Review for the book 2 Crosscultural management Essential concepts
Review for the book 3 Riding the Waves of Culture Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business
1. Reviewforthe book:
Ridingthe Wavesof Culture:UnderstandingCulturalDiversityinBusiness
By FonsTrompenaarsand CharlesHampdenTurner
If you are seriousintomulticultural management,thisisdefinitelyNOTthe bookforyou. Asexpected
for a bookfirstpublishedin1989, itis outdatedandnew theoriesdelegitimize muchof itscore.
Althoughabestselleranda classicof the Multicultural Managementmainstream,there islittle fora
moderninternational managertolearnhere. Authorstake more than150 pagesexplaining theircultural
dimensionsmodel inamixedwaysomehowbetweencomplex andovercookedwithsimilarexamples.
The book fallstothe cliché of liningupseveral culturesonacontinuumandrate thembasedon a few
hundredinterviews. Manyresearchershave longprovedthatresultsgatheredinthiswayare not
consistent,evenwithresultsfrominterviewsmade tothe same groupof people aftersome months!
Contentisa collectionof entertaininganecdoteslinkedtoeachotherby commonsense,butlacksthe
requiredthoroughnessforthe positionitclaimsinthe managerial field.
A goodintroductoryreadfor freshmanlevel.Little forareal-lifemanager.