1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Culture
[Culture] generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical orientations for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity.
(Wikipedia. 2005)
People from different countries have different cultures. People from the same country also have different families and backgrounds. Therefore their behaviours, attitudes or values, are not the same. What are the reasons for this?
Culture is a body of learned behaviours common to a society which has already developed within a community for a long time (from generation to generation). People have been influenced by their culture since they were born and that is why people (from different cultures) will have different opinion towards the same question or act.
But in management, culture has a slightly different meaning. It can be explained as
the set of policies, values, beliefs and attitudes learnt and shared by the organization's member.
(Naylor, 2004)
In this project, I am going to look at how different kinds of management cultures in managing subsidiaries which are located all over the world can influence the development and growth of an organization in the modern era of globalisation.
1.2 International Business
In the past, when people talked about international business, it only meant that they exported their products to other countries, like: exporting Irish whiskey, produced in Ireland to France where it was then sold. Nowadays, because of the development of free trade, many countries reduce their trade barriers in order to attract foreign companies in to invest to ...