Product Description

Many managers understand that cultural differences affect the process of doing business, but many underestimate by just how much. This book aims to dispel the idea that there is only one way to manager and encourages readers to get to know their own culture before doing business with others. The author explores the cultural extremes and the incomprehension that can arise when doing business across cultures - even when people are working for the same company. The book explains that there are five key factors or orientations that affect how people all deal with each other, do business and manage. The goal is the "transnational organization" - one in which the company can take from each country what is best, and for those who are sensitive to these differences, the opportunities are enormous. With many practical examples and case studies, this book brings insights to the dilemma of reconciling corporate consistency with local conditions as business life rapidly internationalizes. In 1991 Fons Trompenaars was awarded the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25304 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 275 pages

From the Back Cover
Read the book that is revolutionizing international business!

With over 50,000 copies sold in its first edition, Riding the Waves of Culture dispelled the idea that there is only one way to manage, and was the first book to show professional managers how to build the cross-cultural skills, sensitivity, and awareness required in today's global business environment. In this second edition, Fons Trompenaars and co-author Charles Hampden-Turner reveal the seven key dimensions of business behavior, and how they combine to form four basic types of corporate culture:

-The Family (Japan, Belgium)
-The Eiffel Tower (France, Germany)
-The Guided Missile (US, UK)
-The Incubator (Silicon valley)

This revised and updated edition features completely new sections including:

-An in-depth examination of one of the world's most multicultural nations­­South Africa­­and how recent events make it an ongoing laboratory of intercultural reconciliations
-A detailed analysis of how gender differences within the United States affect workplace and problem-solving behavior
-Current research findings on how ethnic differences within a society can be more troublesome than international differences­­and how some managers are keeping the peace
-A systematic program for uncovering, understanding, respecting, and reconciling cultural differences at all levels of the organization

About the Author
Fons Trompenaars is managing director of United Notions, an international management and training consulting group with clients that include Motorola, Mars, Shell, Eastman Kodak, Heineken, and Apple Computer. Trompenaars, an accomplished consultant and author, has given over 1,000 cross-cultural training programs in 18 countries. He received his Ph.D. from the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania.

Charles Hampden-Turner is a leading management consultant with a DBA from Harvard. He has authored over a dozen books, including Maps of the Mind, and with Fons Trompenaars coauthored The Seven Cultures of Capitalism and Mastering the Infinite Game. Hampden-Turner is a past winner of the Douglas McGregor Memorial Award and is based at the University of Cambridge Judge Institute of Management Studies.

Customer Reviews

Essential reading for all involved in managing across border
Theoretically sound, at the same time the book is written beautifully, and I successfully used it as the basis for a multicultural teambulding programme in Amsterdam, with eight countries and six languages represented.

One of Lifes educational steps
I first read this book three years ago and have continued to recomend it to friends and collegues. Having worked internationally for 15 years I often had people experiences but didn't understand the why. This book helps you understand the different cultural dimensions, and where different cultures fit. I now understand some of the why.

First rate, readable introduction to "why they do things"
Peppering the book with anecdotes, Trompenaars and Hampden Turner take a logical, cogent and clear approach to how people are different when they conduct business.

This goes far beyond simple stereotypes of "Northern Europeans are colder than Southern Europeans" and attempts to explain why these differences come about. They then suggest alternate approaches to interactions between different cultures.

The book is general in approach and teaches skills that are relevant globally. This means that if you're after specifics of (say) how rural Korean cultures interact with the Japanese, you'll find the book a bit thin!

However: I wish I'd had this book when I started working in a European team.