Riding the Waves of Culture (Trompenaars)

This is a classic in exploring organisational culture, using data gathered from global workshops and interviews. Although the focus is on understanding the differences between national cultures, this provides significant context in exploring cultures within an organisation where the differences may be across departments rather than nations. Over many years, the authors have developed a database of cultural responses to their interview questions, and identified a number of axes of cultural difference describing relationships with people, time and the environment. These dimensions measure attitudes to rules vs relationships, group vs individual focus, expression of emotions, range of involvement, how status is noted, time-focus and the relationship with the environment. Each of these axes is explored in detail in the book, with data and anecdotes to illuminate the discussion.

This is a rare book from the scientific management genre, that successfully combines academic rigour with sufficient anecdotes to make the book educational and readable. The book does not contain a panacea for cultural challenges, but includes sufficient tools to enable an astute manager to identify and handle problems arising from cultural differences. In both a global and local context, this is a valuable tool for managing across intra- and extra-organisational cultures.