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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

January - 2000 - issue > Global Management

Ten Key Cross-Cultural Management Skills

Saturday, January 1, 2000

How people’s cultural backgrounds play themselves out is obvious in some ways and quite subtle in others. Appearance, names, language, accents, artifacts and shared worlds of reference are visible at once. Intangibles, however — attitudes towards time, commitments, success, status, authority, accountability, planning, negotiation, rewards, teamwork, personal boundaries and social interactions — are not immediately apparent.
To be effective as a global IT manager, you need to be aware of the major underlying cultural values that have implications for business relations and organizational functioning. The skills you need are those “soft” skills, which are, in fact, considerably harder to acquire than the “hard” technical skills. Some managers are fortunate to have innate strength in these areas, most need education and training, a few are so inept that it would be better to keep them out of crucial global management responsibilities.

Do you want to assess your ability to succeed in global management? Are you are looking to appoint someone to a key position? Are you seeking to make your multicultural teams more effective? Are you trying to define an appropriate management style for your global company? If so, pay close attention to developing the ten winning skills for managing in a culturally diverse environment:

* Self-knowledge: understanding your own cultural values and how they affect your attitudes and behaviors

* Global thinking: staying informed on global trends and events.


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