We would like to invite everyone to attend the following Caucus in order to share your views, provide stimulation for future research, and discuss posibilities for collaborative work
The Possibility of a Global Culture and the Future this
will Entail for Cross-Cultural Research
Date & Venue: Monday, Aug 9 2010 1:15PM - 2:45PM at Le Palais Des Congres in 523A
The caucus will focus on the proposition that in the not so distant future a uniform global culture will be in place with few substantive differences across geographic locations. This culture will be the result of the interplay, occurring for some time now, between extant national cultures and economic imperatives (e.g., low national budget deficit) that appear to be becoming uniform across countries and regions of the world. This idea is in line with crossvergence theory (Ralston, Holt, Terpstra & Kai-Cheng, 1997; Ralston, 2008), which suggests that a new culture is forming globally as an amalgam of extant cultures and economic ideologies. One of the implications of this view is that cross-cultural research may become obsolete in the relatively nearby future. Such research includes the acceptability of certain workplace and public life behaviors across cultures (e.g., behaviors that pertain to bullying, harassment and corruption), the cross-cultural transferability of management systems, and the cultural adaptation of the workforce (e.g., expatriation and inpatriation). There is some, albeit limited so far, support for the view that a global culture is emerging (e.g., Kelley et al., 2006; Mackinnon, 2008). However, support is also provided by (i) the fact that management education is uniform around the globe, which should lead to homogeneity in management practices and economic policies; and (ii) the dominance of certain languages (with English being a prime example) that, along with instantaneous flow of information (e.g., the internet), facilitate the homogenization of value systems globally. On the other hand, there are counter-arguments to the above proposition. These invoke the existence of strong anti-globalization movements worldwide, which are guided by the view that globalization is simply magnifying and accelerating the unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities across countries and regions. These movements are not unlikely to win ground. Anti-globalization is further assisted by the resurging ethnocentrism that forms a reaction to phenomena that are associated with globalization (e.g., immigration, diffusion of cultural values and habits). In addition, there are questions on whether a global cultural uniformity will ever be accompanied by commensurate uniformity in legislation (e.g., intellectual property laws, laws on corruption). This is in analogy with current differences in legislation between regions or states of the same country (e.g., USA, Germany). The caucus will bring together experts in a variety of areas with substantial experience in international and comparative cross-cultural research in order to discuss the plausibility of the argument for a global culture in the relatively nearby future and its potential implications for research in management. It is expected that the discussion will lead to the formulation of propositions to guide practice and be tested in future research.