What should managers do when old habits and customs interfere with progress? Magasco Paper Mill was once a state-of-the-art operation. But changes such as new equipment and the advent of unions have strained employee relations and inhibited productivity. The case ends with a labor dispute, a strike, and a period of enormous tension and conflict. This case should be accompanied by the B case (UVA-OB-0411).

While mayor of Izumo, Japan, Tetsundo Iwakuni, a former investment banker for Merrill Lynch, was voted the most popular mayor in Japan. Having lived abroad (in England, France, and the United States) as an investment banker, Iwakuni had left his corporate career to pursue public service. After a productive term as mayor of Izumo, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Tokyo. This case describes his personal life and career and ends with his election ...

This note discusses organizational culture, distinguishing among surface-level artifacts, formal and informal practices and norms, and deep-seated assumptions and values. The typology can be used to perform a cultural audit of a group or organization.

This disguised case provides a strategic plan devised and used on a military base. Senior officers clarified their strategy, outlined capabilities needed, and designed measures to assess. The organization?s mission statement/charter, goals, and metrics are available for evaluation. Is the vision clear and could the goals be successfully translated into action? Does the plan lend itself to become part of the culture and daily business life on the...

Culture is a powerful determinant in how human performance problems are perceived and how their solutions in the form of employee development interventions are created, implemented and evaluated. As a lens, cultural frames color both the role and importance of human resource development (HRD) as a field of scholarly endeavor and as a professional area of practice. This book addresses the most critical cultural bonds that influence today's workfor...

Many widely accepted management theories related to mission statements, branding and advertising are Western inventions that do not translate when companies go global. What plays well at home may not go down so well in foreign environments. The author recommends that a company conduct a full review of its entire global marketing strategy – from its mission and vision, to its portfolio, positioning and product usage, to its communications and adve...

The temporary inpatriation of foreign subsidiary managers to HQ is on the rise: it´s cheaper than expatriating staff, it´s often the best way to gain local knowledge fast, it wins over local workforces and it expands the prospects for staff development and promotion. However, the author´s various studies of subsidiary staff relocated to the headquarters of multinationals reveal that for inpatriation to work, both the individual inpatriate and the...

The temptation to employ managerial best practices in global organizations tends to disregard a vital component of sound management and outstanding employee productivity: the influence of culture. Research on work motivation, personal work values and job attitudes rarely takes cultural differences into account. Yet evidence exists to show that culture does play a substantial role in understanding worker behavior and satisfaction, not to mention c...

Is our reasoning sound when we justify using sweatshops in Asian countries, paying bribes to secure contracts, and tolerating social and environmental degradation based on the argument that everyone else is doing it, and if we don’t, a competitor will? Doing business across borders presents a minefield of ethical dilemmas that many managers are ill-equipped to deal with. This article tackles three main myths surrounding cross-cultural management:...

Culture, that intrinsic expression of humankind, has somehow grown remote from the general public. Arts and cultural institutions, just like their business counterparts, urgently need to find new audiences, meet changing demands and consider their business models afresh. The whole sector needs to reinvent itself, says the author. But how? Beatriz Muñoz-Seca recommends that arts and cultural institutions focus not so much on their products as on c...