiveté and blundering in foreign business dealings may have serious political repercussions. When the American executive travels abroad to do business, he is frequently shocked to […]

Five ways to help people act on their values, no matter the context.

Because of growing commitments of their companies in developing countries, large numbers of American and European managers have entered negotiations with government officials in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Also, with emerging nationalism, these negotiations have become increasingly frustrating. Sometimes misunderstandings have been so great that they have led to a breakdown in negotiations that […]

Multicultural teams offer a number of advantages to international firms, including deep knowledge of different product markets, culturally sensitive customer...

How to seize everyday negotiation opportunities at work

And they make up one-quarter of U.S. physicians.

Firms need to understand the people and places they affect.

Five strategies culled from top ASEAN executives.

What should managers working abroad do when they encounter business practices that seem unethical? Should they, in the spirit of cultural relativism,...

The first wave of foreign direct investment in China, in the 1980s, mostly took the form of joint ventures. A second wave followed in the 1990s in the form of greenfield wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs). Now a third wave of foreign direct investment—cross-border mergers and acquisitions—is gaining strength. Consider the forces driving this third wave. […]

Learning to lead is especially difficult in a different culture.

Chinese business culture is unique, but not in all the ways outsiders tend to assume. To identify the most common myths, we interviewed dozens of North American and European expats as well as some Chinese managers now working in the West, all of whom have spent at least three years doing business in China. Our […]

The challenges that many overlook.