Managing cultures - Wendy Hall

If your working life is affected by the "culture thing" – then this book will offer you wisdom and practical tools to handle cultural behaviour and bring compatibility where before there was disharmony. Cultural differences are one of the main causes of failure for corporate partnerships. In alliances, mergers, and acquisitions companies just can't seem to get along with each other. Unintentional misunderstandings lead to mistrust. Result: friction! As relationships deteriorate, synergy becomes impossible to achieve. But with the appropriate tools, cultural differences can be managed. The book presents five essential cultural skills which executives should master; from "photographing" differences and assessing cultural strengths and weaknesses, to estimating cultural costs and benefits, to modifying management behaviour. As preparation for these critical aspects of partnerships, Managing Cultures is invaluable for, amongst others, European firms merging across borders, investment banks involved in alliances, mergers and acquisitions in Europe, USA and Japan, company groups formed of multiple partners, and companies whose partnerships are already experiencing cultural friction. And of course, those who have failed and still don't know what went wrong! "Managing Cultures leads to a surprising but highly important conclusion:
* cultural behaviour is manageable
* you can learn how to manage culture
Executives and managers reading the ten point summary in the introduction will want to see whether Dr Wendy Hall can substantiate her claims." ...from the Foreword by Professor H. Meij, Unilever.