This book is mainly built upon our investigations of international enterprises operating in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, USA, Finland and India. It's then enriched by case studies from China, Bahrain, Australia, Thailand, Spain and Indonesia. Multinational aspects are thus thoroughly discussed. COVID-19 has taught enterprises a lesson to be resilient, even more importantly for those running international operations.
Resilience comes from agility, and agility starts with culture. The book is here to help us practitioners and students of International Business Management succeed in building an Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC) and align it with an agile strategy. Chapters 1 to 6 bring the ACC to the table, while Chapters 7 onwards explore the diverse flavours of corporate culture in different sectors: energy & telecom, asset management, and aviation travel & tourism. In addition to further expanding our horizon, they may trigger fresh ideas for our own industry.
While strategy has always been in the centre of managers' attention, the fundamental role of culture in the firm's success is often overlooked. Sadly because it's not well understood. Culture has been accountable for around 40% of differences between good performing and poor performing enterprises. For multinationals, it is estimated that 60% of Merger and Acquisitions fail to meet their intended objectives, or fail altogether, because of unresolved cultural issues. If aligned well with strategy, the combination will create an unbeatable power. If not, culture will eat strategy as a breakfast.
Culture is complex. It's "broad, deep and stable," wrote Edgar Schein, an MIT professor emeritus in leadership. Yet stable doesn't mean static: Cultures are dynamic. It's even more complex in multinational companies, where cultures meet cultures: Interactions between cultures are inevitable. Take benefits from the book, to make culture and strategy have lunch together. Share your experiences and reach us at fopa.pro@outlook.com. Competitors can copy our strategy, but nobody can copy our culture.
Contents
Chapter 1. The Soul of an Enterprise
1.1 Culture Can Drive Our Strategy, or Eat It
1.2 What a Culture Does to an Organisation
1.3 Harmful Corporate Culture: Brought to You by United Airlines
1.4 The Five Myths of Corporate Culture
1.5 Multinational Companies
1.6 What this Book is About
Chapter 2. The Anatomy of a Corporate Culture
2.1 What is Really a Corporate Culture?
2.2 Two Eyes: Cultural Anthropologists and Management Scholars
2.3 The Roots and Philosophy of Culture in Management Research
2.4 Culture Shapes Company's Long Term Viability
2.5 Typologies of Corporate Cultures
2.6 Agile Corporate Cultures
Chapter 3. Developing and Transforming a Corporate Culture
3.1 Development Stages of a Multinational Corporate Culture
3.2 Analysing the Current Culture
3.3 Transforming
3.4 Resilience and Agile Transformation
3.5 Growing and Nurturing
3.6 Transferring to Subsidiaries
Chapter 4. Transferring Corporate Culture to Subsidiaries
4.1 The Challenge: Staying Effective Internationally
4.2 Adapting a Corporate Culture to Subsidiary's Local Culture
4.3 Adopting Corporate Culture into Subsidiary: In What Conditions?
4.4 Coordination and Delegation in International Businesses
4.5 Between to Adapt and to Adopt
Chapter 5. Corporate vs Host Cultures: To Adapt or to Adopt?
