Cases in Critical Cross-Cultural Management

An Intersectional Approach to Culture

Jasmin Mahadevan, Henriett Primecz, Laurence Romani, Jasmin Mahadevan, Henriett Primecz, Laurence Romani

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351121057
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

This book is a collection of 16 empirical cases in critical Cross-Cultural Management (CCM). All cases approach culture in CCM beyond national cultures, and all examine power as an integrative part of any cross-cultural situation. The casesalso consider diversity in the sense of culturally or historically learned categorizations of difference (such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion and class), and acknowledge how diversity categories might differ across cultures. Furthermore, each case suggests a specific method or concept for improving upon the situation. Out of this approach, novel insights emerge: we can see how culture, power and diversity categories are inseparable, and we can understand how exactly this is the case. The uses and benefits of this book are thus both conceptual and methodological; they emerge at the intersections of Critical CCM and diversity studies. All cases also discuss implications for practitioners and are suitable for teaching.

Mainstream CCM often limits itself to comparative models or cultural dimensions. This approach is widely critiqued for its simplicity but is equally used forthe exact same reason. Often, academics teach this approach whilst cautioning students against implementing it, and this might be simply due to a lack of alternatives. Through means of rich empirical cases, this book offers such an alternative.

Considering the intersections of culture, diversity and power enables students, researchers and practitioners alike to see 'more' or 'different' things in the situation, and then come up with novel approaches and solutions that do justice to the realities of culture and diversity in today's (and the future's) management and organizations. The chapters of this book thus offer concepts and methods to approach cross-cultural situations: the conceptual gain lies in bringing together CCM and (critical) diversity studies in an easily accessible manner. As a methodological contribution, the cases in this book offer the concise tools and methods for implementing an intersectional approach to culture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: Why Study CCM in Intersection?
• 1 The Paradoxical Consequences of ‘the Perfect Accent’!: A Critical Approach to Cross-Cultural Interactions
• 2 Race and Privilege in CCM: A Cross-Cultural Life Story
• 3 From Impossibility to Visibility: An Intersectional Approach to LGBT Muslims and Its Benefits for CCM
• 4 Corporate Christmas: Sacred or Profane? The Case of a Hungarian Subsidiary of a Western MNC
• 5 Wasta in Jordanian Banking: An Emic Approach to a Culture-Specific Concept of Social Networking and its Power Implications
• 6 Selling Cultural Difference: The Position and Power of Cross-Cultural Consultants
• 7 Configurations of Power and Cultural Explanations: The Case of a Chinese–Pakistani Mining Project
• 8 Cultural Rhetoric in Onshore/Offshore Project Work: How Swedish IT Consultants Talk About ‘the Indian Team’ and What This Means in Terms of Power
• 9 Lived Ethnicity: Two ‘Turkish’ Women in Germany
• 10 Familiar Strangers: Two ‘Turkish’ Employees in a Danish SME
• 11 The Ethnicization of Identity
• 12 Unequal Integration: Skilled Migrants’ Conditional Inclusion Along the Lines of Swedishness, Class and Ethnicity
• 13 Gender Initiatives Between Support and Denial: A Cross-Cultural Study of Two Automotive Companies in Germany and France
• 14 Global North and Global South: Frameworks of Power in an International Development Project
• 15 Exploring Outsider/Insider Dynamics and Intersectionalities: Perspectives and Reflections from Management Researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa
• 16 How and Why an Academic Expert Legitimatized Social Marginalization: The Case of Making and Shaping a Corporate Language Policy
• Index