Dear Prof Littrell,
i agree with you and find your questions very insightfull. Obviously, it is
not so easy to extrapolate correctly single outcomes from a systematic work
(i am just working on a paper reporting the research outcomes, i would be
very happy to send you a copy, when it is ready). Any way, i can answer yes
to your first question: the two multinational organizations involved in the
explorative research does not show a strong and coherent "corporate
culture", if we refer to the meaning usually adopted in international
letterature. So, my answer to your second question is, obviously, no. But i
am not saying that the organizations studied have not "corporate cultures"
at all. I mean that these corporate cultures do n't determinate all the
manifestations of work life and experience (i am referring expecially to
personal and professional values distribution and communication processes).
We could describe this phenomenon using the concept of subcultures, may be.
Even though i am referring to something different. I try to explain what i
mean. Generally speaking, we know the concept of "corporate culture" is the
consequence of an "holistic" approach to organizational culture. The
organizational cultures described in the study cases seem instead to be
"prismatic" or "pluridimensional". Intervieews show a common perception of
many aspects of organizational and intercultural climate and share some
cultural paradigms: this presume a common cultural background (that we could
define "universal"). But, when you focus up your analysis on the micro level
(social interactions, interpersonal communication, work practises, social
networking etc), then you find a sort of shadow side. I am reffering to
misunderstandings in communication, conflicts, differences in work values
and behaviors, social networks, etc, that seem to be based on cultural
differences (i am referring to national differences, in this case). The aim
of the study is explorative, so i can't say "x determinate y" and so on. But
the outcomes of interviews and questionnaire data analysis give a reasonable
support to the hypothesis that the theory of corporate culture cannot
explain the out comes of this research. We can use the concept of "social
costruction", if you want: the corporate level play a huge role in the
"culture building", referring to the cases studied, but it is not the only
player joining this game. So, may be the common cultural background of
people working in the organizations studied is not entirely the result of
cultural processes at corporate levels, and any way the out comes of the
research show either the existence of a common cultural background and some
cultural differences. This is a pluridimensional approach to organizational
culture, i would say.
The outcomes of other researchs i worked at, in the past time, showed the
presence of clusters of organizational perception (i am referring to
climate) and sub-cultures in italian firms (either italian branches of
multinational companies and local organizations). I can cite several italian
or international works that show data consistent with this hypothesis. I
wonder if the theory of corporate culture is the only model that can explain
organizational success.
Best Regards
Fabrizio
----- Original Message -----
From: "Romie Littrell" <
littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz>
To: <
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 11:52 PM
Subject: Re: Perceptual Differences, Herzberg, and Culture and Economy
> That's interesting, Prof. Maimone. I believe you're
> correct. Sometimes our lack of adequate funds and our
> research methods training gets in the way of
> discovering and demonstrating valid and reliable
> theories of behaviour. I would say that an
> understanding of the behaviour of groups of humans is
> at least as complex as predicting the weather, for
> which governments use networks of supercomputer to
> analyse myriad variables.
>
> Again I'm limited by being one person with one
> computer, however, a great deal of the research
> reports I have been reading indicate that corporate
> culture tends to overwhelm ethnic and national
> culture. Is my understanding of your research outcomes
> that this was not the case in your multinational
> corporation? Would you say that the corporation had a
> very strong, universal corporate culture?
>
> Regards,
> Romie
>
>
>
> --- Fabrizio Maimone <
fabrizio.maimone@tin.it> wrote:
> > Dear prof. Littrell,
> > i appriciated so much your works and wish to add my
> > personal considerations
> > to this discussion.
> > Starting from Hofstede's research (G. Hofstede,
> > 1980), there are lot of
> > evidences on cultural differences at work.
> > In my doctoral thesis research (explorative
> > approach), that involved two
> > transnational organizations based in Europe,
> > significative differences were
> > found in values and behaviors among different
> > cultural groups. Even though
> > the qualitative approach does n't provide
> > inferencial data, the
> > post-hypothesis of the research is consistent with
> > the permanence of
> > cultural differences among cultural groups, even if
> > they are co-working in
> > the same organizational setting. The dynamic
> > cultural model adopted is not
> > in contraddition with this assumption.
> > Then, the letterature offers severals example of
> > specificity in work values
> > and behaviors, even referring to the same national
> > context (Schein E. 1984,
> > Kunda 1992, etc.).
> > May be, the supposed universality of motivational
> > models is often due to a
> > lack of cross - cultural focus in research design.
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Fabrizio Maimone
> >
> >
> > Dr Fabrizio Maimone
> >
> > LUMSA University of Rome
> > Communication Sciences
> > Via della Traspontina, 21
> > 00193 Rome
> > Italy
>
> =====
> Prof. Romie F. Littrell, Ph.D.
> Facutly of Business, Auckland University of Technology
> Private Bag 1020
> Auckland 1020, New Zealand
> Fax (64) 9 - 917 -9629
>
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
>
http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
>
>
>
>
>
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