5.1 Summary of the Empirical Study
5.2 Adopting the Corporate Culture in a Daughter Company
5.3 Level of Delegation and Coordination
5.4 Leadership Styles in Subsidiaries
5.5 Communication Tools
5.6 Misunderstandings with Headquarters
5.7 Change in the Organisational Structure of Subsidiary
5.8 National Cultures in Headquarters and Subsidiaries
5.9 In Conclusion: the Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC)
Chapter 6. Formulating Adaptive Corporate Culture in International Business
6.1 Globally Interconnected World and the Role of MNC's
6.2 Four Foundations of the Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC)
6.3 Merging the Corporate Culture and Host's National Culture
6.4 Creating a Universal Culture
6.5 Managing the Expatriation of Zone Managers
6.6 Managing Conflicts due to Communication Problems
6.7 Insights from Industries
Chapter 7. Industry Insights: International Energy & Telecommunications
7.1 Communication with Respect and Listening Skills
7.2 Multinational Oil & Gas: How the Local Culture Fits in?
7.3 Satellites, Communications and Cultures
7.4 Perfect Internal, International Movements
Chapter 8. Industry Insights: Corporate Culture in Asset Management
8.1 The ISO-55000 Series in a Nutshell
8.2 The Elements of Asset Management System
8.3 Stakeholders Engagement
8.4 Organisation and People
8.5 A Culture Seeking to Align and Engage
8.6 A Culture Seeking to Optimise
8.7 Building a Culture of Reliability
8.8 Is Planning Enemy of Agility?
Chapter 9. Industry Insights: Aviation Travel and Tourism Hospitality
9.1 Travel Industry: The Post-Pandemic
9.2 Aviation Travel: Southwest Airlines
9.3 Effects of National Cultures on Airline's Service Quality
9.4 Cultural Intelligence and Intercultural Communication Competence
9.5 Hospitality: High versus Low Performing Hotels
9.6 Case Study: Homes Inn in China
9.7 Advanced Topics: CSR and Outsourcing
9.8 Authentic Perceptions: "Consuming" Cultures
9.9 Cultural Diversity is an Asset
Chapter 10. The Culture Ahead
10.1 Trends that Shape Future Businesses
10.2 Balancing Responses
10.3 Agile Culture in Human Capital: Internal Mobility
10.4 The Bottomline: Nobody Can Copy Our Culture
Objectives and Topics
This book explores the critical role of corporate culture in multinational enterprises. Its primary objective is to help practitioners and students of International Business Management understand, build, and maintain an Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC) that aligns effectively with an agile strategy to ensure organizational resilience and long-term success, especially within the complex, disrupted global environment of today.
- Building and transforming corporate culture in international subsidiaries.
- Balancing corporate strategy with host country national culture.
- Analyzing the relationship between culture, strategy, and operational performance.
- Implementing agile and resilient organizational practices across diverse sectors.
- Navigating the operational challenges of multinational expansion and internal mobility.
Excerpt from the Book
7.1 Communication with Respect and Listening Skills
When work took me to Jakarta for six weeks in 1979, I assumed it was a discrete event. I had no concept that it was laying the groundwork and preparing me to move a wife and two sons there 17 years later. While Indonesia had changed considerably in the interim, my time there in the 70s allowed for first-hand exposure to the wonderful people and culture and we all left with an excitement for this new adventure.
While my family and I prepared to move and find the right location to live, I began to plan my approach for the new role. In anticipation of this change, I started capturing lessons learned from the previous 20 years of my career. Reflecting on moving 9 times already in those early years allowed me to recognize a few universal truths. No matter where we landed, whether it was the neighboring state or a new country entirely, every place had variations of culture and practices. These variations were never as big as they seemed on the surface, and I also learned that no matter where you are in the world people are much more alike than different.
Finally, I noticed that there were common traits in myself, and the managers and peers I admired, that led to productive relationships at each stop. Those leaders that led with Respect, Listened, and constantly improved their Communication embraced the new locations and were accepted by their employees much faster. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
Summary of Chapters
Chapter 1. The Soul of an Enterprise: Discusses the fundamental role of culture as the core foundation for organizational resilience and long-term success, emphasizing that culture can drive a strategy or cause it to fail.
Chapter 2. The Anatomy of a Corporate Culture: Examines the theoretical structures of culture, including layers and elements, while exploring various typologies used in management research to analyze and categorize corporate environments.
Chapter 3. Developing and Transforming a Corporate Culture: Provides a step-by-step guide on analyzing, developing, and transforming organizational culture, with a specific focus on navigating the challenges of creating an agile and resilient entity.
Chapter 4. Transferring Corporate Culture to Subsidiaries: Explores the complexities of exporting corporate culture to international subsidiaries, addressing the constant balance between HQ control and the need for local effectiveness.
Chapter 5. Corporate vs Host Cultures: To Adapt or to Adopt?: Presents empirical research findings on how multinational companies manage the conflict between headquarters' values and local host cultures when operating abroad.
Chapter 6. Formulating Adaptive Corporate Culture in International Business: Consolidates the book’s findings into the Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC) framework, focusing on four pillars: merging cultures, universal ethics, expatriation management, and conflict resolution.
