Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business [Hardcover]

Charles Hampden-Turner (Author), Fons Trompenaars (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

As U.S. organizations continue to explore overseas business opportunities, they will be challenged to adapt to the new market's local characteristics, legislation, fiscal regime, sociopolitical environment and cultural system. Riding the Waves of Culture shows international managers how to build the skills, sensitivity, and cultural awareness needed to establish and sustain management effectiveness across cultural borders. This revised edition is updated with new research and statistics.

More than an encyclopedia of cultures and customs, this essential guide:

• Describes successful and failed cross-cultural business transactions of multinational organizations such as AT&T, Heineken, Motorola and Volvo
• Offers techniques managers can use to anticipate and mediate some of the difficult dilemmas of international management
• Uses country-by-country graphs, examples, and other comparisons to illustrate how different cultures regard and respond to various management approaches

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786311258
• ISBN-13: 978-0786311255
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > International

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Business Poeple and Managers, June 29, 2005

By 

Layla Halabi (Dubai - UAE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business (Hardcover)

This is a shorter, and more condensed version of the authors' earlier book 'Building Cross Cultural Competence'. In this book, the authors' target managers and business people who are looking to understand cultural differences and how to deal with them in a variety of circumstances and situations. Each chapter begins with am introduction to one of the dimensions, a discussion of how the differences manifest themselves and concludes with 'tips' on how to deal, and how to do business, with the different culture explored in that chapter.

The authors use the same six dimensions of culture introduced in their earlier work (universalism vs. particularism; individualism vs communitarism; specificity vs. diffusion; achieved status vs. ascribed status; inner direction vs. outer direction; and sequential time vs. synchronous time), but they present these dimensions in a much more accessible and simple manner with more emphasis on what each dimension actually means for business people and how it affects business-related situations.

This book has become the reference for business people and managers in the area of culture. Simple and very well written without losing credibility; this is a book that will enlighten and guide any manager in dealing with people from other cultures. While in some ways it is a 'western-centric' book (targeted to Western - especially US - managers), it remains very useful for managers from other cultures since the authors have attempted to keep the examples and discussion culturally neutral.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Work of Genius, October 10, 2000

By 

Dan Seidman (Got Influence, Intergalactic HQ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business (Hardcover)

Do you travel beyond your border? For work? For pleasure? This book will keep you from making some terrible mistakes communicating and understanding other foreign nationals.

For example, when do you respect rules over relationships? In Germany rules rule, in South Korea, relationships overshadow the law.

Fascinating reading, incredible insights - you won't be disappointed in the usefulness of this work.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very informative and insightful book, September 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business (Hardcover)

Having read a number of books on intercultural management, I can only say that in my opinion, "Riding the Waves of Culture" is by far the best book on this subject. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner present the results of their research on cultural differences in a most engaging way. Their book is a quick read that is full of wonderful anecdotes about cross-cultural business dilemmas. The stories are presented in a way that demonstrates great awareness of and respect for very diverse approaches to business. The authors also offer a methodology for reconciling value differences that incorporates the best of both worlds.