New INSEAD Book Reveals Eight-Scale Framework Decoding Cultural Differences Impacting International Business

“The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business”
presents an easy-to-follow framework helping managers navigate
the cultural complexities of doing global businessFontainebleau (France), Singapore and Abu Dhabi – June 17, 2014 – INSEAD, the leading international business school, today announced the publication of a new book by Professor Erin Meyer, renowned expert in global leadership. The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business explains how managers can dramatically increase business success by improving their ability to understand the behaviour of colleagues, clients, and suppliers from different countries and cultures.

Professor Meyer cites a rapid increase in global call centres, outsourcing, supply chains and project teams which has led to a new level of cultural diversity touching almost everyone in today’s workplace. In The Culture Map she addresses this transformation, providing a new analytical framework identifying eight critical dimensions of multi-cultural business practice. By analysing the positioning of one culture relative to another, the eight scales introduced allow managers and executives to decode how culture influences their own international business collaborations.

“Globalisation has led to the rapid connection of internationally based employees from all levels of multinational companies,” Meyer says. “Where once an employee might have been expected to only collaborate with colleagues from his own country, today many teams are built on global networks connecting people scattered around the world.”

These global teams are expected to work together effectively, yet Meyer reports that most managers have little understanding of how local culture impacts global interaction.

“Even those executives who are culturally informed, travel extensively, or have lived abroad often have few strategies for dealing with the cross-cultural complexity that affects their team’s day-to-day effectiveness,” she observes.

The Culture Map draws from dozens of real-life examples and anecdotes from around the world to impart practical, actionable advice and important lessons enabling more effective global teamwork between people from dramatically different backgrounds.

Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times Best seller said: “The Culture Map provides a highly practical guide to what all business leaders need to know today: how to succeed in managing across the diverse cultural contexts of today’s global workplace. Erin Meyer’s book provides invaluable, finely-researched insights for executives working in international environments at all levels”.

Published by PublicAffairs Books, The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business is intended for any manager, team leader, and other business professional leading global teams or working with clients or suppliers in different countries.
For additional information on the Culture Map and Professor Erin Meyer, please click on www.erinmeyer.com

For more information on comparing management cultures, please go to: https://hbr.org/resources/html/infographics/2014/05/R1405K-Meyer/May_MY_Meyer_v2.html

About Professor Erin Meyer
Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD and the programme director for INSEAD’s Managing Global Virtual Teams programme. Her work focuses on how the world’s most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of behavioural differences in a multi-cultural environment. Living and working in Africa, Europe, and the United States prompted Meyer’s study of the communication patterns and business systems of different parts of the world. Her framework allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Singapore Business Times, and Forbes.com. Erin appeared on the Thinkers 50 Radar for 2013. In addition, she appeared in the October 2013 edition of British Airways’ magazine Business Life as one of the ten up-and-coming business professors of the moment.