 Being flexible and accommodating diversity: The challenge for multinational managementDenice E. Welch and Lawrence S. Welch European Management Journal, 1997, vol. 15, issue 6, 677-685 Abstract: This article presents an opposing view to the current populist position that corporate culture can be utilised to bind the multinational together. It critically examines the appropriateness of corporate culture as a 'soft' control mechanism, concluding that highly committed, inculcated managers (believers) may actually be a barrier to the goals of flexibility, responsiveness and innovativeness in the face of rapidly changing, diverse global operations. However, the calculatively compliant manager is not proferred as an alternative. Rather, we argue that the quest for conformity to a given corporate culture may be counterproductive. The real challenge for multinationals is to develop mechanisms that encourage mixed voices and messages, and support a diversity of perspectives. It is suggested that multinationals might even look at the university model, in which it has long been recognised that knowledge advances in a climate of critique and dissent. Date: 1997 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:15:y:1997:i:6:p:677-685 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.