Chapter 7. Industry Insights: International Energy & Telecommunications: Features real-world case studies and practitioner insights from the energy and telecommunications sectors, highlighting the practical application of cultural intelligence and respect in these fast-paced environments.
Chapter 8. Industry Insights: Corporate Culture in Asset Management: Analyzes the convergence of asset management systems, such as ISO-55000, with corporate culture, emphasizing the importance of alignment, employee engagement, and reliable processes.
Chapter 9. Industry Insights: Aviation Travel and Tourism Hospitality: Investigates the specific cultural demands of the travel and tourism sectors, focusing on service quality, the impact of national cultures on cabin crews, and authentic service experiences.
Chapter 10. The Culture Ahead: Looks toward future developments, summarizing essential trends like supply chain reconfiguration, real virtuality, and the rise of employee-owned enterprises, reinforcing that culture remains the ultimate, inimitable competitive advantage.
Keywords
Adaptive Corporate Culture, International Business Management, Multinational Enterprises, Strategy and Culture Alignment, VUCA Environment, Organizational Resilience, Agile Transformation, Cross-Cultural Management, Subsidiary Management, Leadership Styles, Asset Management, Operational Agility, Cultural Intelligence, Employee Engagement, Global Business Flows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core message of this book regarding corporate culture?
The core message is that corporate culture is the fundamental "operating system" or "soul" of an organization. Far from being a soft topic, it is a key driver of 40% of the variance in organizational performance and must be actively built and aligned with an agile strategy to survive in a volatile global market.
Which central themes does the book analyze?
The book analyzes the interplay between corporate strategy and culture, the challenges of multinational operations, the importance of leadership in shaping human-centric practices, and the necessity of adapting to host-country environments without losing core organizational values.
What is the primary objective of the work?
The objective is to provide a practical framework—the Adaptive Corporate Culture (ACC)—that helps managers, practitioners, and students understand how to thrive internationally by successfully blending a firm's core DNA with the diverse host-country cultures of its subsidiaries.
Which scientific methods are primarily used?
The book integrates anthropological concepts (like Schein’s layers of culture) with management research (Cameron & Quinn’s Competing Values Framework; the GLOBE study; Denison’s dimensions; and Lewin’s change model) and accompanies them with original empirical, qualitative research on 15 decision-makers from multinational firms.
What topics are covered in the main section of the book?
The main part covers the fundamental definition of culture, the development stages of a corporate culture, strategies for transferring that culture to international subsidiaries, industry-specific operational insights (energy, telecom, tourism), and finally, future-oriented trends like software-centric cultures and internal mobility.
What key terms characterize the work?
The book is defined by keywords such as ACC (Adaptive Corporate Culture), VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), organizational resilience, agile transformation, and the persistent "human" element in international management.
How does the book address the dilemma of HQ control versus local adaptation?
Through its empirical case studies—such as those on Del Copa, Zervando, and Pierre Haute—the book demonstrates that successful firms do not just choose between "adopting" (imposing HQ culture) or "adapting" (localizing), but instead follow a systematic pattern of "doing both" to create a unique synergy.
Could you provide a specific example of cultural adaptation described?
Yes, the book illustrates an example where a Swiss pharmaceutical firm operating in Indonesia integrated the knowledge of traditional Javanese herbal medicine ("Jamu") into its product portfolio and research, thereby turning a local practice into a new competitive advantage.
What role does the "Reliability Czar" play in asset management?
The "Reliability Czar" acts as the essential communication bridge within asset-intensive businesses, connecting top-level strategic leadership with the technical design and development teams to ensure that long-term safety and quality reliability remain prioritized over short-term budgetary pressures.
Why did the authors choose specific industry cases in Chapters 7-9?
The authors purposefully selected industry cases—energy, telecommunications, and hospitality tourism—because these sectors are most intensely exposed to high-stakes global flows, technical complexities, and constant, direct interactions with multicultural stakeholders, making them ideal laboratories for observing culture in action.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Andy Marjoko (Autor:in), Aurélia Royer-Duffait (Autor:in), Caroline Saradjian (Autor:in), 2023, Adaptive Corporate Culture in International Business Management, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1323193
