Introduction to Cross-Cultural Management Issue

Author(s): William A. Dymsza and Anant R. Negandhi

Source: Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, Special Issue on Cross-
Cultural Management (Autumn, 1983), pp. 15-16
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan Journals
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/222588
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INTRODUCTION TO CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
ISSUE

WILLIAM A. DYMSZA
Rutgers University

ANANT R. NEGANDHI
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

* Early in 1982, the Editor-in-Chief of JIBS decided to publish a special issue on

cross-cultural management at the suggestion of Professor Nancy Adler of McGill
University, following her successful organization of the symposium at her univer-
sity. Professor Anant R. Negandhi was approached and agreed to be a guest edi-
tor. Papers included in this issue are the result of this endeavor.
In designing this issue, we focused on (a) conceptual and theoretical develop-
ments in studying management in cross-cultural settings, and (b) the new empirical
studies in cross-cultural management.
Based on this focus, we invited scholars to submit papers on any of the following
topics:

Theoretical and Methodological Issues

1. The use of existing social theories in guiding cross-cultural organization

studies.
2. Viable models for cross-cultural organization studies.
3. Ethnographic data bases for use in selecting countries in cross-cultural or-
ganization studies.
4. Dimensionalizing the variable "country" in cross-cultural organization
studies.
5. Treatment of emic versus etic approaches to cross-cultural organization
studies. Nomothetic versus ideographic approaches to knowledge.
6. Designing cross-cultural organization studies to evaluate rival hypotheses
and alternative explanations.

Cross-Cultural Empirical Studies of Organizations

1. Comparative studies of work organization forms and associated outcomes.
2. Comparative studies of organizational life-cycle patterns (growth and sur-
vival).

3. Comparative studies of external environments and their impact on organiza-

tional functioning.
4. Comparative studies of organizational reward systems and associated out-
comes.

5. Comparative studies of types of organizational commitment and associated

outcomes.

6. Comparative studies of organizational socialization and associated out-

comes.

7. Comparative studies of leadership and supervisory behavior and associated

outcomes.

About 36 papers were received and reviewed by the appropriate JIBS editorial
members and other "outside" experts in the field. They recommended 8 papers for
inclusion in this issue, as shown in the Table of Contents. Collectively, the articles
in this issue cover the following topics: methodological and theoretical issues in
cross-cultural management research; power and authority; managerial attitudes

Journal of International Business Studies, Fall 1983 15

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 and motivation; management practices in developing countries; management
practices in industrialized countries; and the Japanese management system and
its relevance to the U.S. and other Western countries. These issues cover about 60
countries in the 6 continents around the world.
As the titles indicate, the first 3 papers deal exclusively with the methodological
and theoretical issues in cross-cultural management research. Of the remaining
5, all except the one by England provide the results of the authors' own empirical
studies in cross-cultural and cross-national settings.
Because a major purpose of this issue was to examine the theoretical and meth-
odological advancement made during the last 3 decades in studying organization
and management in cross-cultural settings, Anant Negandhi in the first article re-
views briefly this particular topic. In the process he evaluates linkages of cross-
cultural management with other disciplines, discusses the changing focus of the
field, and makes suggestions for future directions of cross-cultural research.

16 Journal of International Business Studies, Fall 1983

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