Did the pedestrian die? 

Fons Trompenaars
ISBN: 1-84112-436-2, Capstone, £14.99 paperback, 208 pages.

“Dilemmas are universal…while the answers are culturally divided.”  So ends the opening paragraph of Trompenaars’ book.   The pedestrian of the title is hit by a car being driven at 35 miles an hour.  The car was driven by your friend and you were a passenger.  In this case, the dilemma centres on your response: does your friend have the right to expect your support, even if that means lying about the speed at which the car was driven?  And what happens if the pedestrian dies: does that change your response at all?  It seems it might, and not in the way you would necessarily expect, depending, of course, upon your cultural perspective.

Reading books on cultural awareness alerts you to your own cultural responses, in ways which other management text books generally do not.  Consequently, are you reacting to the content of what has been said or the manner in which it has been said?  Where Trompenaars makes several definitive statements – about politics, fellow inter-culturalists, education – some readers may find his approach somewhat strident.   He usually backs up his arguments, however, and is good at stirring up debate.  Inevitably perhaps, Trompenaars’ own comments occasionally hint at cultural bias on a national or gender basis.  When he states that “monochronic cultures organise time on a thin line and can only do one thing at a time”, ones suspects he may be thinking in male terms!
 
Pedestrian is essential reading for anyone involved in global management and particularly for those about to embark on an international acquisition or merger.  Trompenaars cites the number of failures where the cultural factor has been ignored as between 30-70%, (depending on the cultural values of the auditing organisation).  Even taking the lower figure, the economic cost of such failure is huge and avoidable.

The book identifies the essential areas – leadership, matching values, people issues and functions – which must be right for successful trans-cultural management.  Each theme is illustrated with several examples and some lively cultural comparisons.    There is a chapter on globalisation which looks at remote management and another on diversity which discusses the difficulties of imposing uniformity rather than accepting difference.

Trompenaars makes some interesting points on the subject of work-life balance.  This is an area full of misjudgement in trans-cultural terms as many American organisations have found out when their highly acclaimed work-life balance campaign fails to excite interest in Europe.  Like anything else, cultural values will determine how people perceive the work/life issue.  Where there is a sharper division between work and life –   more frequently the case in the UK and North America – this is likely to lead to conflict, which in turn needs to be resolved through specific means.  In other cultures where the distinction between work and life may be more blurred, a solution may not be required; if it is, it will need to be a different solution. 

Pedestrian is lively and informative; Trompenaars draws from his experience of many years and dips into a broad range of topics.  It makes an excellent introduction to the issues of trans-cultural management but is too short to develop some of the topics in more depth.  For further reference, there is a short bibliography which supports the text.

Eleanor Halsall

This review first appeared in People Management, July 2003